Usage
CASA issued an aviation licence for the airline Skytraders to operate passenger flights, and the first flight was made on 11 January 2008, carrying Australia's Environment Minister Peter Garrett, twelve scientists and six other passengers.
Flights to Antarctica leave from Hobart International Airport in Tasmania using an Airbus A319, and the flight takes around four hours. Prior to the runway's completion, the trip to Antarctica involved a ten-day journey by ship across the Southern Ocean from Hobart. The runway only operates during the Antarctic summer, and twenty to thirty flights per season are planned. The flights are used to transport scientists conducting Antarctic research, and are not available for tourist flights. However, since the opening of the runway no more than 10 flights in one season has been achieved. This is primarily due to environmental conditions at the site, temperatures being warmer and causing melt of the runway, thus decreasing the window of opportunity to use the runway. As of January 2012, only four flights were planned for the summer season and all in February 2012.
Read more about this topic: Wilkins Runway
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—Kenneth G. Wilson (b. 1923)