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A Day Out With A Difference

19 June 2016

By Joseph

Saving up for a rainy day? Not sure what to do?

A tour company in Australia is offering up a day out with a difference: a chance to experience Antarctica from the air.

A Boeing 747’s worth of passengers are given a few opportunities every summer (December to February; remember, we’re talking about Australia) to glide over the Earth’s ‘forgotten’ continent, gawking at Antarctica’s awe-inspiring landscapes and pristine whiteness – a perfect marriage between man and nature.

Whisked away in a Qantas 747 and seduced by two in-flight meals as well as a full bar service, passengers are able to view the world’s most inhospitable environment from the most familiar of surroundings. To complement the experience further, there are a number of ‘Antarctic Explorers’ on board to engage with curious passengers and in-flight entertainment systems – surely showing David Attenborough documentaries – are also provided.

It takes about four hours after taking off from Australia (plenty of time for a few documentaries) to reach the Antarctic mainland, and the flight spends about three hours circumnavigating the vast, desolate continent, during which time eager photographers will be having a field day. Although the flight never lands in Antarctica, due to environment and safety implications, rest assured that the best views of the hostile biome are to be had from the skies. The total flight time comes to around 12 hours.

Scenic flights over the Antarctic from Australia and New Zealand first became popular in 1977; however, the phenomenon ended in tragedy when an Air New Zealand flight careered into Mount Erebus, killing all on board. Fortunately for prospective passengers though, Qantas has a perfect safety record (no fatalities in the jet era) and holds the honour of being the world’s safest airline, as of 2016.

Now there’s an alternative to the bank holiday traffic…

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