The world's "most useless airport" (21 November, 2017)
One of the world's most remote places became a little less isolated when the first commercial flight arrived in St. Helena last month. St Helena is a South Atlantic island that until recently was only accessible by boat and where Napoleon Bonaparte spent his last years in exile. The SA Airlink plane flew from Johannesburg South Africa on a six-hour journey to the British territory, which hopes to draw more tourists to this remote island destination.
Discovered by Portuguese mariners in 1502, St. Helena was a way station for ships for centuries and was a key port for Britain's East India Company. It was also an ideal spot for the British to keep prisoners, including a Zulu prince and his retinue, thousands of Boer prisoners from South Africa's conflict near the beginning of the 20th century and, of course, Napoleon.
Sights on the island include the deposed French emperor's final abode, Longwood House, as well as rugged landscapes, marine life and of course the novelty of visiting a spot far, far off the beaten track. Other more quirky attractions include a giant tortoise named Jonathan that is said to be 185 years old and Jacob's Ladder, a 699-step outdoor staircase leading from valley to hilltop in Jamestown, the capital.
The new weekly air service brings an end to what had been the only regular way to reach the island, which was the royal mail ship St. Helena, which takes nearly a week to journey from Cape Town. The airport has cost the British taxpayer over $360 million and was supposed to have opened 18 months ago, but problems with wind-shear prompted a re-think. Now smaller aircraft will be used and the plane will also have to stop in Windhoek, the Namibian capital, en route from South Africa.
Back in the UK, the cost of the airport for this remote British community of only four thousand people has created a major row, and it has been annointed by the UK media as “The World’s Most Useless Airport”.
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The world’s most powerful Passport (14 November, 2017)
What is the most powerful Passport in the world? A new index produced by Arton Capital ranks countries’ passports based on the number of nations that it allows holders to enter without a visa. Singapore’s passport is top of the list - a total of 159 countries allow Singaporean passport holders to enter without a visa or with a visa on arrival, placing it one spot ahead of German passport holders. The top three is rounded out jointly by Sweden and South Korea with 157 countries. Where is Canada on this list? We come in joint nineteenth, with the United States, with a total of 154 countries allowing Canadian passport holders to enter without visa restrictions. That puts us behind most Western European countries…but way ahead of Afghanistan. Afghan Passport holders are the least powerful, as their document only allows visa free access to 22 countries
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New Prima Air flights to the UK and Europe (4 November, 2017)
There is going to be more competition over the Atlantic next summer. Danish low-cost airline Primera Air will fly between Toronto and its UK hubs at Stansted and Birmingham airports starting in May 2018. Birmingham and Stansted flights will operate three times a week and there will also be flights operating from Paris-Charles de Gaulle four times a week.
Stansted is one of London’s smaller airports with excellent connections into the city and it’s also handy for Canadians who want to see more of Eastern England with sights such as Cambridge and the Norfolk Broads. Birmingham Airport is in the centre of the country and so is better than the London airports for the regions of the Midlands and Northern England. It’s also a handy jumping off spot for the Principality of Wales.
Primera Air says it is planning further expansion over the next two years with more transatlantic flights from its European bases in the pipeline, and it has recently placed an order for twenty more aircraft.
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