2024-05-10 05:16:36
Scotland, Antarctica, Maldives: These are the three areas of the world where travelers can experience very special flights. Namely those in which the aircraft does not touch down on a concrete or asphalt runway at its destination as usual. But on ice, sand or ocean water.
These flights are in high demand among aviation enthusiasts, with some booking the passage simply because of the exciting flying experience. This is possible because we are not talking about daring flight expeditions that are only carried out with exclusive private aircraft, but rather passenger flights from professional airlines that can be booked regularly.
Male/Maldives: Barefoot in the cockpit
The most famous place in the world for unusual flights is the Maldives. The country in the Indian Ocean consists of atolls and over 1,000 coral islands, of which almost 200 are resort islands. They can be reached either by transfer boat from the international airport in the capital Male – or by seaplane. They take off and land at the largest seaplane airport in the world, which is right next to the concrete runway for the wide-body jets in Male.
The two water runways are marked with buoys and around 600 flight movements are counted every day. Machines take off here, sometimes every minute, or land splashing in the sea on their two floats, which they have instead of wheels. A unique experience for passengers and spectators alike.
The Trans Maldivian Airlines aircraft are on average over 40 years old
Quelle: Markus Mainka/CHROMORANGE/picture alliance
The water airport includes an airport building on land: the new Noovilu Seaplane Terminal, built by the Chinese and in operation since October 2022. There are almost 20 lounges where guests can wait in style for their departure, but they are not operated by airlines, but by the larger holiday resorts. When the flight is ready to take off, you walk along wooden walkways to the plane, which is tied up like a boat and rocks on the water.
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Trans Maldivian Airlines (TMA) is the market leader, and there is also the smaller Manta Air. TMA alone operates more than 60 of the indestructible Canadian Twin Otters, a legendary twin-engine turboprop aircraft that can carry up to 17 passengers plus luggage that is carried on and off by the crew is unloaded. At TMA, these flying workhorses are on average 41 years old, but are perfectly cared for and proven. The oldest aircraft, built in 1967, is the most striking: Painted in bright yellow with black dots – TMA calls it the “Flying Boxfish” and it is used for flights to the Four Seasons Resorts.
The Male terminal
What: TMA
Most of the pilots are Canadian, and Australians and New Zealanders also often sit in the cockpit – almost all of them barefoot. “That’s the best thing about this job, a feeling of freedom,” says a pilot, “plus it’s safer because you don’t slip off the pedals so easily.” TMA flies over a million passengers a year to around 80 resort destinations on twelve atolls, each without a fixed flight plan. “For us, the resorts decide when we fly where and who we take with us; no one can book a cross-country flight directly with us,” says company boss AUM Fawzy. “Round trips or trips to deserted islands are possible.”
All flights always take place on sight and therefore only during the day. Because we fly low, between 150 and 450 meters, the visibility of islands and sandbanks is fantastic. There is a free choice of seats on board – if you want to get a window seat, you should hurry when boarding.
Transfer flights to island resorts cost between 260 and 600 US dollars (240 to 560 euros, bookable through a resort stay), depending on the distance; Photo sightseeing flights cost from 150 dollars (140 euros) per person, transmaldivian.com.
Wolf’s Fang/Antarctica: Airbus on the ice runway
Until recently, there was no regular flight connection to Antarctica with a large passenger aircraft that anyone could book. At least this is now possible for those who have the necessary change: The British operator White Desert flies from Cape Town every week between November and February with a former Emirates Airbus A340 to the ice runway at Wolf’s Fang in just over five hours in Queen Maud Land in the hinterland of Antarctica.
You stay in the eternal ice for around three hours, then you go back. The Airbus primarily transports personnel from Antarctic research stations, so the flights are not just a leisure activity for decadent vacationers.
The only privately operated airstrip on the southernmost continent is located 400 kilometers inland from the coast. “We have a fleet of three snow groomers here that you normally see in ski resorts,” says Patrick Woodhead, boss of White Desert, “a whole team of specialists use them to prepare the runway for a single landing for at least four days.”
The highlight of these flights is the landing: Airbus over the ice runway in Antarctica
Source: Andreas Spaeth
The glacier ice underneath is around 700 meters thick. In order to be able to land at all, the temperature on the ice runway must be a maximum of minus six degrees Celsius; at higher temperatures the surface becomes too soft. The view also has to be right.
Before the descent begins, the white ice edge of the Antarctic coast still shines; millions of ice floes and large icebergs can be seen in the blue ocean. The temperature in the cabin is already lowered to get used to it, and the passengers put on their polar equipment. On the final approach, the untrained eye has difficulty seeing anything distinguishable under the cloud cover on the ground, let alone seeing the runway – only the mountain range on the horizon offers a little orientation.
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The pilots’ eagle eyes had already spotted the ice runway 15 miles before the touchdown point, where there was no lighting. Only a few small flags serve as markings; the white of the prepared runway hardly stands out from the surrounding snow. As it rolls out, the huge jet makes small jumps – a natural ice runway isn’t quite as flat as concrete, even after days of elaborate preparation.
White Desert offers the Antarctic day tour to Wolf’s Fang Camp on multiple dates between December 1, 2024 and January 19, 2025 for $15,950 (14,860 euros) per person, white-desert.com/adventures/the-greatest-day/.
Barra/Scotland: Landing only at low tide
Deep blue water, snow-white beaches, lush greenery behind. That could be the South Seas down there. But it is Scotland, or more precisely: the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, just under an hour’s flight from Glasgow. An airport runway is nowhere to be seen during the descent. It doesn’t matter: the two daily Loganair scheduled flights land directly on the beach. This is only possible at low tide, the rest of the day the landing site is flooded by the Atlantic – unique in the world.
Despite the low tide, there is still a little water on the “runway” today – the blue and white Twin Otter is still about to land. The propeller plane touches down on the sand with a small hop, it shakes a little, and the ripples on the beach, evenly formed by the water, can be felt in the cabin. The spray splashes waist-high up the wheels of the main landing gear, the aircraft plows through and quickly brakes. Flight BE6851 from Glasgow reached its destination on time. Some visitors even come to Barra from Australia just to experience this special flight.
A scheduled flight from Glasgow lands on Barra beach
Source: Andreas Spaeth
“We switch on a flashing light on the tower when a landing is imminent, and the wind sock outside only blows when there is active flight operation,” says airport boss Michael Galbraith. “In the summer, flights fill up quickly, but we can’t use aircraft larger than the Twin Otter because of the weight, and the narrow tidal window doesn’t allow more flights.”
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Barra has three designated take-off and landing runways on the sand, between 670 and 850 meters long, so that aircraft can always fly into the wind. “They are only marked with a wooden beacon at each end,” explains Galbraith. Another special feature: “We constantly have to smooth the runways with tractors and remove sand, otherwise it becomes too uneven for the planes.”
There are inspections several times a day because the tide often washes something ashore that really has no place on an airstrip: “We recently found a two-meter-long dead shark here, and a dead dolphin was also lying on the runway.” Problems that no other airport in the world experiences.
Loganair flies twice daily from Glasgow to Barra, return flights from £300 (€350), loganair.co.uk.
Participation in the trip was supported by White Desert. Our standards of transparency and journalistic independence can be found at go2.as/unabhaengigkeit
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In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is necessary, as the providers of the embedded content require this consent as third party providers [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (revocable at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about this. You can revoke your consent at any time using the switch and privacy at the bottom of the page.
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