Few airlines fly between cities having a great circle route over Antarctica. Nonstop flights between
South Africa and
New Zealand, or between
Perth, Australia and certain destinations in
South America (including
Buenos Aires and
São Paulo), would overfly Antarctica, but no airline has scheduled such flights.
Flights between Australia and South America and between Australia and South Africa pass near the Antarctic coastline. Depending on the winds, the
Qantas flight QFA63 from
Sydney to
Johannesburg-O. R. Tambo, or the return flight QFA64, sometimes flies over the Antarctic Circle to 71° latitude as well and allowing views of the icecap.
[17] Qantas QFA27 and QFA28 fly nonstop between
Sydney and
Santiago de Chile, the most southerly polar route. Depending on winds, this flight may reach 55° south latitude, but other times 71°, which is enough to cross the polar ice cap.
[18][
better source needed] Previously, QANTAS also operated QFA17 and QFA18 between Sydney, Australia and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Nowadays, LATAM operates LAN804 and LAN805 between Melbourne, Australia, and Santiago, Chile, and Air New Zealand operates ANZ30 and ANZ31 between Auckland, New Zealand and Buenos Aires, Argentina all with similarly south-running routes.
The polar route across the remote southern Pacific Ocean between South America and Oceania was pioneered by
Aerolineas Argentinas, which began service between Buenos Aires via Rio Gallegos to Auckland in the 1980s with a
Boeing 747-200 aircraft. Aerolineas Argentinas later operated to Sydney, but ended its flights to New Zealand and Australia in 2014.
[19]
Because of
ETOPS limitations on twin-engined aircraft—the maximum distance the aircraft can operate from an airport for emergency landings—only four-engined aircraft such as the
Boeing 747,
Airbus A340, and Airbus A380 can or could operate routes near Antarctica. Twin-engined aircraft must fly further north, closer to potential diversion airports; for example, when
Virgin Australia operated their VA 15 and VA 16 flights between Melbourne and Johannesburg on twin-engined Boeing 777 aircraft with a 180-minute ETOPS rating, the flight was two hours longer than a Qantas flight from Sydney to Johannesburg.
[20] Air New Zealandflight ANZ30 and ANZ31 flies nonstop between
Auckland and
Buenos Aires-Ezeiza; in 2015, government regulators approved its twin-engined Boeing 777-200ER aircraft that operate the route for a 330-minute ETOPS rating (i.e. its 777 aircraft can fly a maximum 330 minutes away from the nearest diversion airport), an increase from its previous 240-minute ETOPS rating.
[21] LATAM Airlines began their LAN800 and LAN801 nonstop flights between
Santiago de Chile and
Sydney via
Auckland in April 2015 with twin-engined Boeing 787 aircraft with a 330-minute ETOPS rating.
[22][23] LATAM has announced a nonstop flight between Santiago de Chile and Melbourne to begin in October 2017.
[24][25]
The southernmost flight route with plausible airports would be between
Buenos Aires and
Perth.
[26] With a 175° (S)
heading, the route's
great circle exceeds 85° S and would be within 310 miles (500 km) from the
South Pole. Currently, no commercial airliners operates this 6,800-nautical-mile (7,800 mi; 12,600 km) route. However, in February, 2018, it was stated that
Norwegian Air Argentina is considering this "less than 15 hours" trans-polar flight between
South America and
Asia, with a stop-over in Perth enroute
Singapore.
[27] They will not fly over the
South Pole, but around
Antarctica taking advantage of the strong winds which circle that continent in an easterly direction. Hence, the "westbound" flight from Buenos Aires would actually travel south-east south of
Cape Town, over the southern
Indian Ocean and on to Perth, while the true "eastbound" flight would also head south-east south of
Tasmania and
New Zealand, over the
South Pacific and on to South America. If this route becomes operational, a Buenos Aires - Singapore return flight would possibly be the fastest
circumnavigation available with commercial airliners, although Perth - Buenos Aires return would be faster but without passing the
Equator.
