Titan Airways is operating a second flight to Saint Helena during the current pandemic, and this might just be one of the coolest routes we’ve ever seen…
Continue reading: Titan Airways’ Epic Saint Helena Repatriation Flight
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I can't imagine there are too many people there needing repatriation... but I'd imagine for any repatriation flight you'd need to maximize seats so it would be going with an economy heavy configuration, no?
Very cool routing indeed.
I want to get in on this. Please help me figure out positioning flights to HLE.
There were about 40 pax on board plus a handful out of Ascension, but abou 100 pax on the return sector which is routing via Accra operatibg as a Daylight flight. Only 40 pax because of limited quarantine facilities on St Helena.
There are close ties between UK and St Helena and most foreign workers there are British. As the Airlink route is currently out of action therd will most likely be a mix of islabders and expatriates on board tomorrow.
Totally cool!!!! Wish I could be a stowaway! Thanks for shining the light, Lucky!!!!
ASI is officially a US space force base ha ha. 10,000 foot runway should handle most things thrown at it !
Although Ascension (ASI) still is still working on runway repairs and cannot take the usual direct flights from Brize Norton (BZZ) in England, I understand that it does receive regular RAF services via Cabo Verde. So I would assume the Titan flight might be primarily focussing on serving St. Helena (HLE), which is in a more precarious situation.
Please also note that repatriation goes in both ways. There are also a number of “Saints” (that’s what the residents of St. Helena call themselves) stuck in the UK, wanting to go home.
Random trivia about Saint Helena Airport. The firefighters double as the baggage handlers. They pull the aircraft to offload the bags with the fire truck.
An interesting article on Ascension and also a website with some photos of St. Helena.
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/10/the-opening-of-the-worlds-most-useless-airport-in-remote-st-helena/543150/
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36076411
I seem to recall reading that the 757 has the best thrust to weight ratio out of all the Boeing planes. I’m probably wrong. I fly them to and from Maui regularly and I can subjectively say that it feels like it’s got way more power and stability than the 737. I’d say it’s a great pick for this route.
Wendover productions has a great documentary about this airport on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-QejUTDCWw
@ Deepee
You are probably right on the thrust to weight ratio, which makes it an ideal plane to fly into / out of "problematic" airports like Tegucigalpa in Honduras. Having flown there many times, I recall the AA former 757 as the only plane in which I felt confident we would leave the runway before its end. Not sure what AA uses now (if at all), but this was the one area where the A321 is no match for the 757.
@ Deepee
@ Pierre
The 757 was sold to airlines with an emphasis on hot conditions, it maintained enough thrust to take off under hot and high conditions that would have other equipment being delayed or offloaded.
Lucky I believe the westbound stop was Windhoek and not Walvis Bay. I sent clients there who lived in Windhoek. There was no boarding allowed, so they had to fly to JNB just to fly back where they came from!
As one of the operating Captains on this charter we absolutely enjoyed visiting ASI again and arriving into HLE for the first time. This year of covid problems has been a year of first’s for the Trio of TREs involved with this trip. The island was a privilege to visit with islanders happy to see us flying and and passing by in the crew transport to our stay at the Mantis Hotel (as Crew isolation accommodation).
Interesting checking out on Flightradar24 what other rotations that aircraft has done. It fair gets around.
Must be really interesting for the operating crew to see "different" places.