£300m runway but island tourism doesn’t t ake off
IT HAS cost British taxpayers almost £300 million and was built to usher in a lucrative new era of tourism for one of the world’s most isolated locations.
But weeks after a new runway funded by UK foreign aid opened on St Helena, there’s little sign of holidaymakers flocking to the tiny mid-Atlantic island. According to local sources, flights to St Helena have since been arriving with dozens of empty seats.
Last month, the British territory in the South Atlantic welcomed its first commercial flight as part of a project to phase out the island’s dependence on government support. It followed more than a decade of drama, delays and over-running costs, with the £285 million bill picked up by the Department for International Development.
The inaugural flight sold out with all 78 seats booked, but The Mail on Sunday understands that the second, just a week later, had almost 30 unsold tickets. And islanders have said flights in recent weeks have been operating with fewer than half of the available seats occupied, despite promises from the Government that thousands of tourists each year would want to visit St Helena.
Last year, the National Audit Office issued a scathing report on the airport.
It stated that the project was built on the assumption that there would eventually be several flights a week, and tens of thousands of visitors each year.
However, current projections show a much lower figure.