Touring by air to inside Antarctica has turn into civilized with a brand new seasonal Airbus A340-300 service from Cape City.

Antarctica has been the final unconquered frontier of civil aviation, and rightly so, many argue. The driest, highest, and windiest continent on earth can also be the emptiest, coldest, most inhospitable, distant on the underside of the globe, and, on high of all, our most fragile.

A British polar pioneer and world record-holder needs to reveal that small-scale, upmarket tourism will be established sustainably in Antarctica. “If tourism is finished responsibly and in small numbers, it has an extremely mild quantity of footprint, and it might have a big impact for good,” says Patrick Woodhead, founding father of tour firm White Desert primarily based in Cape City, South Africa.

Utilizing photo voltaic power, sustainable fuels, and producing its personal inexperienced hydrogen in Antarctica, the corporate thrives on bringing sustainability to new ranges from subsequent season, beginning in November.

“I very strongly imagine that the sort of shoppers we take into Antarctica, usually CEOs of huge firms, very influential folks, can create consciousness. These folks will actually care about one thing they’ve skilled, having an enormous opinion about and keenness for Antarctica once they return to the actual world. That’s enormously essential,” says 48-year-old Woodhead, holding polar world data such because the quickest crossing of Greenland on skies in simply 9 days in 2015 or turning into the quickest and youngest skier to achieve the South Pole in 2002.

Luxe A340-300 Flights

Surprisingly, enabling his new polar ventures is a 26-year-old widebody plane, an Airbus A340-300, operated by European wet-lease specialist Hello Fly.

Since touchdown the four-engine airliner in Antarctica for the primary time in November 2021, Hello Fly and White Desert have simply completed the third season of weekly flights.

They cowl the two,620 miles from Cape City to the everlasting ice in over 5 hours in the course of the Antarctic summer season from November to February, when the solar by no means units within the South polar area.

About 15 spherical journeys have been operated every season, and the service is surprisingly dependable, given the uncertainties of polar flying situations.

Photograph: Courtesy of White Desert ©

“Now we have pioneered this along with White Desert; we’re studying and getting higher with every flight,” says Hello Fly’s Captain Adam Latsos, who put down his A340 on the ice runway at Wolf’s Fang in Queen Maud Land 15 instances already because the begin of the flights.

The three,000-meter (9,842 toes) runway on strong blue ice is the one personal airfield in Antarctica. Getting ready it for a single A340 touchdown takes as much as per week of preparation by crews utilizing Pistenbully groomers, often seen on ski slopes.

Excessive-Finish Arctic Lodging

White Desert flies about 220 vacationers every season and supplies transport and logistics to assist Antarctic analysis stations of eight nations, carrying a further 250 scientists and personnel from Cape City.

Widebody airliners are nonetheless uncommon in Antarctica, often used solely on particular missions ferrying folks and items to and from analysis stations.

Norse Atlantic Airways lately pioneered the primary Boeing 787 Dreamliner touchdown in Antarctica, supplying the Norwegian Troll station, however these flights are one-offs and never open to anybody prepared to pay hefty fares.

Small-scale expedition-type tourism by air has been provided for a while, flying on noisy Russian Ilyushin IL-76 transport plane which might be nonetheless working from Cape City as effectively. However White Desert elevates the expertise to a wholly new degree.

The Hello Fly A340 remains to be outfitted with the cabin of the previous proprietor, Emirates, together with lie-flat seats in First and Enterprise Class. The massive plane by no means takes greater than 70 passengers most, so it by no means will get crowded inside.

Photograph: Courtesy of Hello Fly

In Antarctica, the operator runs two ultra-luxury lodges, the primary lodging of this type on the continent. Every caters to as much as twelve visitors solely, together with lunar-like designer modules to sleep in, advantageous eating, and wines.

That, after all, doesn’t come low-cost: An entire week all-inclusive begins at $68,500 per particular person, however anybody can go down only for one night time and are available straight again for “simply” $15,950.

As soon as-in-a-Lifetime Expertise? Sure

Any foray into Antarctica is a once-in-a-lifetime expertise. “It is going to change your life,” says Patrick Woodhead.

And it does. Even on a one-night stint with only a bit over three hours on the bottom.

Photograph: Courtesy of White Desert ©

Doing abseiling in a blue ice wall, marveling on the white eternity and bizarrely formed mountains, and even coming into an underground ice cave inside a glacier crevasse creates unforgettable impressions.

However be warned: You’ll catch the polar virus very quickly, leading to a longing to spend a whole week on this outlandish icy wonderland somewhat than a number of hours solely.