Antarctica in a Day

A unique scenic flight to the white continent

By Hilton Luke

November 26^th, 2024

First stop, Sydney

In March 2024, my dad called me and asked if I knew about the Qantas scenic flight to Antartica.

After a little research, I learned:

it's a unique 12-14 hour roundtrip flight from one of 4 capital cities
it doesn't land
you get allocated 2 boarding passes to swap seats at the halfway point
it's full international service, despite not needing a passport for the flight.

By the time we booked, the flight from Brisbane was sold out so we had to depart from Sydney — meaning we made a long weekend of the occasion.

We stayed in a king suite at the Rydges Hotel Sydney Airport which offered expansive views of the international terminal and runway. For a couple of plane nerds, this was very exciting!

Take off

Our aircraft for the chartered flight was a Qantas Boeing 787-9 (Dreamliner). Qantas Flight 1330 (registration VH-ZNB).

We took off from Sydney Airport to the north, which gave window passengers magnificent views of the harbour.

An hour into the flight we were served breakfast, along with a glass of celebratory champagne.

First ice

Once we were out of greater Sydney, the flight headed south, and we got introductions from our onboard lecturers, scientists and flight crew.

They informed us that sea ice will appear hundreds of kilometres from Antarctica's coast line.

On our flight, the clouds cleared 250kms from Antarctica where we started to see large ice sheets and icebergs.

Transantarctic Mountains

After we crossed the coast, just off Cape Adare, we headed east to see the Transantarctic Mountains.

The Transantarctic Mountains stretch across Antarctica dividing the continent into East and West regions.

Flying over them at 15,000 feet offered breathtaking views of their rugged peaks, expansive ice sheets and glaciers.

For the entire flight, the captain manoeuvred the aircraft in a figure 8 pattern which allowed equal viewing for passengers on both sides of the plane.

Freyberg and Usarp Mountains

We travelled up and down the Rennick Glacier which gave us great views of the Freyberg and Usarp Mountains.

Blue ice

The blue ice forms when strong winds blow from high to low and strip the snow from ice, leaving a polished ripple effect. The scientific name for this is katabatic wind.

Rennick Glacier

The Rennick Glacier is 370kms long and 56kms wide, making it one of the largest glaciers in Antarctica.

At the end of the glacier is Znamenskiy Island; a high, ice-covered island about 4.5kms long which sits in Rennick Bay.

Mount Minto and Mount Sabine

Mount Minto is an ice-free mountain 4,165m high. Mount Sabine a relatively snow-free mountain 3720m high.

Upon reflection, peering out from the window of the Qantas scenic flight, coupled with the facts I learned from the onboard experts, I'm awed by the scale of Antarctica.

From above, the icy continent revealed its grand expanse, an endless sea of white, dotted with dark rocky peaks. But these peaks are well over 2kms high, some almost 5kms. Yet, they only cover 0.4 percent of the continent.