What's your theory on why no one is allowed to fly over Antarctica?
Pilots need 'special' Antarctica training is the reason ive read the most:
This is the typical response I've seen on quora, Reddit, answers etc:
Do any airline flights fly over Antarctica?
I know many flight, like Chicago/NYC-East Asia flights will fly over the North Pole, but I've never seen any flights over Antar...
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7 ANSWERS
Stephen Foskett, frequent flier, United 1K
Written Jul 24, 2015 · Upvoted by
Tom Farrier,Former Director of Safety, Air Transport Association
This is an interesting question, and there are three reasons why no commercial flight overflies Antarctica:
Geography
Due to the arrangement of the three populated southern continents, flying over Antarctica wouldn't actually be shorter for most routes. South America, Africa, and Australia form a rough triangle at the "bottom of the world" and the shortest leg between their largest airports misses most of Antarctica.
Still, there are a few routes where it would make sense. And the shortest route isn't always best, since one must also consider prevailing winds. I read that it would be favorable to fly Sydney to Buenos Aires (currently the most-southern flight) at 80 degrees south (over Antarctica) rather than 72 degrees (the great circle) due to winds.
ETOPS
ETOPS rules cover where twin-engine jets can fly. Antarctica is considered off-limits for twin-engine jets even though it's technically "land". This isn't a real roadblock since there are a good number of 4-engine jets that don't need to abide by ETOPS, but it limits the type of plane that theoretically could fly there and thus rules out all but the largest jets. So any flight over Antarctica would have to connect large-enough cities to fill a large four-engine jet. Bringing us back to the answer about geography...
Special Rules
The real reason no commercial flight over-flies Antarctica is that there are special aviation rules for flights that do. These rules were designed for sightseeing flights but apply to commercial flights as well. Planes flying below 72 degrees latitude need special survival equipment on board, and no commercial carrier would want to stock planes with all this stuff just to save a bit of fuel. It would limit the number of seats available (see ETOPS above) and would require special equipment and training. This could seriously screw up the airline's schedules.
So that's why no commercial flight over-flies Antarctica!
Dude you edited your post after I responded, don't act like I'm avoiding it.
So if this is the real shape of the earth...
Explain why a flight from NYC to Rome isn't considerable shorter than a flight from Sao Paolo to Johannesburg?
They have similar flight times which makes sense on a spherical layout of the earth but not on your flat earth layout.