Lufthansa plans direct A350...

German carrier Lufthansa is in the process of planning a special charter flight that will see one of its Airbus A350s travel to the South Atlantic archipelago of the Falkland Islands. The charter flight, which will take place in March 2025, will involve the airline transporting polar scientists to the Islands from where they will travel onwards to their destination by ship.

Lufthansa is providing the charter flight for scientists, engineers, and others who are traveling to join the RV Polarstern research vessel to and from Antarctica. The passengers being taken by air to the Falklands will be split between scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute along with the ship’s crew. The outbound flight is due to operate on March 10, 2025, and will be operated by one of the carrier’s 27-strong fleet of Airbus A350-900s.

The flight is scheduled to depart Munich-Franz Josef Strauss International Airport (MUC) at 07:20 local time and arrive at Mount Pleasant Airport (in the Falkland Islands at 19:00 the same day. The return sector will then leave Mount Pleasant at 19:00 local time on March 12, 2025, landing back in Munich at 13:20 the following day (All timings courtesy of Aeroroutes).

The total stage length of the route between Munich and Mount Pleasant is 8,043 miles (12,869km). The outbound journey is scheduled to last 15 hours 40 minutes from Munich while the return leg will take 14 hours and 20 minutes.  Lufthansa’s A350-900s are typically configured to carry 293 passengers in a three-class configuration. However, given the special nature of this flight, the passenger load is expected to be substantially less than the maximum, which will also allow for additional fuel to be carried onboard.

The flight in March 2025 will represent the third such flight that Lufthansa has operated to the Falklands, having previously flown there from Hamburg in January 2021 and March 2021. The Hamburg to Mount Pleasant flights were slightly longer than the one planned from Munich in March 2025 (at 8,266 miles/13,226 km) and became the longest passenger flight that Lufthansa had operated in its history at that time.

The second of those 2021 trips, also operated by an A350-900 transported 40 crew members of the RV Polarstern as well as scientists from the German Aerospace Center (Deutschen Zentrums für Luft- und Raumfahrt). During that flight, the scientists collected measurement data that provided further insight into the influence of the Earth’s magnetic field on aviation.

Before 2021, such flights previously operated from Germany to Cape Town, South Africa, from where the passengers would join the vessel. However, as COVID-19 was rampant in South Africa in early 2021, the decision was made to re-route the passengers via the Falkland Islands instead to avoid the virus spreading among the traveling group. The Falklands also provide a more convenient way of traveling by sea to the Polar region.     

The Falkland Islands are a sovereign British territory and are the permanent home to around 3,000 inhabitants. While the Islands are self-governed, the Government of the United Kingdom remains responsible for all matters relating to defense and foreign affairs.  The capital ‘city’ is Stanley on East Island with a population of around 2,460 people.
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The main islands in the archipelago are located around 300 miles (480km) from the coastline of Patagonia in South America as well as around 750 miles (1,210km) from Cape Dubouzet at the northern tip of Antarctica. The islands cover an area of approximately 4,700 sq mi (12,000 sq km) and consist of East Falkland, West Falkland, and 772 other smaller islands.

ByLuke Peters
October 29, 2024, 06:00 (UTC +3)
Original link: https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/lufthansa-falklands-flight-march-2025