HOW AN AIRPORT WILL BRING A MUCH NEEDED BOOST TO ST. HELENA
A Report for BBC World Service By Deborah Vogel 15/04/03
In a few years from now, the Island of St. Helena will be coming out of its isolation when it finally gets an air connection with the rest of the world. At the moment, the Island’s only link with the outside world has been the RMS St. Helena, bringing mail, supplies and occasional tourists. She visits about 25 times a year. A few cruise ships also drop by as well as the odd yacht. But the cruise ship tourists and the yachtsmen don’t spend much time on St. Helena, or money. Well now, there is an ambitious plan to land a Boeing each day when the Island gets its own airport. Louise Swan (LS) has been talking to the Governor of St. Helena, David Hollamby (DH), who explained why an airport is needed.
DH: Well, I think all the problems in St. Helena are down to very poor access. We don’t have a sustainable tourist industry, we don’t have anybody following up to the various enquiries we get for inward investment, the economy is stagnating and we are losing population fast. Since the restoration of British Citizenship last May, we’ve actually ended up with quite a few hundred people leaving the Island.
LS: And, so, what’s the tender that’s been put out last week?
DH: Technically DFID now called it an invitation for expressions of interest and outline proposals. It’s not formally a tender because the time involve won’t allow people to put through a full proposal. So they’ve got a month to register their interest, they’ve got the opportunity to come down to St. Helena in the next couple of months after that and then, by the end of July – 25th of July, I think is the date – they have to put in outline proposals if they are interested in following it up.
LS: Just for the record, when you say DFID, what do you mean?
DH: The Department for International Development. They are putting up the replacement cost for the RMS St. Helena. They are putting up £26.3 Million but the airport’s actually going to cost more than that. So, the investor will have to come in and put up the difference in the capital costs of the airport and the £26.3 Million. We also expect them to make some sort of arrangement to bring in an airline, whether it’s a new one or whether it’s an existing airline. And, then they will want to look at the island more widely because they will want to recover their investment. So therefore, we expect them to come up with innovative proposals to cover their investment as well.
LS: Is this an announcement that’s being put olt cold as it were into the world or do you have front runners who you would like to be putting in bids.
DH: No. We don’t have any front runners. We have had an expression of interest from promoters in the past and we have tried to deal with them in the past. But the trouble is that once you are dealing with just one entity, they hold all the cards. So, there was a three-month discussion with one company last year in the period up to the 31st of August. DFID decided that they would like to go more internationally so we spent the last few months drawing up this invitation with this company called GIC Limited and that was released on the web last Monday and I believe there have been some expressions of interest – two or three already.
LS: Now, the proposal for the airport doesn’t just include the airport. There is a proposal for a golf course and a resort. Is that right?
DH: This is the three-legged stool concept that this developer introduced to us last year, basically because the airport needs a capital top-up. There is a cost to providing an airline. Something else is needed but it needn’t necessarily be a hotel and golf course but that is one of the proposals we had last year.
LS: And, when you say you expect the investor – the people to meet the other costs – to recoup their costs – if it’s with some kind of development like that – whether it’s a golf course or some sort of tourism?
DH: Yes. It’s probably going to be in the tourism sector. We haven’t ruled out other sectors but it’s really up to the people who are bidding against this invitation to come up with their own proposals.
LS: Who will use the airport?
DH: Like the RMS, there will be two elements to it. There will be the St. Helenians who will want to travel to and from. Obviously, we have 600 working down in the Falklands and they have a long journey to get back. They have to fly up to Ascension Island and then wait on Ascension Island and there’s a two-day ship down to St. Helena. So, it takes quite a long time. They can’t come as regularly as they want to. So, the St. Helenians want to use it as a service but we also expect it to boost our tourism sector, so we can bring in ore regular people and therefore invest in that sector. At the moment, with the small number of tourists we have visiting the Island, the investment in the tourism sector is only about 15% because occupancy of hotels that we have is about 15%, which is not encouraging the hotel owners to develop further.
LS: And the airport will be built on the Prosperous Bay Plane?
DH: Yes. There are two sites. There’s Prosperous Bay Plane and there is Deadwood. Now, Deadwood has a number of problems. First of all, it’s likely to be foggier there than it would be at Prosperous Bay Plane. The other fact is Deadwood Plane is in the middle of a major area of Longwood, where people live. And, we’d have to remove some houses and it wouldn’t be a very popular thing. So, Prosperous Bay Plane is probably the best option.
LS: That’s where Wirebirds live, is that right?
DH: No. Wirebirds live on Deadwood Plane. There are other bio-diversity issues on Prosperous Bay Plane but the Wirebird actually lives on Deadwood Plane and on our existing small golf course.
LS: What are the bio-diversity issues, then, for the Bay Plane?
DH: Principally there are invertebrates. It’s very much a place where it’s been left very much to nature and the invertebrates are common there but there are ways of mitigating the problem and, sort of, creating a new home for the invertebrates near-by. And, the seabirds, of course, that’s the other issue which we need to protect in that area. But it’s all doable. We just have to listen very carefully to our environmental experts. The problems are there. The problems will probably have to be dealt with sooner rather than later when we get an airport, but we still have to deal with them.
LS: So, I get the sense from what you are saying, the whole idea of the airport is being very sensitive to eco-tourism and the issues of the environment?
DH: Very much so. We’ve had various studies done over the years. The last one, by a company called Highpoint-Rendell actually looked at this issue of how to protect the environment in particular and we discussed this with our environmental experts and they said that it was possible.
LS: And, why would anybody want to take a plane to come to St. Helena?
DH: It probably has one of the most pristine environments already. It’s a completely safe place. Robbery of tourists is completely unheard of. It’s one of the safest environments in the world. We have some of the nicest walks on the Island and we also have a built environment because we have a lot of old forts left from the East India Company days. And, then there is, of course, Napoleon’s death on the Island, so there’s a museum dedicated to Napoleon, which is worth seeing as well. So there is quite a lot. We don’t expect the sunny beaches of the Costa Bravo type of tourist to come along. We expect people who are going to have to pay quite a lot of money but there is a lot for them to do when they get there.
LS: And, where would the plane actually be flying from?
DH: We have a number of options but I think we are predicated on having flights at least from South Africa or southern Africa. It could be Cape Town, Johannesburg, it could be Windhoek. We have the option of going north to Ascension Island. And, at the moment, the British Government is at the point of finalising the agreement with the American Government. The Americans run Wideawake Airport on Ascension Island. This would allow a limited amount of charters into Ascension Island. But we’ve got to really look at the world market and the world market to us is southern Africa.
LS: And, I suppose a key thing will also be employment because at the moment, a lot of the islanders go to, for instance, the Falkland Islands for work, don’t they?
DH: Yes, definitely. It will increase employment, obviously during the construction phase there will be a number of jobs created. There will be a number of jobs particularly in the hotel and restaurant sector and there will be a number of jobs in the actual airline/airport business as well. It will create jobs. As the economy picks up, which is the other major thing underpinning this effort, we hope more St. Helenians will want to come back and live and work on their Island.
LS: Now, I notice by your side there is a card with a website address. Would you tell me a little bit about that, please?
DH: It’s a joint effort between the St. Helena Government and the Department for International Development. We’ve engaged Management Consultants called GIC Limited to actually professionally write up this information which we have put together between ourselves. And, the other thing they will do is the initial evaluation of the interest that comes in because there is a possibility of non-serious bids coming in and it takes a lot of time and effort. And, the other thing is GIC Limited will be the only people to answer questions initially. If people talk direct to St. Helena Government, or to the British Government, there may be a feeling of favouritism or all sorts of problems that might arise on that front. So, we are creating this sort of Chinese curtain with all enquiries going to GIC Limited in the first place. Their website is
www.giclimited.com.LS: So anybody with any serious bids should go to that website.
DH: Yes. It might be an interest for Falkland Islands people to look at it as well I know at one time your airline people down there were interested in talking to us once we got an airport. They might want to become part of this process. The other thing GIC are prepared to do is to act as a broker, in that if a company comes in that can’t build an airport but can provide the airline, they might be able to get them together and make a joint bid. I think there might be interest in the Falklands.
(100X Transcription Service)
