Travel to St Helena by air took a step closer to reality yesterday, 17 July, 2017, with a press release from SHG (St Helena Government) announcing details of imminent flights.
SA Airlink and St Helena Government have surprised everyone it seems, announcing the long awaited flights to St Helena will link from both Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa, via the Namibian capital, Windhoek, giving all concerned a choice of mainland destination. This arrangement should satisfy most people.
Air Travel To St Helena Is Almost Here | by Darrin Henry
The announcement came yesterday with the signing of a three-year contract for SA Airlink to provide a scheduled air service to and from St Helena.
Ticket prices and date of commencement * are still to be finalised but this can’t be far off now.
*updated 30/8/17
The round trip flights to St Helena will take place once a week on Saturdays. Although air fares have not yet been announced the general feeling is they are likely to be higher than those planned with Comair last year. See our blog about Comair prices from April 2016.
St Helena Will Use The Embraer Aeroplane
Aircraft to be used by SA Airlink is the Brazilian made, Embraer E190-100IGW. An E190 series Embraer has already demonstrated its ability to cope with the challenging wind conditions at St Helena during extensive flight trials in December 2016, which should bring confidence to passengers. Check out our full interview with the test pilot from Embraer.

Embraer Commercial Aviation flying test circuits at St Helena Airport with an E190 in December 2016.

Interviewing Embraer test pilot, Captain Joel Faermann at St Helena Airport in December 2016 about the tests carried out with the E190 jet.
Times & Days of Air Service to St Helena
Departures/arrivals as announced – note all times are Universal Time Clock (UTC):
Johannesburg (JNB) to Windhoek (WDH): 07:00-09:00
Cape Town (CPT) to Windhoek (WDH): 06:30 – 08:30
Windhoek (WDH) to St Helena (HLE): 09:30 – 13:15
Return leg:
St Helena (HLE) to Windhoek (WDH): 14:30 – 18:05
Windhoek (WDH) to Johannesburg (JNB): 18:40 – 20:30
Windhoek (WDH to Cape Town (CPT): 19:05 – 21:00
Air fares to/from Cape Town or Johannesburg, from St Helena, are expected to be the same or similar.

Flights to St Helena – SA Airlink have already flown the first commercial passenger flight to St Helena in their Avro RJ85.
Air Travel to St Helena, What Else Do We Know?
While yesterday’s announcement didn’t give fares or commencement dates it did cover plenty of important details that will help anyone already planning their travel to St Helena.
Passenger numbers
The aircraft being used will initially limit maximum passenger numbers to 76. This figure is 20 less than the requirement set out in the tender document. This it seems is to ensure a safe landing weight with a tail wind on runway 02 if necessary. If weather conditions are favourable, however, pilots will land into the wind on runway 20, ‘affectionately’ known locally as the wind shear end.
Baggage Allowance
Economy class, 20kg checked (or hold baggage) plus 1 carry-on piece and slimline laptop bag, each up to 8kg.
Business class, 30kg checked plus 2 carry-on pieces and a slimline laptop bag, each up to 8kg.
Flights from St Helena to Ascension Island
One round trip flight will take place on the second Saturday of each month to Ascension Island. On these occasions the aircraft will depart St Helena at 14:30 for the two hour island hop.
It will stay overnight on Ascension, departing at 11:15 the next day to return to St Helena at 13:15,then departing for Windhoek that same Sunday at 14:30. All times are UTC.
These are the key points we’ve extracted, but do follow the link to read the full press release from SHG and SA Airlink which includes a helpful Q&A document.
Flying to St Helena; Nice To Have Options

Two whole weeks after leaving St Helena by ship, the St Helena Island Games Team finally at Cape Town Airport in June 2017, on their way to compete at Gotland 2017. These long travel arrangements will become a thing of the past once the air service begins.
Both Sharon and I feel really positive about the announcement. While connecting via Johannesburg didn’t really bother us, like many Saints we do love Cape Town and all the city has to offer, as well has having good friends there.
Looking at the arrival times for the flights into South Africa from St Helena, personally we are unlikely to risk connecting with an onward flight to another country that same night. Small delays in air travel we’ve found are quite common which means the connecting window will be tight. A longer delay potentially means the expense of missing a flight.
Same thing for departures going the other way, from South Africa to St Helena; we would aim to be in either Jo’burg or Cape Town the day before, at least, to guarantee the connection. But considering what we have at the moment, five long days at sea each way, then the alternative of a day or two in Cape Town with plenty to see and do (and eat) suits us just fine.
Mind you, we are quite curious to see Johannesburg as well, so you never know. Already this choice has us thinking!
For Saints all over the world, this is an exciting time for us to once again be looking at dates and times and planning a holiday away or flights to St Helena.

St Helena Airport, taken during a flight around the island in January 2017.
Love St Helena Island – Have been there 3 times and really enjoyed the holiday and all that there was to see. On our first occasion we were fortunate in renting a house from Daren and Sharon Henry whom we got to know well.
We hired a car and for safety sake took a bottle of petrol with in the boot to ensure we didn’t perhaps run out of petrol exploring the Island. After driving around the Island all day we came to Rudolph bay and car seemed to stall so we decided to open the boot and put some more petrol in the tank from the brandy bottle we had with us just in case. A car came by and the driver popped his head out of the front window just as we were filling the tank and seeing the brandy bottle he said” My you guys must have a lot of faith in our brandy if you can fill up the tank on brandy. We did have a chuckle and said “Oh! he of little faith”
Haha, fantastic story 🙂
Great to hear from you guys again. Hope all’s well.
Cheers
Great event – at last we can fly from Cape town via Windhoek to St Helena Island. Will we need UK visas or have they got new ideas on visas to St H.?
What’s The chance of Atlantic star coming on Board for huge UK market
REGARDS PAT AND LINDA ELLICK
Hi Pat & Linda, thanks for the comment. I think Atlantic Star are still very interested in providing a service but just waiting to see how the new SA Airlink flights go first.
Cheers 🙂
Air Traffic Magazine quotes Airlink CEO, Rodger Foster with an OCTOBER service start date. (See link below)
http://www.airtrafficmanagement.net/2017/07/sa-airlink-to-provide-scheduled-services-to-st-helena-ascension-island/
Thanks for sharing this information Paul. It’s all becoming real very quickly 🙂
Excitement seems to be the key high light with this news let’s see what the costs for flights will be and who will and can afford it.
Yes, the prices when they are announced will add perspective to this whole story. Fingers crossed it’s affordable. Cheers Borbs 🙂
Great new
It is 🙂
the proposed Flights to St Helena From Johannesburg and Cape Town via windhoek is a smart plan. (1) connectivity for tourists is possible via windhoek (to frankfurt), Cape Town (to london) and johannesurg (to various destinations). st helena can now market themselves as a tourist destination to various international and south African market segments. (2) Cost saving. additional Passengers on flights with final destination windhoek will help offset cost and keep fares low.
The dual South African option was a real surprise but very welcome and windhoek, as you say, puts more options on the table. I guess we’re all waiting on the prices now to see just how affordable it all is, especially for people who live on St Helena. Hopefully there’s another pleasant surprise on the way 🙂
Thanks for the comment Martin
It would also be most convenient if Airlink could also fly from Dakar Airport to Ascension Wideawake Field. This would resume the Falkland air connection to Ascension Island. I noticed the distance from Dakar to Ascension Island is 1369 nm virtually the same as the 1,368 nm between Windhoek and St Helena.
Hopefully once the SA/SHL link is up and running and working well it might encourage looking at this sort of connection as you suggest Paul.
Thanks for the comment. Cheers 🙂
Looking for prices but can’t see anything
Hey Richard, ticket prices and start date for the service are still to be announced.
Great news can’t WAIT TO start looking at Travel options and dates .It will be good to Finally got home for a visit after 26 years
Wow, 26 years! You must be thrilled with then news then Jenny.
Hope you have a lovely homecoming and it doesn’t take too long now.
Thanks for the comment, Cheers 🙂
Already looking at Flight options for our trip out in January. Best I have found from the uk in terms flight time / no changes is BA LHR>JNB – There are options LHR>wDH but multiple changes and similar pricing to the JNB option – anyway that was in the time period I was looking at today – could all change tomorrow. Can’t wait
Hey Paul, we’re doing the same! Playing around with the booking options, really exciting.
Suddenly holiday/break options are opening up in Namibia as well as South Africa. All becoming real now 🙂 Thanks for the comment, always good to hear from you. Cheers
Great newsfor everyone. Is an option for liking up with Ascension still being looked at?
Sorry, i didn’t see the comments about Ascension. They appeared Beneath a pop-up advertisement on my tablet. That’s also great news.
Thanks for the comment Bruce. Yes, great news for everyone. We’ve known it was coming, of course, but such a relief to see these details in black & white at last. Exciting 🙂
Exciting news after the long wait! Saints with new hope, tourists with a new destination!
Absolutely Chris, we are discussing travel possibilities constantly now! Can’t wait 🙂 Cheers