The remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, where French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled, is to get its first commercial air service, officials have announced.
The government of Saint Helena, a British territory, said yesterday that final negotiations were underway for Comair to fly once a week from Johannesburg to a new airport due to open next year.
The Boeing 737 138-seat flight will take four and half hours in stark contrast to the five days it currently takes on an irregular boat service from Cape Town.
"This marks a very positive step for St Helena in working with an airline... Which provides an excellent gateway to the rest of the world," the island government said in a statement.
The airport is likely to trigger an influx of tourists to Saint Helena, where Napolean was exiled in 1815 after his defeat by the British at Waterloo.
He died on the island in 1821.
Saint Helena, which now has 4,200 inhabitants, was a busy stop-over point between Europe, Asia and South Africa until steam ships and the Suez Canal changed sea routes.
Comair, which has a license agreement with British Airways, is a South African aviation company founded in 1946.
