Ditch the baggage and fly over Antarctica
A spectacular flight over Antarctica in a Qantas Boeing 787 Dreamliner gives you a bird’s eye view of the icy southern continent – and there’s no need to rug up.
“What will you wear?” was a surprisingly common question when people learned I was going on a 13-hour joy flight over Antarctica. “Where does the plane land?” was another one. Then there was “It will be a nice break from the hot weather.”
It was indeed a pleasant change from the summer heat and humidity – but the respite was due to the cool cabin of a Qantas Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The plane took off and landed in Sydney, and you can wear a T-shirt if you like.
As a passenger, the closest you get to the Antarctic ice is as low as 10,000 ft in the air. It’s a flight over Antarctica, not to it. It’s not only the fastest and easiest way to see the frozen continent, it’s also the most spectacular.
Unlike an expedition cruise, flying over Antarctica allows you to see much more of the land area than seafarers would. There’s also no need for any luggage other than a camera, not even a passport. The trip departs (at approximately 8.30am) and lands (at 10pm) in Australia, so it’s technically a domestic flight.
The Qantas flight has been chartered by Antarctica Flights, and every seat has been sold – which means not everyone is next to a window. But there is a system to ensure every passenger gets a chance to see the view.
In Business Class, where the seat configuration is 1-2-1, at a certain point during the flight – around halfway – passengers are instructed to swap seats. You are given two boarding passes on departure with two different seat numbers, and it is a condition that you move seats when told to do so.
In Explorer Economy Class there is no seat changing, but there is still plenty of opportunity to see the ice. Passengers are permitted to leave their seats and can look down from the windows in the cabin doors, and on my flight window seat passengers were more than happy to share their view.
Up until 2020 the flights were conducted on Qantas’s Boeing 747s, but with the Dreamliner’s bigger windows (the largest of any passenger jet) incredible views of Antarctica are just as easy to glimpse from the aisle as they are from the window.
Another question I got about my flight concerned its environmental impact. The flights are approved by the Australian Antarctic Division, and their carbon emissions have been offset by Antarctica Flights and are included in the fare.
The use of the Dreamliner is a welcome change in helping to make these flights greener too. The Dreamliner produces 20 per cent fewer carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions than other similarly sized planes, and consumes 20 per cent less fuel.
Only about three hours is spent flying over the Antarctic continent, so the first four hours are uneventful as the aircraft cruises at 40,000 ft. Once over the Antarctic, it descends to as low as 10,000 ft, which might still sound a long way from the action but it’s low enough for passengers to see ships and buildings at places such as Mawson Station, McMurdo and Scott Base.
It’s not, however, low enough to see wildlife, although the tour company says seals can occasionally be spotted. It feels as if you are watching drone footage of the Antarctic but you are close enough to feel immersed in the scenery unfolding beneath you Antarctic Flights conducted 10 flights over the 2021-2022 summer period (departing from most Australian capital cities, including Canberra) and Qantas has 19 different flight plans taking weather conditions into account.
While clouds often cover parts of Antarctica, our captain tells us it’s extremely rare to have cloud cover over the entire area within range of the aircraft. The flight crew receive weather information the day before the flight, but the final assessment on which route to take is made on the day of departure after satellite images are received.
Those pictures, along with additional weather information from the Australian bases at Macquarie Island and Casey, and the American Base at McMurdo Sound, are taken into consideration before a decision is made on the most scenic route. The Holy Grail is to make it all the way to the Ross Sea, which is still only a small inroad into the vast Antarctic continent.
You can follow the flight’s progress on your entertainment screen to get a good sense of the small portion of Antarctica you cover on these flights. Four pilots operate the aircraft, and they need to undergo additional training to be able to do the Antarctic flights and understand the unique weather conditions that can occur in this part of the world.
There are expert Antarctic guides on the flight who run a commentary about the views on both sides of the aircraft, as well as the history of Antarctic exploration, but neither, perhaps understandably, mentioned the Mt Erebus disaster of 1979.
Mt Erebus, which is close to the McMurdo and Scott bases, is the southernmost active volcano on Earth and the tallest mountain on the continent, at 3795m above sea level. Our flight did a figure eight around it so both sides of the aircraft could get a view, before turning back to start the journey home. It’s a stunning sight, and remarkable to be able to fly so close to it.
In November 1979, however, two years after Qantas and Air New Zealand started passenger flights over Antarctica, an Air New Zealand flight whose crew thought it was flying over the Ross ice shelf instead of in a direct line towards Mt Erebus, crashed, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew.
Our guides on the flight are Greg Fitzgerald and Mike Craven. Fitzgerald is a former Qantas pilot with 35 years of service. In his last six years with the airline he ran its Antarctic charter program, and has made more than 20 trips over the continent. He has been driven, he says, by a personal passion for the stories of Antarctic explorers and a desire to protect the environment of the continent.
It was Fitzgerald who completed the required environmental impact studies for the Australian Antarctic Division to gain approval to fly the Dreamliner into the polar regions at low levels. Craven, on the other hand, is a physicist, and a veteran of six Antarctic winters based in Davis and Mawson as well as Macquarie Island.
Throughout the flight the pair deliver an informed and insightful commentary into Antarctica in general, as well as describing the sights on both sides of the aircraft.
It’s a more educational experience than merely looking at ice shelves out the window. For the first few hours of the flight – and the last few – the aircraft cabin is just like any other long-haul flight. On the journey to the continent, breakfast is served, and most passengers watch movies or read newspapers and books.
Some have done this flight before and are hoping for a slightly different route this time around. After take-off, our guides warn us there will be a lot of commotion in the cabin when we reach the first iceberg.
And as expected, when we do, someone shouts “ice” and the entertainment system is forgotten for the show that starts to unfold outside the windows. It’s a surreal, out-of-this-world experience to leave your home in the morning on a hot summer’s day and fly to the Antarctic, and be back in your home again that night.
It’s almost unbelievable, as though it could have been faked and all I was watching was a video screen of polar scenery. And despite only covering a very small patch of the frozen continent, the journey gives you a sense not just of the enormity of Antarctica but also of the need to protect this pristine environment.
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