World AirNews June 2018

NEWS DIGITAL
ST HELENA
TO GET MORE
A
CCORDING TO “Breaking Travel
News” which is published in
the South Atlantic island of St Helena, a
further 19 flights will soon be available for
the UK during the peak northern summer
holiday season from December 2018 to
April 2019.
The additional flights are to be
added to the SA Airlink schedule
serving St Helena for the five-month
period, marking the first anniversary
since the service was launched last
October.
The new Tuesday flights will be in
addition to the scheduled service to
St Helena from Johannesburg that
operates each Saturday.
“These additional flights are an incredibly
positive step for tourism as
we look ahead to the first anniversary
of the service launching,” said
Helena Bennett, director of Tourism
for St Helena. “Visitors will now have
the option of three, four, seven and
ten-night stays - or indeed longer -
AFRICAN
FLIGHTS
L
ATEST NEWS from Entebbe is that the first four of six aircraft
which the government had ordered for the revamping of the
currently grounded national air carrier, Uganda Airlines, are now
expected to be delivered in November or December.
At present, the government is reported to be concluding funding
negotiations for the aircraft.
The Ugandan Minister for Works, Monica Azuba Ntege, is quoted
by the local The East African newspaper as saying that the government
was concluding export finance negotiations for four Canadair
Regional Jets 900 series (CRJ-900) that will form the backbone of
an eventual fleet of six aircraft.
"We have made some deposits on the aircraft and we are negotiating
export finance for them with Canadian financiers. We expect
that source to fund 70-80 per cent of the value of that acquisition
while we fund the remainder from other sources," she told the
newspaper.
on St Helena, affording more opportunities
to enjoy all the wonders available, whether
that’s ticking off the 21 Post Box Walks,
swimming with whale sharks, or uncovering
our amazing heritage or discovering the
fascinating endemics.”
St Helena Government and Airlink have
observed a significant number of advance
bookings for the Christmas/summer period
on St Helena. Some flights in December
2018 and January 2019 are already near to
fully booked.
This is the first step in growing the
successful air access service. Although the
expectation is that the 19 additional flights
will be in place for 2019/20 and beyond,
the need for further amendments to the
scheduled service will be kept under regular
review.
An additional flight is also planned to
Ascension Island in December 2018
and again in January 2019 to meet
anticipated demand during the peak
period.
After months of flight testing which
saw the original service planned for
Comair using Boeing 737-800 aircraft
pull out because of severe weather
and wind conditions, being cancelled,
Airlink undertook its own testing of
conditions and decided to go ahead
and launch a weekly services linking
Johannesburg with St Helena, via
Windhoek, in Namibia.
The service has grown steadily after
its introduction eight months ago
which has resulted in a rapidly growing
tourism industry on the island. Q
UGANDA AIRLINES’ PLANES DUE
IN NOVEMBER
Parallel negotiations, although of lesser urgency, are ongoing
with a consortium of German, French and British banks to advance
export credit for a pair of Airbus A330-800 series that will form the
core of the long distance fleet.
Ms Azuba said that the government was exploring a mix of finance
options and could borrow from other sources in the interim
to bridge any funding gaps.
The Minister is quoted as saying $1,2-million had so far been
paid in commitment fees to Bombardier and European aircraft
maker, Airbus. Although she did not reveal the total asset cost,
she said $400,000 had been deposited on each of the Airbus while
$100,000 a piece had been paid for each of the CRJs.
According to list prices, a single CRJ900 costs about $48-million
while Airbus published a list price of $259,9-million for the A330-
800.
Another Ush129-billion ($3,5-million) has been committed to
the project in the budget for fiscal 2018/19 that started on July 1,
2018, to fund other aspects of related procurement.
The A330s will join the fleet in December 2020. Q
World Airnews | May 2018
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World Airnews | June Extra 2018
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