A recent video from a popular aviation YouTuber has me once again itching to visit one of the world’s most remote airports, Saint Helena. This is something that has been on my bucket list for years, and I can’t help but at least consider this once again. Let me share some background, and then the challenging logistics of traveling there…
In this post:
What is the remote island of Saint Helena?
Saint Helena is a remote island in the South Atlantic Ocean, about 1,200 miles off the coast of Africa, with a population of around 5,000 people. The island is a British Overseas Territory, and is known as the place of Napoleon Bonaparte’s exile and death. Other British Overseas Territories in the area include Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
Up until 2017, the only way to get to Saint Helena was by ship, so as you can imagine, the island has been very isolated from the rest of the world. Finally in 2017, Saint Helena Airport (HLE) opened, which was a game changer, since travel time to Saint Helena went from several days to just several hours. However, actually operating at the airport comes with some major challenges.
Given how remote the island is, a lot of precautions have to be taken when flying there, due to the lack of diversion points. The island being in the middle of the ocean means that weather conditions can rapidly change, and on top of that, winds can be really strong. As a result, planes always need to have enough fuel to reach their closest diversion point, 1,200+ miles away.
When the airport was constructed, the hope was that it would consistently be able to accept Boeing 737 flights. However, due to strong wind shear plus the short runway, that ultimately didn’t end up being the case, at least without a major payload restriction. That’s why the airport is only served by smaller aircraft.
It’s worth noting that while Saint Helena is remote, it’s not the most remote airport in the world. That title belongs to Mataveri International Airport on Easter Island (IPC), as that’s roughly 2,300 miles from the nearest diversion point. However, the airport isn’t otherwise as challenging to fly to, given the much longer runway, which means that wide body jets can fly there.
Which airlines fly to Saint Helena?
South African carrier Airlink is the only airline operating regularly scheduled service to Saint Helena, using 98-seat Embraer E190 aircraft.
On a year-round basis, the airline operates a once weekly service between Johannesburg (JNB) and Saint Helena (HLE), with a refueling stop on the outbound in Walvis Bay, Namibia (WVB). That stop is just to refuel, and there are no pick-up rights there. This flight ordinarily operates on Saturdays (though sometimes on Tuesdays in peak season), with the following schedule:
4Z131 Johannesburg to Walvis Bay departing 9:00AM arriving 11:35AM
4Z131 Walvis Bay to Saint Helena departing 12:05PM arriving 1:35PM
4Z132 Saint Helena to Johannesburg departing 2:30PM arriving 9:15PM
For those curious, the Johannesburg to Walvis Bay segment covers 883 miles and is blocked at 2hr35min, the Walvis Bay to Saint Helena flight covers 1,407 miles and is blocked at 3hr30min, and the Saint Helena to Johannesburg flight covers 2,290 miles and is blocked at 4hr45min.
For those aviation geeks who are looking to take this flight, the issue is that you typically either have to do a direct turn, or you have to spend an entire week in Saint Helena, which is a long time to commit to that. Fortunately there are two ways you can spend a shorter amount of time on the island.
On the second Saturday of each month, the flight to Saint Helena continues to Ascension Island Airport (ASI), about 800 miles to the northwest. The flight from Saint Helena to Ascension is a charter flight, so it’s not bookable directly with Airlink. The benefit of this route is that the aircraft spends a night on Ascension Island, meaning that once per month, you can fly to Saint Helena for roughly 24 hours.
On top of that, there’s a seasonal service to Saint Helena from Cape Town (CPT), which also operates via Walvis Bay in the westbound direction. The seasonal service is typically in December through February, and when it operates, that service is often on Saturdays, while the Johannesburg service is moved to Tuesdays.
No matter which itinerary you book, be prepared for last minute cancelations. Given the risk of bad weather and limited margins for this service, it’s not unusual to see flights rescheduled.
Speaking of this whole itinerary, YouTuber Noel Philips recently took this flight, and uploaded a great video about the experience, including about the flight and his time in Saint Helena, and it’s well worth a watch. He was initially supposed to be there for one day, but it ended up getting extended to two days, due to a weather cancelation.
How do you book these Saint Helena flights?
Unfortunately there’s also no practical way to redeem major points currencies for these flights. Airlink is an independent carrier, and doesn’t have major redemption partners. However, with Qatar Airways investing in Airlink, my hope is that it may eventually be possible to redeem Qatar Airways Avios for these flights. At least I’m crossing my fingers that this becomes possible!
As you’d expect, cash fares aren’t cheap, given the high operating costs of these flights, due to the complexity. Roundtrip economy fares are typically approaching $1,000, while roundtrip business class fares are typically approaching $2,000.
Bottom line
Saint Helena is one of the world’s most remote airports, and for that matter, is one of the airports with the least commercial service. The airport is served once weekly by Airlink, meaning that if you want to visit, you typically have to do so for at least a week. The trick is that once per month, the flight continues to Ascension, providing an opportunity to visit Saint Helena for one day.
Anyone else fascinated by these Saint Helena flights? Have any OMAAT readers visited Saint Helena?
St. Helena is one of the most wonderful places in the world I have ever visited. I took the second commercial flight, and spent a week on the island. It was hard to leave.
Do they codeshare/interline with anyone? That's a bigger issue than points redemption, as I'm not very keen on spending too much time in SAR and with the unpredictable nature of these flights it's not wise to self-transfer without a significant buffer time.
Noel Phillips is unbearable. Jeb Brooks did much better videos about St Helena several years ago.
I highly recommend this one too
https://youtu.be/5-QejUTDCWw?si=LG008c7D35uMwmdD
I flew Airlink between JNB, CPT, and MQP during our trip to South Africa. Several of these flights were available through United. I was also able to credit the paid flights to United.
I'm hoping that Airlink will transition to the Qatar Avios system, but until then, always worth a quick search on United.
I did the trip to St Helena last February. It was a short, 3-night (Sat/Sun/Mon) trip and I was lucky that the weather cooperated and there was no cancellation. But it is definitely a frequent problem and you should also build in a buffer in case it happens. A few key lessons learned - 1) The Walvis Bay stop can sometimes be skipped when they have favorable wind condition, which happened on my flight. 2)...
I did the trip to St Helena last February. It was a short, 3-night (Sat/Sun/Mon) trip and I was lucky that the weather cooperated and there was no cancellation. But it is definitely a frequent problem and you should also build in a buffer in case it happens. A few key lessons learned - 1) The Walvis Bay stop can sometimes be skipped when they have favorable wind condition, which happened on my flight. 2) Due to lack of a diversion point, the flight is only given a go-ahead when they can be sure that the weather is good for the next 5-6 hours (the time it typically takes to fly there). 3) Be sure to prebook your airport pickup. I made the mistake of assuming there sure would be taxis waiting for arriving passengers. But there was none. Fortunately some staff member called a taxi for me from town but I had to wait for an extra 30 minutes. Apparently taxi drivers don't just show up without a prior confirmation. 4) There are very limited dining options on weekends. The weekend I was there the only place open on Sunday was the Mantis hotel. I tried to make a reservation at another restaurant but they only serve when enough people (4+?) had reserved. And that day there weren't enough customers so they remain closed... It was a great trip but had I known I'd booked the Tues-Sat flights to avoid being there over the weekend.
Can't be too hard to pull off if there are outfitters offering regular tours there:
https://www.rainbowtours.co.uk/st-helena
United is an Airlink partner, and you can definitely redeem UA miles on Airlink for their domestic and regional services. From a quick search, I’m not seeing any availability on this route but it should theoretically be bookable if space is ever released.
never released, I'd predict. Cash fares on this route are many thime those for other routes, for reasons outlined in Ben's post.
I don’t think it’s legally doable unless you’re resident to the Falklands or St Helena but you could theoretically take the charter to Ascension Island and continue on to the RAF service to Mt Pleasant and on to Punta Arenas on LATAM. Sounds like a very fun southern Atlantic trip!
Ben writes"since travel time to Saint Helena went from several days to just several hours. "
It was more complicated than that. The mail ship departed about once every two months so it would take much planning to visit. I considered it be didn't have a chance at the end
The aforesaid YouTuber is despised on St Helena for stressing how horrible it was to have been “stranded” on their island; and rightly so. He was a right prick. Just trying to drive up “hits” on his YouTube channel and income to himself. Shameful. And selfish. I am on St Helena now, and I can tell you it deserves at least a week’s stay. And it is fabulous! Would be great to be stranded here for months!!
I'm not sure I would call him a "prick" but he definitely got what he wanted. He booked a ticket hoping he would get stranded. Otherwise, he would have went out and above on the island and showed his viewers the island. Sad.
I’ve rewatched the video just now and Noel absolutely did not say that. Please tell me at which point he did say it was horrible ?
Are you representative of their population?
He said beautiful St Helena.
He alluded to sadly being stranded as he had two other flights to take hence risked missing them. He was also aware of the fact the flight could be disrupted.
He then attempted...
I’ve rewatched the video just now and Noel absolutely did not say that. Please tell me at which point he did say it was horrible ?
Are you representative of their population?
He said beautiful St Helena.
He alluded to sadly being stranded as he had two other flights to take hence risked missing them. He was also aware of the fact the flight could be disrupted.
He then attempted to climb the steps - Jacob’s Ladder.
Americans probably don’t understand English humour.
He’s also one of the most genuine bloggers.
The amount of wailing on Noel’s comment section about not mentioning poor old Napoleon. So many tears.
Saint Helena is very high on my bucket list. One day I’ll make it there!
What an awful video from Noel Philipps. How does the guy go to Saint Helena and not see the Napoleon house or at least mention Napoleon? I mean, I know he's into planes, but come on. And he didn't even do a loo review or mention the wine and drinks.
Agree. I know he's a plane guy mostly, but how does he not go see that when he's likely never going to go back? He didn't even mention it, as you said. Which is pretty shocking.
He didn't even do his signature loo review.
Either it was a sponsored video by the airline/airport or he's just phoning it in these days because it's just an awful video.
And there's more on Saint Helena than just Jamestown or just Napoleon. Like I don't think he wandered more than 100 yards from the hotel.
He didn't even really show a restaurant.
Judging from the Arctic outfit he‘s wearing on the video cover, he cannot possibly have gone to a tropical island like St. Helena…
Perhaps consider Ben’s reviews. He flies everywhere and almost never bothers to spend time in any city or country he ever stops at. In fact Noel is one of the few decent ones that reviews places he visits, travels in economy and uses other forms of transport. He even took greyhound across the US. No idea why he decided to relocate to Houston.
I would love to visit this place, but being there 7+ days is not something I think I could commit to. It would be a fascinating place to visit though, especially as someone who loves anything Napoleon.
I spent 10 days on Saint Helena in 2018 - longer than expected because fog closed the airport and delayed my departure. Airlink paid for the extra days at the Mantis hotel. Can’t imagine how Airlink makes money on this. In any event, this is one of the best trips I have ever taken. The history and the scenery of the island are extraordinary. I highly recommend renting a car to roam around the island...
I spent 10 days on Saint Helena in 2018 - longer than expected because fog closed the airport and delayed my departure. Airlink paid for the extra days at the Mantis hotel. Can’t imagine how Airlink makes money on this. In any event, this is one of the best trips I have ever taken. The history and the scenery of the island are extraordinary. I highly recommend renting a car to roam around the island and reach the trail heads for the postbox walks. Be aware that there are very few restaurants on the island, as dining out is not a thing here. Also, although the rooms in the historic part of the Mantis (once occupied by the British East India Company) are lovely to look at, they are directly above the restaurant and very noisy.
One further thought: there was no mobile roaming (unless you were a Vodafone UK customer, as the carrier there, Sure, was stuck in the dark ages) or high speed internet back in 2018. I took a satellite phone with me (rented in Jo’burg) as I could not be disconnected from work (though the steep cliffs around Jamestown made it hard to get a line of sight connection except on the waterfront). With the Equiano submarine...
One further thought: there was no mobile roaming (unless you were a Vodafone UK customer, as the carrier there, Sure, was stuck in the dark ages) or high speed internet back in 2018. I took a satellite phone with me (rented in Jo’burg) as I could not be disconnected from work (though the steep cliffs around Jamestown made it hard to get a line of sight connection except on the waterfront). With the Equiano submarine cable now connecting Saint Helena, there is now high-speed Internet. Not sure about the current roaming situation.
prepaid SIMs are available
Visiting St. Helena, you can finally put your Accor Platinum to good use as there is the Mantis St. Helena, an Accor property! How cool is that!? To utilize your hotel status benefit in one of the most remote islands in the world!
The World's Most Useful Airport is a really nice documentary available on YouTube about everything that went into openning and now operating the airport.
I arranged travel for a close friend who arrived in St Helena sailing solo and left the vessel there. His departure for NBO on SA Airlink was delayed a day but the very expensive flight was otherwise OK. He reported being happier on QR J leaving NBO, than on the arriving SA Airlink flight ;-)
Interestingly, during his multi-week stay at the island (I don't say "on" because he slept aboard his vessel) he got...
I arranged travel for a close friend who arrived in St Helena sailing solo and left the vessel there. His departure for NBO on SA Airlink was delayed a day but the very expensive flight was otherwise OK. He reported being happier on QR J leaving NBO, than on the arriving SA Airlink flight ;-)
Interestingly, during his multi-week stay at the island (I don't say "on" because he slept aboard his vessel) he got to know the air traffic controller there and got informal briefings about expected delays, which were helpful to me, managing his onward Qsuite booking to Montreal. While in St Helena, he saw Napoleon's tomb.
There are interesting documentaries about the building of this unusual airport, including this one from Wendover:
https://youtu.be/5-QejUTDCWw?si=l5qPlrMH7I2infOc