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If you asked most people about starting up an airline in 2016, in fact since 2008…the chances are they’d laugh you out of the door. They would tell you, you’re up against the ‘big boys’ of low cost or the ‘gentlemen’ of well established. There’s one thing I root for, the plucky Brit. The one who says ‘No, this can work…an I’ll tell you why it can work’. Its the kind of attitude you need in today’s world. Even more so when the airport you’re flying to is St Helena.
I’m now waiting for the steady few of you that are now asking - ‘Where?’ Quick geography lesson for you… St Helena is an island in the Atlantic just off the west coast of Africa. It is a British Overseas Dependent Territory and until May this year, the only way of getting to this small volcanic island was by boat. St Helena Airport is due to open doors in May and for one such airline, this will be its inaugural route.
Atlantic Star Airlines, a relative baby in aviation terms, is headed up by current British Airways Captains Richard Brown and Andrew Radford. Both have extensive operational experience on the 777/787/767 with Richard currently a training Captain on the 777/787 and Andrew, 20 years experience flying with our nations flag carrier. Further expertise comes in the form of Aiden Walsh the current ‘La Compagnie’ country director and Shonagh Woods a 20 year veteran of marketing enterprise products. The company is also supplemented by four experienced pilots all of whom have worked for British Airways directly or through its French subsidiary ‘Openskies’.
Having secured all necessary regulatory approval, the company aims to launch her first flight on Sunday 22nd May. Operating from Luton and making a technical stop to re-fuel in Banjul (Gambia) before onwards to St Helena, the flight time is marketed at 12hrs each way. Atlantic Star are working with TUIFly (Netherlands) leasing a Boeing 737-800 for the service.
So daily flights to St Helena…no not exactly. There are a large number of factors at play here. Supply and demand being the name of the game here. ASA is a dipping-of-the-toe-in-the-water-of-lets-see-what-happens. And rightly so. The business idea is sound, test the market to see what kind of demand there is for a permanently established number of flights to the island.
There’s a nichè here and that’s something I quite like, a difference. I hearken back to the beginning of this post where I said ‘Airline startups are generally doomed to failure.’ And yes they usually are, because they follow the same formulaic pattern on the same formulaic routes and go against well established low cost or full service airlines. Here this isn’t the case. There’s a logic at play, a well established and long thought out plan. There is also a beautiful uniqueness to this venture, one that in a couple of years I hope I get to experience.
Smooth winds and plane sailing ASA, a venture I surely will keep an eye on!
See also: Fly here
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