Portuguese charter specialist Hi Fly has just marked the fifth anniversary of operating flights to Antarctica. The 2025 season, which runs from November 2025 through to February 2026, commemorates five years since the airline’s first historic flight in November 2021, when one of the company’s Airbus A340 wide-bodied aircraft landed on Antarctica’s specially prepared ice runway.
On November 2, 2025, the company’s 25-year-old Airbus A340-300 registered 9H-SUN operated the 2025/26 season’s inaugural flight for charter client White Desert Antarctica, connecting Cape Town (CPT), South Africa, to the Wolf’s Fang ice runway (WFR) on Antarctica and return.
Patrick Woodhead, a record-breaking polar explorer, co-founded White Desert to make the remote beauty of Antarctica’s interior accessible to people beyond scientists and fellow adventurers. The flight’s commander was Captain Carlos Mirpuri, the vice-chairman of Hi Fly, who also flew the company’s first mission to Antarctica back in 2021.
Wolf’s Fang Runway is a runway in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. Flights operate to and from the runway during the Southern Hemisphere’s summer and are operated by While Desert, a British tour operator offering a commercial private jet service to Antarctica. It is the first runway built in Antarctica that supports large passenger jets to take off and land. Norse Atlantic Airways has also operated to the runway in the past.
According to a Hi Fly statement, the latest flight featured a special commemorative moment on site, as the crew posed with a plaque proudly inscribed, “Celebrating 5 Years in Antarctica”, honoring half a decade of successful operations in one of the most remote and challenging environments on Earth.
The journey between origin and destination covered an impressive 2,500 nautical miles (4,630km) each way, with a flight time of just over five hours. The Airbus A340 remains the largest commercial airliner ever to operate in Antarctica. The aircraft has to carry enough fuel on board, leaving Cape Town to make both the outbound and the return journeys without refuelling, as there are no facilities for doing so at Wolf’s Fang.
Speaking about the commemorative charter flight, Captain Mirpuri said, “Each year we return to Antarctica, we are reminded of the uniqueness of this mission, where precision flying, teamwork, and respect for the environment all come together. Reaching the five-year mark is a proud achievement for Hi Fly and a testament to the dedication of everyone involved.”
What the Hi Fly crew said about the flights
As posted on the Hi Fly website, the flight crew’s log for the flights (carrying flight numbers HFM801 and HFM802) read,
“With 81 tons of fuel on board and 15 tons of payload, A340 9H-SUN performed the first mission of Hi Fly’s 5th Antarctica season for White Desert. Under the command of Carlos Mirpuri and his outstanding crew, the A340 delivered once again.”
“The latest landing took place at 01:00 local time, with the sun skimming the horizon and katabatic southeasterly winds of up to 25 knots making the temperature of minus 16 degrees Celsius feel much lower. A rotation [turnaround] time of one hour and 45 minutes showed how prepared the ground teams are down at Wolf’s Fang Runway.”
“The flight to the ice lasted five hours and 45 minutes, and the return flight five hours. Without dream teams like the ones we have, none of this would be possible. That includes not only our flight crews, cabin crews, engineers, and ground coordinators, but also all those back in the office whose work is often unseen yet just as important as any other.”
“A can-do attitude is in our DNA. A special thank you to the White Desert team, they do a tremendous job making these missions possible, and we deeply appreciate their trust in us and their continued partnership,” the statement added.
With the airline soon to retire its last Airbus A340, a type it has flown for over 25 years, the airline added, “As the sun sets on this amazing aircraft, missions like this stand as a testament to [the Airbus A340’s] capabilities. It has served us well and has been the source of many joyful moments. 9H-SUN is the last A340 in our fleet and will soon be replaced by equally capable but more efficient aircraft.”
Not the only flights to Antarctica
Coincidentally, the global business aviation support services provider ACASS completed its first-ever flight to Antarctica just five days before Hi Fly’s operation 2025 began. The Dassault Falcon 8X flight from Cape Town to Wolf’s Fang took place on October 28, 2025.
Transporting eight team members from White Desert, Antarctica, and a San Marino CAA inspector, the flight was the first of seven scheduled for the ACASS-operated Falcon over the 11-week Wolf’s Fang 2025/26 operating season. In fact, only 10 business aviation flights are scheduled for the entire season.
“Flights to and from Antarctica are exceptionally rare and complex due to the extreme environmental conditions, logistical challenges, and regulatory coordination required,” said ACASS vice-president of operations, Derek Holter.
