Norse Atlantic Airways made a difference and landed a Boeing 787 Dreamliner on a different runway… an icy Antarctic runway.

This particular Boeing landed in very different conditions than usual last Wednesday. The runway was nothing more than a 1,000-foot-long, 200-foot-wide “blue ice runway” carved out of snow and ice, according to CNN.

The Dreamliner touched down at Troll Airfield on Wednesday shortly after 2am – in bright sunlight as it is currently summer in the southern hemisphere. It is the first time a Dreamliner – a wide-body aircraft that can carry up to 330 passengers, depending on the model – has reached the sixth continent.

The plane left Oslo on November 13, stopping in Cape Town before heading further south on Wednesday night to make its record-breaking landing.

The Dreamliner’s large capacity made it the ideal aircraft for the flight, said Aircontact’s Daniel Carey. Fuel efficiency was also an important factor, said Paul Erlandsson, a Boeing spokesman after a plane reached Antarctica and returned to Cape Town without needing refueling.

“It is a great honor and excitement on behalf of the entire Norse team to achieve such an important moment together, the landing of the first 787 Dreamliner,” Norse Atlantic Airways CEO Bjørn Tore Larsen said in a statement.

“In the spirit of exploration, we are proud to have a hand in this important and unique mission. It is a true testament to our highly trained and skilled pilots and crew, and our state-of-the-art Boeing aircraft.”

Camilla Brekke, the director of the Norwegian Polar Institute, said using the larger aircraft was one of the most sustainable ways to do so on the notoriously fragile continent.

“The most critical aspect is the environmental gain we can achieve by using large and modern aircraft… [το οποίο] can help reduce overall emissions and the environmental footprint in Antarctica,” he said.

“Landing such a large aircraft opens up completely new possibilities, which will also help strengthen Norwegian research in Antarctica.”

However, flight N0787 was not a regular passenger route. The aircraft was carrying 45 scientists from the Norwegian Polar Institute, which had commissioned the flight to transport them as well as 12 tons of equipment to the Troll Research Station in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica.