蜜芽传媒

It's a final frontier of tourism.... the great white wastes of Antarctica.

Earlier this month a tour operator landed and Airbus 340 - a large commercial plane - on the ice there, opening up the world's most remote continent to adventurous tourists, willing to brave the cold and pay a hefty fee.

Patrick Woodhead is founder of the travel company White Desert which commissioned the flight. He says it was a technical challenge - but well within the skills of a good pilot.

"The way we treat the ice means it's like landing in Heathrow on a wet day... It's super-safe. It's glacial ice, it's about a thousand metres deep, and it's basically got the same bearing strength as concrete. It's unbelievably hard so it's not like a layer of ice that breaks and then you're in trouble."

(Photo: The airbus after landing on the ice. Credit: Marc Bow)