Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions her officials have had with the St Helena government on an interim air service solution.

Discussions are ongoing between my officials and the St Helena Government on the prospects for an interim air service using the southern approach to the runway, where the prevailing winds require aircraft to land with a tailwind. All aircraft have performance limits for the maximum tailwind in which they can operate; technical work is underway to assess the frequencies tailwind speeds at the airport exceed these performance limits.