If you’ve ever wondered what a runway in Antarctica looks like, or if you’ve ever wondered how tourists travel to Antarctica, take a look at this clip of an A340 landing on a private blue-ice runway in the southern continent.
There are a few different types of runways in Antarctica, including just flat out packed snow, but this is specifically a blue-ice runway, which exists on glacier ice without snow underneath.
This is the Wolf’s Fang Runway, the only exclusively operated private aircraft runway in the entire continent. It’s 3000 meters (~9,843 feet) long and 60 metes (197 feet) wide, Snow is pushed at least 10 meters beyond the edge markers of the runway so the strip width is, at a minimum, 90 meters.
“The runway is named after the striking Wolf’s Fang peak that frames these shots – so-called because, well, it looks like a wolf’s fang (Ulvetanna in Norwegian). It’s an incredible operation here and we still can’t get over the fact that they can land a widebody in this place.” – Flightradar24