Every flight, in one place
Twelve helicopter flights leave the same small village on the West Coast of New Zealand and go to the same block of ice. They run from twenty minutes to ninety, from $213 to $827, and the only thing that really separates them is how long you are in the air and how many times the machine puts its skids down. This page lays all twelve out side by side so you can stop reading operator copy and pick one.
Quick answer
The short answer. Book the twenty-five minute flight with an alpine landing at $219. It is the shortest flight that shuts the machine down on the ice rather than beside it, it is six dollars more than the cheapest option on the page, and it has more reviews than every other Franz Josef helicopter tour combined. Book it for the first morning of your stay, not the last.
Why there are twelve of them
Length is the variable. Everything else is branding.
Franz Josef is a village of a few hundred people with a helicopter pad at each end of it. Four operators fly out of it, and because they all fly over the same ice, they compete on length rather than on route. That is why the list of Franz Josef helicopter tours looks confusing at first: it is not twelve different experiences, it is three or four lengths sold by four different companies with four different names for the same twenty minutes.
Once you see it that way the choice collapses into something manageable. There are, in practice, five decisions on the whole page:
Twenty minutes. Up the valley, over the icefall, down on snow at the top, back. The cheapest ticket in the village and the one most people buy.
Twenty-five to thirty minutes. The same flight with more time over the ice, and on some listings a landing on the glacier itself rather than on a snowfield beside it. This is where the best-reviewed flight sits.
Thirty-five to forty-five minutes. Adds Fox Glacier, twenty-five kilometres down the coast, or the Tasman on the other side of the Main Divide. Two glaciers, two valleys.
One hour. Four glaciers and two landings, crossing to Aoraki Mount Cook. This is the flight photographers book.
Ninety minutes. One operator, one product, and a price to match. It exists for people who have already done a shorter flight and want the whole range.
Book direct
In price order, cheapest first. Every one of them includes at least one landing.
★ 4.9 · 56 reviews
★ 4.9 · 7 reviews
★ 4.8 · 693 reviews
★ 4.8 · 84 reviews
★ 4.9 · 152 reviews
★ 4.7 · 402 reviews
★ 4.9 · 527 reviews
★ 4.4 · 21 reviews
★ 4.8 · 164 reviews
★ 5.0 · 2 reviews
★ 4.8 · 30 reviews
★ 5.0 · 1 reviews
Every trip, current fare
The same twelve flights, priced per person and per minute in the air. The cost per hour is remarkably flat across the whole range, which is the single most useful thing to know before you book: paying more does not buy a worse deal, it buys more country.
| Flight | Time in the air | Price | Landings | Cost per hour | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20-Minute Snow LandingThe cheapest way onto the ice | 20 min | $213 | One, on snow | $639.00 | 4.9 · 56 |
| 25-Minute Snow LandingTwenty-five minutes, quieter operator | 25 min | $213 | One, on snow | $511.20 | 4.9 · 7 |
| 25-Minute Alpine LandingThe most-reviewed flight in the village | 25 min | $219 | One, on the ice | $525.60 | 4.8 · 693 |
| 30 Minutes: Franz Josef & TasmanFranz Josef and Aoraki in half an hour | 30 min | $221 | One, on snow | $442.00 | 4.8 · 84 |
| 30 Minutes: Fox & Franz JosefFox and Franz Josef in thirty minutes | 30 min | $254 | One, on snow | $508.00 | 4.9 · 152 |
| 35 Minutes with Snow LandingTwo glaciers and a snow landing | 35 min | $268 | One, on snow | $459.43 | 4.7 · 402 |
| 35 Minutes over Two GlaciersThe upgrade most people end up taking | 35 min | $274 | One, on the névé | $469.71 | 4.9 · 527 |
| 40-Minute Grand TourForty minutes and a wider circuit | 40 min | $340 | One, on snow | $510.00 | 4.4 · 21 |
| 45 Minutes, Three GlaciersThree glaciers and a high landing | 45 min | $384 | One, high on the névé | $512.00 | 4.8 · 164 |
| Shackleton 50-Minute FlightWhisky poured over glacier ice | 50 min | $440 | One, with a glass | $528.00 | 5.0 · 2 |
| One Hour, Four GlaciersFour glaciers, two landings, one hour | 1 h | $495 | Two | $495.00 | 4.8 · 30 |
| The Grand Adventure, 90 MinutesNinety minutes, the longest there is | 1.5 h | $827 | Two, longer | $551.33 | 5.0 · 1 |
The 2012 collapse
The walk is not a cheaper way of doing the same thing. It is a different thing.
For more than a century, guided parties walked onto Franz Josef Glacier from the valley floor. In 2012 the terminal face collapsed, shedding something like seventy metres of ice off the front of the glacier and opening a hole where the route had been. Foot access to the ice was closed and has never reopened.
The glacier has kept retreating since. The public valley walk from the car park now takes you up the riverbed to a roped viewpoint roughly a kilometre short of the present terminal face — close enough to see it, far too far to touch it. Every guided hour spent standing on the ice now begins with a flight.
This is worth stating plainly because a lot of visitors arrive with the older picture in their heads: helicopter as the expensive upgrade, walk as the budget version. There is no budget version any more. There is a flight, or there is a view from a distance.
Read this before you book
None of these are secrets. They are simply not what a booking page is designed to say.
Estimates from operators and long-stay visitors put the weather cancellation rate on the West Coast somewhere between fifty and sixty per cent across the year. That is not a mark against the operators — it is what it costs to fly into an alpine valley under one of the wettest skies in New Zealand. Book the first morning of your stay. Keep a spare day.
Seats on a five-seat machine are allocated by balance, not by who booked first. Most operators cap a rear seat at around 120 kg and a front seat lower still, and above that you are asked to buy a comfort seat at roughly half the flight price. Say the number when you book rather than at the scales.
A single booking is accepted and then paired with somebody else. Usually that happens without you noticing. Occasionally it means being moved to a later departure, which is one more reason not to book the flight for the hour before your bus leaves.
A twenty-minute flight spends four or five minutes climbing out of the valley and another four coming back down. Time genuinely spent over ice is shorter than the number on the ticket, which is why the jump from twenty to twenty-five minutes buys more than the extra five minutes suggests.
What you come home with is what you shot through the window and in the ten minutes on the snow. Clean the lens, sit on the side away from the sun, and do not shoot through the perspex with a polariser on.
Not sure how long a flight you want? The length is the only real variable here, and it decides everything else.
Twenty, thirty-five or sixty minutes→Choosing between them
If you want the cheapest way onto the ice: the twenty-minute snow landing at $213. It does the job. You will see the icefall, you will stand on snow, and you will be back in the village inside the hour.
If you want one flight and want it to be the right one: the twenty-five minute alpine landing at $219. Six dollars more, five minutes longer, 693 reviews, and the machine shuts down on the ice rather than beside it.
If you cannot decide between Franz Josef and Fox: the thirty-five minute two-glacier flight at $274. It settles the argument by flying both, with a landing in between, and it is the single most common upgrade people make once they are standing at the desk.
If you came here to photograph the Southern Alps: the one-hour flight with two landings at $495. Four glaciers, over the Main Divide, Aoraki Mount Cook and the Tasman. Nothing shorter shows you the range as a range rather than as a backdrop.
If money is not the constraint and time is not either: the ninety-minute Grand Adventure at $827. One operator runs it, it is the longest flight sold out of this village, and it is bought almost entirely by people who have already flown a short one and want the rest.
Month by month
Franz Josef flies year-round. What changes is not the temperature but the odds of a clear enough window, and those are better in late summer and early autumn than the rainfall figures alone would suggest.
Dec – Feb
Long days, the most departures on the board, and the most people wanting them. Book ahead. Afternoon cloud builds against the Divide, so take a morning slot.
Mar – Apr
The quiet sweet spot. Settled air, fewer visitors, snow still high on the névé, and the best ratio of clear mornings to booked seats in the year.
May – Aug
Fewer flights and shorter days, but the clear days are startling — fresh snow to the valley floor and air with nothing in it. When it is on, it is the best flying of the year.
Sep – Nov
Unsettled, changeable, and cheap. Good odds across a three-day stay, poor odds on any one given morning. This is the season to keep a spare day.
Common questions
Twelve are bookable online at the time of writing, run by four operators out of the village. They range from twenty minutes to ninety and from $213 to $827. Because they all fly over the same ice, the practical difference between them is length and the number of landings.
The twenty-five minute flight with an alpine landing, for most people. It is the shortest option that shuts down on the ice itself, it costs six dollars more than the cheapest flight, and it carries 693 reviews at 4.8 — more than any other flight in the village.
Every flight on this page lands, but not all of them land on the glacier itself. Some set down on a snowfield beside it or higher on the névé. If standing on the ice is the point, check the listing for the words “alpine landing” or “glacier landing” rather than simply “snow landing”.
Twenty minutes if the budget is the constraint. Twenty-five if you want the landing on the ice. Thirty-five if you want Fox as well. An hour if you want to cross the Main Divide to Aoraki. The price per minute barely changes across the range.
Not on your own and not on foot from the valley. The terminal face collapsed in 2012 and foot access was closed. The valley walk ends at a viewpoint about a kilometre short of the ice. Guided time on the glacier now starts with a flight in every case.
You are refunded in full, or moved to another slot if one exists. Operators do not fly into the valley without a clear enough window, and on this coast that window is missing more often than it is there. Book early in your stay so there is somewhere to move you to.
Yes, and it is enforced at the scales. Rear seats are typically capped around 120 kg and front seats lower, with a comfort seat at roughly half price above that. Tell the operator your weight when you book rather than at check-in.
Go deeper
Twelve flights priced per person and per minute, and where the money actually goes.
VerdictTwelve flights ranked for one decision, with a straight answer at the end.
LandingsWhich flights actually put the machine down, and what the difference is.
LengthThe only real variable, and how much country each length buys you.
Which oneTwo glaciers, twenty-five minutes apart, and the flights that show you both.
WeatherHow often flights are stood down here, and how to build a trip around it.
