The Enchanted Isle

Kate Turkington travels on Airlink’s inaugural flight to one of the most remote islands in the world.

- Kate Turkington

“Were you scared?” asks Airlink Head of Flight Operations Tammy King. She and Chief Pilot Jaco Henning have just landed the first-ever commercial flight on one of the most difficult runways in the world – a not-very-long strip of tarmac with the vast South Atlantic on one end and mountains on the other. The airstrip was only possible because a mountain had been blown up and eight million cubic metres of rock removed – all this on one of the most remote islands in the world.

“Not at all,” I replied, as we stand at the classy new airport waiting for the Governor, Her Excellency Lisa Phillips, to give a press conference. “I knew I was in the hands of some of South Africa’s top professionals.” However, not everybody on board the new Embraer 190 jet felt as confident as me, and there were some relieved oohs and aahs and a round of applause from our local and international press group as we descended through thick swirling mist between towering mountains to a perfect landing.

The island only measures 10 miles by five. I use miles and not kilometres deliberately, because St Helena is a British Overseas Territory and Britain’s second oldest colony. Although it was the intrepid Portuguese who first discovered it in 1502, it was the British who settled it. For centuries it has been of vital strategic importance for ships to stock up on stores, and if necessary, leave their sick to recover in its mild climate. Descendants of sailors, slaves and settlers, the approximately four-and-a-half thousand islanders call themselves ‘Saints’ and both they and the new airport are heavily subsidised by the British Government, subsidies not always welcomed by strapped British taxpayers.