New Zealand officials have warned that access to Antarctica is becoming more precarious as warming temperatures damaged the ice runways, making it impossible to land New Zealand Air Force planes.
Wheeled aircraft were unable to land at the Pegasus Runway for two months this summer, and New Zealand had to depend on ski-equipped US planes to get scientists and other workers to and from Scott Base.
New Zealand Antarctic Institute chief executive Lou Sanson told a select committee at Parliament that temperatures had been 1.5C above average at Ross Island, the warmest on record.
"It's quite a change. It may just be a blip or it may be something more of a trend, we just don't know at this stage. But we are thinking we might have to revert back to how we operated in the 1980s, with no jets in the period December to January."
A dust storm had also eaten away at the runway, worsening conditions for landings.