How much did Saint Helena Airport cost to build?
Saint Helena Airport is the airport on Prosperous Bay Plain on the British island of St Helena, built under a design, build and operate contract with South Africa's Basil Read signed in 2011 to improve access to the remote island, whose opening planned for May 2016 was postponed after a wind-shear problem and whose first scheduled commercial flight, an Airlink service from Johannesburg, landed on 14 October 2017. The National Audit Office put the Department for International Development's direct cost at GBP 285.5 million in June 2016 and repeated the GBP 285.5 million contract in its February 2025 progress update, which also records that the replacement bulk fuel installation cost GBP 78 million against an original GBP 31 million.
Published project estimate
£285.5 million
Approximately $385.48 million
Cost basis: 2016
Cost evidence
Basis of the published figure
Project record