Since the conflict between the UK and Argentina over ownership of the Falklands ended in 1982, the South Atlantic archipelago has largely been forgotten. The UK Government continued to pay attention to the islands for a short time after the war and set in motion construction of an international airport at Mount Pleasant, not far from the capital, Port Stanley.
The Government even attempted to promote the islands' tourist potential, despite the fact that the airport was built primarily with rapid deployment of troops in mind should Argentina mount another military offensive.
There is little tourist infrastructure, and the islands are not on any major air route, which means that the choice of carrier is limited to the Royal Air Force. Add the fact that Mount Pleasant is 17h flying time from London and it is not difficult to understand why few but a handful of ardent travelers have ever made the journey.
The airport, therefore, is vastly under-used and, even on a good week, aircraft movements rarely top 50. Gerald Cheek, Falkland Islands director of civil aviation, says that, as Mount Pleasant Airport is run by the Royal Air Force, Lockheed TriStars are flown twice weekly from Brize Norton in the UK, via Ascension. "On the civilian side," he says "we get LanChile Boeing 737s coming in from Punta Arenas and Santiago with passenger exchanges for the tourist ships that come here, but that only happens maybe 15 to 20 times during our summer."
All that could soon change. Seismic studies in the region have revealed the potential for oil in greater quantities than those of the North Sea, which could herald a massive boom in air traffic.
Andrew Gurr, the UK Government's chief executive officer of the Falkland Islands, says: "This year we will commence a licensing round and, at the end of it, hope to have serious bids in from a number of consortia. Therefore, by late 1996, we should be awarding licences to explore around these waters."
With consultation said to be in progress with over 90 oil-exploration companies, the prospect of this aviation backwater becoming a hive of activity is high. It is thought that both manpower and equipment would have to be brought in by air, with Mount Pleasant being the main base for operations - provided that military intransigence can be overcome.
"With its ability to take fully loaded long-range aircraft such as the Boeing 747-400, Mount Pleasant is a good facility," says Cheek. He complains, however, that the RAF treats it as a "...military-only installation and isn't very co-operative with civilian flights".
WEATHER CONSTRAINTS
A more serious constraint on oil-field operations might be the weather, which is very changeable, with average wind speeds round the clock throughout the year of 17kt (30km/h). Thick fog often rolls rapidly in from the sea and there are temperature inversions, which can make performance calculations extremely difficult.
A former helicopter pilot, who has clocked up considerable hours flying the islands, says that there is a world of difference between flying around the islands on a military task and, for example, serving an oil rig 150km (80nm) downwind from Stanley and in wind speeds of around 40kt.
"If you get out there and the rig is fog-bound, the only place you can come back to is Stanley. In such wind speeds, you would only make around 60kt above the sea and it would take around an hour and three-quarters on the return, as opposed to 40min outbound. With those considerations in mind, it is clear the sort of payload problems you're likely to encounter," he says.
Cheek disagrees that the conditions would cause a problem, believing that the Falklands receive unfair criticism about the climate. "We do get some pretty poor conditions, but rarely extremes like the north of England or Scotland. The Pilatus Britten-Norman Islanders we operate tend to lose four or five flying days a year," he says.
Another factor to be considered before aviation activity is increased is the possibility of Argentinean interference. "They try to let us know from time to time that they control the airspace above the islands and, therefore, we occasionally have difficulty with aircraft flying in from Punta Arenas. We don't accept aircraft from Argentina and won't until they drop the sovereignty claim," says Cheek. Argentina, is unlikely to do that, its claim to the Falklands (or the Malvinas) is supported by other countries as well.
Such political considerations, however, are not having an impact on possible oil exploration, claims Gurr. "The legal position is that any oil belongs to the Falkland Islands, or, more precisely, the Falkland Islanders," the chief executive concludes.
Source: Flight International
