Air
See also: List of airports in Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da CunhaSaint Helena does not have an airport but after many years of negotiation an airport building project is now underway, due for completion in 2015. In November 2011 a deal between the British government and South African company Basil Read was signed and the airport is proposed to open in 2015, with flights to and from South Africa.
An airport was built on Ascension during World War II to be used as a staging point for aircraft being ferried from factories in Canada and the United States to the war in North Africa. At the end of the war the airport was abandoned, subsequently re-opening when Ascension started to be used as base for monitoring space launches and ICBM tests. Ascension airport is now known as RAF Wideawake. The only way to fly to Ascension is to fly with the RAF via RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, England on an overnight charter, operated (as of September 2010) by an Air Seychelles Boeing 767-300ER. A limited number of civilians are allowed on this flight but fares are high. Transferring from Ascension to Saint Helena takes two days on the RMS Saint Helena.
Read more about this topic: Transport On Saint Helena
Famous quotes containing the word air:
“Mary, hear,
O Mary, marry earth, sea, air and fire;
Our sacred earth in our day is our curse.”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)
“I was a countryman and a father before I was a writer on political subjects.... Born and bred up in the sweet air myself, I was resolved that [my children] should be bred up in it too.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)
“My companion and I, having a minute’s discussion on some point of ancient history, were amused by the attitude which the Indian, who could not tell what we were talking about, assumed. He constituted himself umpire, and, judging by our air and gesture, he very seriously remarked from time to time, “you beat,” or “he beat.””
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)