In several months, Lufthansa will be operating one of its longest flights ever, and it’s a pretty special route!
Lufthansa’s charter flight to the Falkland Islands
In March 2025, Lufthansa will be operating what’s easily one of the coolest charter flights we’ve seen. Specifically, Lufthansa will be flying between Munich (MUC) and Mount Pleasant (MPN) in the Falkland Islands. While the schedule remains subject to change, it’s currently as follows, with an outbound on March 10 and return on March 12 (thanks to AeroRotues for flagging this):
LH2572 Munich to Mount Pleasant departing 7:20AM arriving 7:00PM
LH2573 Mount Pleasant to Munich departing 7:00PM arriving 1:20PM (+1 day)
The 8,043-mile flight is blocked at 15hr40min from Munich and 14hr20min to Munich. Lufthansa will be using an Airbus A350-900 for this service, featuring 293 seats. However, the plane isn’t expect to be full, and will carry closer to 100 passengers.
For those of you not familiar with the Falkland Islands, this is a remote South Atlantic archipelago. There are just over 3,000 residents there, and it’s a British overseas territory. It’s also just a few hundred miles from Antarctica.
This is the second time that Lufthansa is operating such a route. The airline operated a similar flight in February 2021, as it flew from Hamburg to Mount Pleasant to Munich. The Hamburg to Mount Pleasant flight was just a little bit longer, and was the longest passenger flight that Lufthansa has operated in its history.
As you’d expect, special preparations have to be made for this flight, given the unique circumstances. This includes extra training for pilots via special electronic maps, an extra crew that includes technicians and ground staff for on-site landing and maintenance in the Falkland Islands, and more.
At least the logistics are a bit easier than they were for the 2021 trip, where a bunch of pandemic precautions had to be taken as well.
What’s the point of this Lufthansa charter flight?
Lufthansa is providing a charter for people who are taking the Polarstern research vessel to and from Antarctica. The passengers onboard will be split between scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute and ship crew. Presumably in the other direction, the flight will be carrying those who are getting off the ship.
It’s interesting to see Lufthansa operating this service again. Back in the day, this kind of trip to get people to Antarctica would operate via Cape Town. However, in 2021 Lufthansa operated the charter flight due to the coronavirus situation in South Africa, to avoid those heading out getting sick.
It’s not publicly known exactly why Lufthansa is operating this service again, rather than passengers going via other means. After all, this is the first time in four years that such a route is being operated.
Bottom line
In March 2025, Lufthansa will be operating an ultra long haul flight between Munich and Mount Pleasant using an Airbus A350. This 8,000+ mile flight is being operated to get research teams and the ship crew closer to Antartica.
I’ve long been fascinated by the Falkland Islands, so I find this to be such a cool trip. If I were a Lufthansa crew I’d certainly volunteer for this cool experience, since this is a very special experience.
Is this charter flight awesome, or what?
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