First flight to ‘the useless’ airport lands

THE first scheduled commercial airline service to the remote island of St Helena in the south Atlantic touched down yesterday.

The Virgin flight, an SA Airlink service from South Africa which is hoped to be a weekly flight, ended the island’s traditional reliance on a ship which sailed every three weeks carrying supplies and people.

It is hoped that the service, which is being funded by the UK, will boost tourism and help to make the island, which is under British jurisdiction, more self-sufficient.

But some critics have branded the facility on the island “the most useless airport in the world”.