MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Australian announces first permanent air link to Antarctica

Australia's civil aviation regulators announced on Tuesday they have given final approval for the country's first permanent air link to Antarctica, although it will be for scientists rather than tourists.

A license has been issued for airline Skytraders to fly passengers from Hobart, the capital of the southern island state of Tasmania, to Wilkins aerodrome, near the Australian Antarctic Division's Casey Station. The 3.400 kilometers flight is expected to take around four hours in each direction, and "can begin as soon as the airline is ready", the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) said. "Weather permitting the flight to Wilkins ice runway would depart Wednesday carrying scientists and Antarctic Division employees", Environment Minister Peter Garrett said. The airline originally hoped to start the flights before Christmas and a test flight was carried out in December, using a new runway carved out of ice which was approved for use only in the last week. The runway is 4 kilometers long, 700 meters thick and moves about 12 meters southwest a year because of glacial drift. CASA said a number of safety issues have now been resolved, including the ability of the aircraft to return to Australia without re-fuelling, as it cannot do so in Antarctica. The airline plans to use an Airbus A319 aircraft to carry scientists and other personnel, but has no plans to take tourist. The aircraft could also be used for surveillance of the Japanese whaling fleet. QE2 final world cruise before becoming Dubai floating hotel One of the world's most famous cruise ships, the Queen Elizabeth 2 set sail Sunday on its final global voyage before being turned into a floating hotel, British media reported. The vessel left with a fireworks send-off from the port city of Southampton for her last winter trip, the domestic Press Association news agency said. Her sister ship, the recently-named Queen Victoria, set off on her first world cruise at the same time. Both ships will travel in tandem across the north Atlantic Ocean to New York. US cruise operator Carnival sold the QE2 for about 50 million pounds (67 million euros, 99 million dollars) in November last year to Istithmar, the investment arm of state-owned tourism company Dubai World. On return from her final world cruise in April, she will be refurbished and turned into a five-star hotel at a specially-constructed pier on the world's largest man-made island, The Palm Jumeirah. Launched by her namesake in September 1967, the QE2 is previous owner Cunard's longest-serving ship. The 294-metre long ship displaces 70.000 tonnes and can carry up to 1.778 passengers and a crew of 1.015. She has traveled 5.5 million nautical miles, the equivalent of traveling to the moon and back 13 times, undertaken twenty five world cruises, crossed the Atlantic more than 800 times, and carried more than two million passengers.