While there are a lot of commercial air routes over the north pole. Are there any regular routes over the south pole?

Thanks in advance,

Himmat

Aerolineas Argentinas operates the southernmost (scheduled) commercial route in the world: BUE-AKL, around S50 - S55.
JNB-SYD with QF/SA probably ranks second, which goes far until S45�.

Commercial flights are not allowed to overfly Antartica, for security reasons except
Boeing flew two years ago with 773ER from SYD to GIG, which crossed exactly the south pole.I think it has to do with ETOPS ,since most of antarctica is out of ETOPS range.
Thus there is NO ETOPS rating for the Southern Pacific and
That's why AR and LA fly it with quads. (AR 747/A340, LA A340).

Regards

BM

[Edited 2005-10-10 09:55:58]

not right over the pole, but very close to it, is AR flight from EZE to AKL (I think via Rio Gallegos)


Mike

I always think about NZ901 when we discuss flying over the South Pole:
NZ901 and MT Erebus

The only commercial flights over the Antarctic continent are the Qantas 744 flightseeing trips organised over by Croydon travel. The reason there are no flights over the ice is because, unlike the north, the south pole does not lie on the great circle route for too many points. It's really only New Zealand and South Africa and Australia and Brazil that are linked by a great circle route over the polar ice.

The 773er test flight was from Sydney to Recife. A Pan Am 747Sp flew over the pole when it was making the anniversary polar global circumnavigation n 1977 to celebrate Pan Am's 50th birthday. When the Pan Am flight crossed the pole, the men in the bases wanted to hear a lady's voice, and they were in luck as guests on the Pan Am flight included Miss Universe, America, Great Britain and South Africa on board to chat to the ice-bound lads.

I just read Bob Buck's book "North Star Over My Shoulder" (not exactly sure about the exact title) in which he flies over the south pole in a Boeing 707 called "Polar Cat" which belonged to Flying Tigers. The route was Buenos Aires - Auckland (he deviated south to fly over the pole). Very good read.

The 777-300ER demonstration flight did not cross the south pole or even get to within sight of the edge of Antarctica.

Boeing had a diagram showing it would go over Antarctica but it was BS.

The Rio Gallegos flights ended years ago. They saw QF and Aerolineas Argentinas 742s. Today's flights go non-stop both ways between Auckland and Buenos Aires.

Antares

ps. The Croydon travel sightseeing flights are fantastic but must be loosing their appeal as the newly announced schedule of southern summer charters seems like the smallest offering for many years. Maybe Qantas just didn't have as much availability. Anyone know more?

Quoting AR1300 (Reply 2): not right over the pole, but very close to it, is AR flight from EZE to AKL (I think via Rio Gallegos)

Mike, get updated!  

Aerolíneas flies 4x weekly (GRU)-EZE-AKL-SYD. The stop-over at RGL was eliminated in the early 1990s, after they replaced the 742s for A342s on that route.

By the way, Shana Tovah!

Saludos,
Marambio

Quoting Marambio (Reply 7): was eliminated in the early 1990s

   WTF???!!!! it took me ten years to realize!!!!

Quoting Marambio (Reply 7): Shana Tovah!

Shana Tova to you too!!! for a new happy new year!!!   

  Mike

Quoting Marambio (Reply 7): Aerolíneas flies 4x weekly (GRU)-EZE-AKL-SYD. The stop-over at RGL was eliminated in the early 1990s, after they replaced the 742s for A342s on that route.

Ehh, not sure about early 90s, Marcos... IIRC, my grandparents travelled to Australia/NZ in 1996 and I'm pretty sure they stoppped over in RGL.

My aunt did the same a few years later, but I don't remember the routing exactly.

Cheers  

Quoting RootsAir (Reply 1): RootsAir

humm.. Write your own text, instead of copying my exact words in another thread, of the same subject:

http://www.airliners.net/discussions...general_aviation/read.main/2300322

hehe  

Quoting PPVRA (Reply 9): Ehh, not sure about early 90s, Marcos... IIRC, my grandparents travelled to Australia/NZ in 1996

EZE-AKL for AR became non stop in 1999 with the introduction of the A340's. The return flight was always non stop AKL-EZE.

Quoting Antares (Reply 6): The Rio Gallegos flights ended years ago. They saw QF and Aerolineas Argentinas 742s.

QF didn't fly to Argentina before 1998 did they? I thought their only flights to Argentina were from November 1998 to June 2002 with 744's SYD-AKL-EZE.

Quoting Himmat01 (Thread starter): While there are a lot of commercial air routes over the north pole. Are there any regular routes over the south pole?

South Pole routes will always be more limited simply because there's very few major city pairs whose shortest connecting route crosses the Antarctic.

If you study a map of the southern hemisphere you'll find that you have to operate between cities such as Buenos Aires and Perth to transit the South Pole.