The trips all start with a five-hour private flight from Cape Town to an ice runway perched atop a 50m-tall frozen waterfall located within the Dronning Maud Land region in eastern Antarctica.

BBC: Camp with penguins in Antarctica

In southern England, Gatwick and Luton airports were shut for hours on Friday, the busy Heathrow hub has had cancellations and there were cancellations at Manchester, northwest England, on Sunday because of snow and ice on the runway.

FORBES: Snow Sparks Travel Chaos In Europe

More than 320 flights were cancelled at London Heathrow while snow and ice was cleared from the runway.

BBC: Snow across England hits travel and closes schools

Aberdeen Airport was operating after snow and ice were cleared from the runway early in the morning, and again just after 1030 GMT.

BBC: Snow misery continues in north east of Scotland

More than 400 flights were cancelled by Heathrow Airport after bosses were forced to close a runway to de-ice it.

BBC: Heathrow cancels flights and transport is delayed by snow

But it took a Valentine's Day ice storm and the scenes of planes stuck on the runway for more than 10 hours to give the issue traction.

NPR: JetBlue Offers Passengers Rights, Compensation