Explore the White Continent in MSFS 2024!

(Opening scene, skip to ‘What you get’ if you are in a hurry to learn about the add-on content)

Welcome to Antarctica, the coldest, driest, windiest and emptiest continent on Earth — and the only continent without an indigenous human population.

Almost everything that sustains human activity in Antarctica arrives by ship or by air: every scientist, every drum of fuel, every spare part, every ounce of food, every module of every station. The ships reach the coast; aircraft bridge the immense distances beyond — landing on wheels on blue ice, on skis on groomed skiways, or on unprepared snow far from any station. Down here, flying is not recreation — it is what holds the continent together. And yet the sky itself is empty. No contrails, no traffic overhead — just clear, unmarked blue.

That world is already there in your simulator — what has been missing is the infrastructure to actually go there.

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What You Get

Airports of Antarctica is an MSFS 2024 scenery bundle that is building a continent-wide network of Antarctic airfields, opening up much of the White Continent to aircraft operations.

In its current state, this add-on includes 29 airports, skiways, runways and helipads, together with station enhancements, camps and 5 dedicated points of interest (POI).

Combined with the freeware and payware scenery packages referenced in the included manual, the Antarctic network currently expands to 46 airfields and 46 points of interest across the continent.

Fly from the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula deep into the interior, or from the Ross Ice Shelf across to Dronning Maud Land. Cross McMurdo Sound to Marble Point, the refuelling stop for helicopters working the Dry Valleys. Fly the deep-field run from Novo to Kohnen. Run the Peninsula circuit between the Argentine, Chilean, Brazilian, Polish and Peruvian stations. Or set down at Vostok on the high Antarctic Plateau, where the lowest air temperature on Earth was recorded.

The project is expanding continuously, with the long-term goal of providing complete coverage of Antarctica’s aviation infrastructure and an ever-growing network of destinations to explore.

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Airports currently included in this scenery

• Arctowski Heliport (SAXLK*)
• Belgrano II Skiway (SAYB)
• Belgrano II Station Helipad (SAYBH*)
• Bharati Station Heliport (ATBH*)
• Carlini Base Heliport (SAYJ)
• Comandante Ferraz Heliport (ATCF*)
• Davis Plateau SLA 'Whoop Whoop' (AT07)
• Davis Station Heliport (ATDS*)
• Esperanza Skiway (SAYE)
• Esperanza Station Helipad (SAYEH*)
• Jack F. Paulus Skiway (NZSP) — experimental; see manual
• Kohnen Skiway (AT12)
• Machu Picchu Heliport (ATPI*)
• Maitri Station (ATMIH*)
• Marble Point Heliport (ATMP*)
• Mawson Station Heliport
• McMurdo Station Heliport (ATMM*)
• Novo Runway (AT17)
• O'Higgins Skiway (SCBO)
• Phoenix Field (NZFX)
• Rumdoodle Ski Landing Area (AT21)
• Ruperto Elichiribehety Helipad (ATEUH*)
• SANAE IV Skiway (AT22)
• Troll Airfield (ENOE)
• Union Glacier Runway (SCGC)
• Vostok Skiway (AT28)
• Williams Field (NZWD)
• Wolf's Fang (AT98)
• Zenit Airfield (ATRZ)

(*) fictional ICAO code

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Stations and POIs currently included in this scenery

• Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station (Brazil)
• German Antarctic Receiving Station (GARS)
• Marble Point Station (ATMP*)
• McMurdo Station (US): enhancements to the default MSFS scenery
• White Desert camp at Wolf's Fang (AT98)
• ALE camp at Union Glacier (SCGC)
• South Pole: POI markers for the Magnetic South Pole and the Geographic South Pole (experimental – see manual)
• POI marker at Maitri Station (India)
• POI marker at Novolazarevskaya Station (Russia)
• POI marker at Progress Station (Russia)
• ... see the Antarctic Exploration Directory in the manual for a complete list of POIs

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The Included Manual

An integral part of the project is the included manual, which provides:

• The Antarctic Airfield Directory - a continent-wide overview of Antarctic airports, skiways, runways, heliports and other landing sites, compiled from national Antarctic programme publications, academic sources and Wikipedia
• The Antarctic Exploration Directory — a curated directory of points of interest included both in Airports of Antarctica and in compatible external scenery add-ons, providing destinations for exploration beyond the airfields themselves
• The Antarctica Overview Map — a continent-wide map showing the locations of airfields, research stations, camps and other key destinations covered by the scenery and its companion directories
• Detailed information for each implemented airfield and point of interest — from practical airfield data for flying in the simulator to real-world background on the airfield and its associated station, maps, further reading, historical context, and interesting facts and stories
• Links to freeware and payware scenery needed for complete coverage of Antarctica
• Further information on the project goals, design guidelines and the level of detail users can expect from the different scenery locations

All information in the manual was gathered with great attention to detail, drawing on national Antarctic programme publications, aviation databases, academic sources, satellite images, Wikipedia and other published references. Airfields are positioned and modelled as accurately as the available source material allows — so even the simplest skiway is located where its real-world counterpart should be.

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Breadth Before Depth

This package is built to make the whole continent accessible, not to model any single station in depth. The airfields are intentionally simple and the surrounding terrain is largely left as generated by the simulator. That keeps performance sensible across a scenery the size of a continent — and where a dedicated add-on already covers a site in greater detail, the manual points you to it instead of duplicating that work.

A number of Antarctic airfields are deliberately left out, typically because they are permanently closed or abandoned. The manual lists every excluded site along with the reason.

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External Add-ons for Full Antarctic Coverage

The add-ons listed below can be used alongside Airports of Antarctica to extend the Antarctic aviation network and add further destinations to the Antarctic Exploration Directory:

1. Dr.Goose - Halley VI research Station:  Airfields: EGAH | POIs: 1
2. Dr.Goose - Concordia Station & Skiway: Airfields: AT03 | POIs: 3
3. Dr.Goose - Neumayer Station III: Airfields: AT16, ATAB | POIs: 10
4. Dr.Goose - Zucchelli Station & Skiways: Airfields: ATMZ, AQBC, AT09, AT13, AT14 | POIs: 2
5. Dr.Goose - Gondwana Station Helipad: Airfields: ATGD | POIs: —
6. Aerosoft - Antarctica Vol. 1 (payware): Airfields: EGAR, EGAT, AT10 | POIs: 22
7. Aerosoft - Antarctica Vol. 2 (payware): Airfields: YCSK, YWKS | POIs: 3
8. GrafDresche - Marambio Base: Airfields: SAWB | POIs: —
9. GrafDresche - Teniente Rodolfo Marsh Martin Airport: Airfields: SCRM | POIs: —

(These references are provided for informational purposes only. They are not endorsements. Use at your own discretion and risk.)