Melbourne, Australia-based Antarctica Sightseeing Flights has organised a New Year's Eve trip to Antarctica.

Using a Qantas Airbus A380 super-jumbo, it will be the first commercial flight by the aircraft over the south polar region and will fly passengers in figure-eight patterns above the ice for up to four hours before heading back to Melbourne and Sydney. The trip will take about 111/2 hours and cover some 9,500km (5,900 miles). On a typical Antarctica sightseeing flight, the first icebergs are seen approximately three hours after passing over Hobart. The most frequently-used route then takes the aircraft over the polar icecap, the South Magnetic Pole, the French scientific base at Dumont d'Urville, coastal cliffs, glaciers and finally the Trans-Antarctic Range before returning to Australia.

Two other Antarctic flights are also planned for the southern summer; a second A380 service will fly direct from Sydney on 24 January and a Boeing 747-400 from Melbourne on 14 February.