Airlines and Destinations
Using the IATA airport code MPN, RAF Mount Pleasant also acts as the Falkland Islands' only international airport, along with its military role. Flights open to civilian passengers are operated twice each week. Starting in autumn 2008, these flights were operated on behalf of the Royal Air Force by a civilian airline, Flyglobespan. Since the airline's bankruptcy in 2009, the flights have been operated by Air Tahiti Nui, Titan Airways and Air Seychelles. The current operator is Hi Fly. They fly to and from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, with a refuelling stop at RAF Ascension Island in the south-central Atlantic Ocean. These flights previously used a Boeing 767 aircraft but the current aircraft is a Airbus A340. Occasionally a RAF Boeing C-17 freight aircraft or the Antonov An-225 are employed to bring in large items of freight.
Additionally, every Saturday LAN Airlines operates a scheduled commercial flight to Presidente Carlos Ibáñez del Campo International Airport of the Punta Arenas city in southern Chile, stopping at Río Gallegos, Argentina once a month.
On 2 March 2012, the Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner called for Aerolineas Argentinas flights to Buenos Aires to replace LAN Airlines flights to Chile. The idea of flights to Argentina was not supported in the islands, because this might result in Argentina having a monopoly on commercial flights and controlling all commercial air access.
On April 2, 2012, an Uruguayan air company, Air Class Líneas Aéreas, gained permission from the Uruguayan Ministry of Defence to start a commercial flight to the Falkland Islands.
Flights to Saint Helena are planned after 2016, after which an international airport will exist on the island.
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