Alle Ampeln auf gruen geschaltet!
Atlantic Star Airlines (‘A-Star’) is pleased to announce approval for its 2016 UK to St.Helena charter flight programme. A-Star Director of Regulation Andrew Radford has been working in conjunction with the operations teams at TUIfly (Netherlands) and Air Charter Services, and the Air Access Team at St.Helena Government to deliver all the necessary documentation and assurances to gain approval for this unique flight programme. The commercial permission granted to A-Star is of course subject to airport certification being completed as planned in mid April. Therefore tickets cannot yet be released for sale, but details of the intended flight programme may be shared and are shown below.
The team at A-Star is confident that certification of St.Helena Airport (‘HLE’) will be achieved hence the announcement of flight dates, schedules and prices. A-Star have also been granted UK Civil Aviation Authority approval for ticket sales through TravelPack Ltd as ticketing partner, thus giving customers the reassurance of ATOL protection. Commenting on the development Andrew stated: "We are pleased to have overcome the necessary regulatory hurdles and would like to thank everyone at UK CAA and St.Helena Government for their enthusiastic support of our proposal to offer direct flights linking St.Helena and the UK."
As St.Helena airport will only open during daylight hours it is necessary to land back in to the UK during night-time. This has presented the team at A-Star with a further challenge as all of the limited number of night landing slots at many UK airports had been allocated to other services prior to confirmation of the St.Helena flight schedules. A solution has been found in that the management team at London Luton Airport is very keen to support the UK to St.Helena link and has made available some night slots.
The first flights will be on the following dates, operated on a Boeing 737-800 by TUIfly (Netherlands) under their flight number, prefix OR. Flights will stop briefly in Banjul (‘BJL’), Gambia, for re-fuel and a change of flight crew, in each direction. All times are expressed in local time.
Sunday 22 May
OR1502 LTN-BJL 2330-0450 (following day)
OR1502 BJL-HLE 0550-1045
Monday 23 May
OR2002 HLE-BJL 1145-1630
OR2002 BJL-LTN 1730-0040 (following day)
Sunday 5 June
OR1502 LTN-BJL 2330-0450 (following day)
OR1502 BJL-HLE 0550-1045
Monday 6 June
OR2002 HLE-BJL 1145-1630
OR2002 BJL-LTN 1730-0040 (following day)
The total journey time in each direction is around 12 hours.
This schedule means visitors can spend a fortnight enjoying St.Helena and similarly allows St.Helena residents to visit the UK for a two week period.
Ticket prices will remain unchanged, starting at £1299 return in Economy class, and £1799 in Economy Plus, inclusive of all fees and taxes.
A-Star now has an email subscription of 900 people interested in updates on progress, and in flying on one of these historic first flights linking St.Helena to Great Britain for the first time. To allow customers to guarantee their seat on board the “1502” or “2002’ flights in May, prior to ticket sales commencing after airport certification, A-star will be setting up a Priority Club - further details on this will be sent to e-mail subscribers shortly. The Priority Club will not only guarantee subscribers a seat but also offer a discount on the published fares.
