To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the progress to date with the construction of St Helena airport.

Work on the St Helena Airport project is progressing well with the project on schedule and on budget. Initial work by the contractor to set up the logistics to support a major construction project on a remote island, to transport major construction equipment to the island, and then to transfer this to the airport site on Prosperous Bay Plain, is now complete. The contractor has constructed a temporary wharf in Rupert's Bay, established a regular shipping service from Walvis Bay in Namibia, constructed five temporary fuel tanks to provide 900,000 litres of storage and completed a 14 km-haul road to the airport site. Work is now under way on the permanent works with commencement of the major rock-fill embankment in Dry Gut.