AIR - Air NZ.

[dobby41]

Now, without any cruise going there, there is a good opportunity that I think AIR should step in.

With a cruise you step foot on Antarctica - flying over is not the same.

Years ago I flew down (in a Herc) and stepped foot on - a very 'cool' place in more ways than one.

[Jay]

Slightly off topic - but a flight over it would be better than over time 1000's stepping on it and may be slowly destroying some of its beauty - let the scientists be the only ones down there IMHO

I too remember watching it on the news and them saying well it would have run out of fuel by now even in the best case scenario

[peat]

I'm with Beagle on this one. There's still many of us around who find it difficult to accept AIR's failings in this tragic episode. Any move to "resume" scenic flights to Antarctica would be very badly received by the NZ public, IMO, despite the passage of 41 years.

agreed - if you werent alive at the time you have no idea how much it impacted kiwis, firstly the tragedy - Nearly everyone knew someone on that plane - and then the long drawn out murky mysterious way to uncovering what happened

But of course as us oldies die away someone may have the snow blindness to retry it. Frankly I cant see why anyone would want to fly over such a large monotonous land mass covered in white stuff. I can understand people wanting to actually land of course for a sense of being there , thats quite different imo.

PS My neighbour told me today he bought a couple of thousand AIR shares. He was doing so well with his Fortescue mining too.

[Waltzing]

"The fiasco of what followed over the months and years ahead was of cataclysmic proportions and makes AIR's recent mishandling of the refund issue look like a storm in a very small teacup."

you had to live through it to believe it. it was as if AIR NZ simple could not accept the plane wasnt coming back. They acted as if it was a nightmare... that they were still asleep and any moment they were going to wake up and the plane land.

You really had to live it to understand. MR B has it dead on... sorry terrible pun.

Q Air has to do it first.

[Blue Skies]

Think there's some assumptions being made here. Not all of us who were in our early 20's when the Erebus tragedy happened & remember it well & knew people involved, think it would be disrespectful to those lost their lives by a resumption of flights in an appropriate & respectfully handled way. Not talking about a champagne & canapés style flight. But not only would many family and relatives & descendants of those killed jump at the chance to see Antartica, but NZ has a long & deep connection to this vast beautiful wild continent & early polar exploration, & currently there are virtually no opportunities for any other than a very select few scientists ( & guests of MP's) to experience it, other than via tourist operations out of Australia & South America.
Maybe after 41 years it is still too soon & off the table for now, but the Air NZ of today is hardly the same AIR of 40 years ago & at some point maybe 50,60 or 100 years after Erebus, surely enough time will have passed to allow resumption of flights as said with an appropriate respectful tone.
Acknowledge also there are people who still find it too raw & a few years ago when AIR developed a Safety video featuring NZ research connections to Antartica, there was a great deal of angst about it from a few of the family members.
Just to finish with this thought, are flights over this vast continent on AIR blocked off forever due to this tragedy?

[peat]

NZ has a long & deep connection to this vast beautiful wild continent & early polar exploration, & currently there are virtually no opportunities for any other than a very select few scientists ( & guests of MP's) to experience it, other than via tourist operations out of Australia & South America.

Not sure this is completely true to be honest with boat expeditions available to the subantarctics (which is surely much more interesting) and beyond I believe for example
https://www.heritage-expeditions.com...-travel/#trips

Trip to Antartctic.JPG

[Marilyn Munroe]

Justice Mahon's Royal Commission report on the Erebus disaster is a compelling read.

The whole report not just the "orchestrated litany of lies" part is an indicment of the powers that be of the time, which is why they were so hostile to it.

Boop boop de do
Marilyn

[dobby41]

Justice Mahon's Royal Commission report on the Erebus disaster is a compelling read.

The whole report not just the "orchestrated litany of lies" part is an indicment of the powers that be of the time, which is why they were so hostile to it.

Boop boop de do
Marilyn

I'm not sure what these little bits of history have to do with AIR and their viability now?

[peat]

I'm not sure what these little bits of history have to do with AIR and their viability now?

the thread is currently examining the possibility that AIR commence a new route to the Antarticas which would of course increase revenue - hence enough on topic that folks shouldn't complain about it

(ESPECIALLY GIVEN THE WHOLESALE THREAD MASHING THATS BEEN GOING ON FOR MONTHS WHERE NOBODY REALLY CARES WHERE THEY POST )

[Blue Skies]

Not sure this is completely true to be honest with boat expeditions available to the subantarctics (which is surely much more interesting) and beyond I believe for example
https://www.heritage-expeditions.com...-travel/#trips

Trip to Antartctic.JPG

Sorry, you're quite right, had overlooked that option.
Not sure i'ld want to take that long rough Southern Ocean crossing on myself now, would need to be pretty determined. From Ushuaia in S America its much closer & more accessible for us older types or of course the flights from Australia & S.America. There certainly is a significant market for it & I believe it is an extraordinary experience, incredibly beautiful, nothing like it anywhere else in the world.