Chilean carrier Aerovías DAP, based in Punta Arenas, has announced its schedule of services to Antarctica during the coming austral summer. The airline plans to operate more than 150 flights to the white continent between mid-November and March. This figure represents a 30% increase over the last summer season.
The airline, which inaugurated its services in 1980 and is based at Presidente Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Airport (PUQ), has been flying between the American continent and Antarctica for 33 years.
It usually carries out three types of operations: charter flights for cruise ship passengers (the main customers of the flights) and expedition ships, logistics and support for the Antarctic programmes of different countries, and eventual evacuations for medical reasons.
Nicolás Paulsen, Aerovías DAP’s Manager of Charter, said that the increase in frequencies responds to accumulated interests and needs to operate there since the recovery of the activity. «And now everything is starting to pick up again, mainly because of the good levels of vaccination», he said.
The executive also highlighted that air connectivity between the Magallanes Region and Antarctica is a regional, national and international asset. «This connection implies not only comparative advantages for Chile, but also competitive advantages, since the volume of operations translates into economic feasibility for many countries», he explained.
Antarctic tradition
Aerovías DAP completed its first flight to Antarctica on 12 February 1989. That day, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, registration CC-CHV, performed a sanitary evacuation. Four months later, and after several unsuccessful attempts (weather conditions are a recurring factor in the cancellation of operations to Antarctic bases), the first commercial flight was completed.
Air connections to Antarctica were perform by the Twin Otter until the mid-1990s. The aircraft was then replaced by the Beechcraft King Air 100 with registration CC-CLY.
In 2003, Aerovías DAP added the de Havilland Canada Dash 7 to its fleet in order to offer more seats in a context of growing demand. Four years later, the company took delivery of the first British Aerospace 146-200, an aircraft configured with 96 seats, which nowadays is key to its operation.
Today, the company has a fleet of aircraft and helicopters to provide a network of commercial and logistics services. It is the largest air operator in Antarctica.
Flights from Punta Arenas arrive at Aeródromo Teniente Rodolfo Marsh Martin, the northernmost airfield in the continent, close to the civilian settlement of Villa Las Estrellas, 950 kilometres southeast of Puerto Williams.
