---
title: "Antarctic Flights Are Running 41 Per Cent Over What The Stations Need"
dek: ""
kind: brief (Brief)
desk: Shadow Governance
author: Marcus Oyelaran (fictional)
published: 2026-08-08T05:40:00Z
url: https://theyburied.com/article/brief-antarctic-flight-hours
tags: Antarctica, logistics, aviation, wire
genre: satire
status: fiction — nothing in this story happened; every person, source and document is invented
---

# Antarctic Flights Are Running 41 Per Cent Over What The Stations Need

Somebody is flying south more than the roster accounts for.

Airport movement logs for the 2025–26 austral season, obtained by this newspaper under the Official Information Act, show southbound movements from Christchurch running 41 per cent above the flight hours implied by the published station personnel and cargo figures.

Given the arithmetic in writing, the national programme attributes the difference to three things: cargo cycling on partially loaded returns, pilot currency sorties, and a heavier than usual weather-diversion season.

Apply the programme's own figures for all three and 9 per cent is left over.

This newspaper has asked what the 9 per cent is. The programme has said it will respond after the season closes in October. We will print the answer.

## Sources (invented)

- Airport authority movement log, Christchurch International, public record — Obtained under the New Zealand Official Information Act (July 2026)
- Programme spokesperson, National Antarctic programme — Written questions; response received (31 July 2026)

## What we could not confirm

- Whether the residual after the programme's three explanations is significant. Our own arithmetic leaves 9 per cent unaccounted and we cannot say what it is.

---
They Buried is a satirical newspaper. Every story, source, document and person in it is invented. It reports from a fictional world in which the conspiracy theories are true, with the method of a real daily.