St. Helena, the island of Napoleon's final exile, is set to open an airport in 2016
The tiny British colony in the south Atlantic has survived in splendid isolation...but not for much longer:
The tiny British colony in the south Atlantic has survived in splendid isolation...but not for much longer: All but bereft of beaches, palms, tourists and crime, and enjoying a startlingly British version of equatorial weather (the north glitters in sunshine, while the centre is swept with misty wind), St Helena, perhaps the strangest of tropical islands, may also be the setting for one of the world’s most unlikely investment booms. In February 2016, the British taxpayers’ newest airport is scheduled to open, 1,200 miles off the coast of Angola, on basalt clifftops above us. ... About 800 travellers made the journey to St Helena last year. The airport funding is predicated on that many tourists every week by 2020.
Saints, as the islanders are known, are famously open-hearted. The 4,000 inhabitants all claim to know each other; as we walk up Jamestown’s Georgian Main Street, past the castle, the canons and the jacaranda trees, charmed by fairy terns, mynah birds and the sight of a Victorian prison (staff 16, inmates three), no one passes without a wave or a greeting. But visions of tides of visitors – 30,000 annually, according to the plan – rather strain the island’s smile.
