New St. Helena Airport Halts Flights, Citing 'Too Windy' Conditions

The airline flights at the $406 million new airport at St. Helena were put on hold because of the high winds, according to a report on USA Today.

Amyas Morse, the head of the United Kingdom's National Audit Office, commented, "Estimating the likely costs and benefits of a project such as this is an inherently difficult task, particularly with a limited number of precedents for building an airport in a remote location."

Britain's Department for International Development (DFID) and St. Helena's government have said "they are working together to find a solution to the wind issue, but — for now — the airport's opening has been postponed."

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USA Today's article offered the following statement issued by the St. Helena government in light of the delay's media coverage, "Press reports in the UK and elsewhere that describe St Helena Airport as being ‘scrapped', ‘mothballed' or ‘postponed indefinitely' are incorrect," the government's statement read.

"The situation remains as in our last update. This is that there are wind shear challenges on one runway (20, the northern approach) which means larger planes (eg. 737–800) cannot currently land safely. We are collecting wind data which will allow larger planes to land on this runway, but this will take some time."

"Wind shear is a factor at several airports around the world, including London City Airport, where safe landings happen every day [...] In the meantime, we are working hard to identify an interim flight solution that can land on our second runway (02, from the south). There is no wind shear on this second runway, but there is a tailwind. We have identified aircraft types which can land in these conditions, and airlines that have such planes – and we are now exploring the specific availability of aircraft with these airlines."

The report noted that the British Overseas Territory of St. Helena is one of the most remote islands in the world, situated in the South Atlantic Ocean about 1,210 miles west of the coast of Africa.