Ascension Island - Transfer & Transportation Guides

Place in United Kingdom

Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island, 7°56′ south of the Equator in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is about 1,600 kilometres (1,000 mi) from the coast of Africa and 2,250 kilometres (1,400 mi) from the coast of Brazil. It is governed as part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, of which the main island, Saint Helena, is around 1,300 kilometres (800 mi) to the southeast. The territory also includes the sparsely-populated Tristan da Cunha archipelago, some 3,730 kilometres (2,300 mi) to the south, about halfway to the Antarctic Circle. The island is named after the day of its recorded discovery, Ascension Day. It was an important safe haven and coaling station to mariners and for commercial airliners during the days of international air travel by flying boats. During World War II it was an important naval and air station, especially providing antisubmarine warfare bases in the Battle of the Atlantic. Ascension Island was garrisoned by the British Admiralty from 22 October 1815 to 1922. The island is the location of RAF Ascension Island, which is a Royal Air Force station, a European Space Agency rocket tracking station, an Anglo-American signals intelligence facility and the BBC World Service Atlantic Relay Station. The island was used extensively as a staging point by the British military during the Falklands War. Ascension Island hosts one of four ground antennas that assist in the operation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) navigational system (others are on Kwajalein Island, Diego Garcia, and Cape Canaveral). NASA operates a Meter Class Autonomous Telescope (MCAT) on Ascension Island for tracking orbital debris, which is potentially hazardous to operating spacecraft and astronauts, at a facility called the John Africano NASA/AFRL Orbital Debris Observatory. .... Learn more at Wikipedia

Transportation in Ascension Island

In 2003 the British and US governments signed the Wideawake agreement designed to allow a limited number of non-scheduled civilian aircraft to land on Ascension Island, under responsibility of the British government.Poor runway conditions at RAF Ascension Island led in April 2017 to the cancellation of twice-weekly flights from there to the UK (RAF Brize Norton) and to the Falkland Islands (RAF Mount Pleasant). An Airbus A330 aircraft operated by AirTanker Services on behalf of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom) carried out those flights, called the South Atlantic Air Bridge, although a limited number of commercial passenger tickets were available. Those flights now travel via Cape Verde. AW Ship Management arranged for civilians to board RAF flights to and from RAF Ascension Island and RAF Brize Norton. Previously AW Ship Management had a package deal where passengers could travel in one direction on the RAF flights and in the other on the RMS St Helena, which travelled between Ascension, Saint Helena, and Cape Town, South Africa until the opening of St Helena Airport to passenger flights.While A330s are for now unable to land at the airport, the United States military uses Air Transport International flying 757 "combi" jets to maintain a twice monthly flight between the island and Patrick Air Force Base in Florida for the use of its personnel only, while the (MV Ascension) supply ship regularly services US facilities. A mixture of A400 and C17 planes land at Ascension every three weeks to supply its own operations and deliver mail.There is no taxi service on the island and most visitors requiring transport hire a car. There are around 40 kilometres (25 mi) of roads on the island, all hard-surfaced, along with many unsurfaced paths and trails. Some of the road surfacing used was surplus tarmac from a previous airstrip construction operation. Traffic drives on the left.Currently the cargo vessel M/V Helena, under AW Shipping Management, takes a limited number of passengers between Cape Town and St Helena and Ascension on its voyages.

Name	Ascension Island
Long Name	Ascension Island, Saint Helena
Region	Ascension
Country	Saint Helena
Map	Open Map