Letter: Island air link

Sir: St Helena and Ascension Island are both dormant mid-Atlantic volcanoes (like Tristan Da Cunha, which last erupted in the early 1960s). An airport on St Helena would not only, as David Charlesworth points out, improve the life of the islanders (letter, 13 November); it would also secure the air link to the Falklands should Ascension Island's volcano become active. The failure to build an airport for the diverse population of St Helena, with a far older link to Britain than the Falklands, could even be regarded as racist.

DAVID NEWELL

New Barnet, Hertfordshire