The French Government once considered building an airport on the Kerguluen Island, an island of French Southern and Antarctic Lands, which is located at Southern Indian Ocean (43S 67E), but the project is abandoned because of lack of fresh water supply.

(http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/fs.html)

This makes no alternate airport present in Southern Indian Ocean, thus making ETOPS flights between South Africa and Australia impossible. This also makes all Southern Hemisphere airlines other than Varig, not to order nor operate B777 and switch to A340 instead. South African Airways even switched to full Airbus fleet, with A340 being the only long haul fleet in its 2002 fleet modernization plan.

Boeing was shocked of the situation, so they made a proposal of building an airport at Kerguluen Island, to provide ETOPS alternative on South Africa - Australia route, and hence improve the sales of B777 and future 7E7 (767-sized ultra long haul twin) in Southern Hemisphere. Boeing also made a proposal for the US Government, so to make the US Government buy the French Southern and Antarctic Lands for US$10 billion, to make the airport plan easier to be conducted.

The proposal of US Government buying the French Southern and Antarctic Lands was being discussed in the parliament in Apr 2004, and is strongly supported by Boeing. The proposal, however, is rejected, with over 80% of votes in the parliament opposing the proposal. Most representatives said such proposal is just total waste of money, and the traffic between South Africa and Australia does not justify a diversion airport.

Boeing was again very shocked, so they themselves decided to buy the French Southern and Antarctic Lands for US$20 billion, twice the amount in the former proposal.

Boeing finally bought the French Southern and Antarctic Lands successfully in Dec 2004, and the airport construction project started then.

The project, however, is extremely costly, because the Kerguluen Island is at least 5000km from other lands other then islands of French Southern and Antarctic Lands. The airport project costed Boeing US$100 billion, including the construction of hotel, hospital, homes for airport staffs, power station, water desalination plant, and site levelling.

The airport finally entered service in Dec 2010, 6 years after the start of the construction work. More than 1000 staffs were employed by the airport and the related facilities.

The landing fee of the airport, however, is ultra expensive, which was US$1 million for B777-200ER and US$1.2 million for B777-300ER based on Jan 2003 prices, at least 50 times as expensive as any other airports, so to cover the ultra high operation costs of the airport.

The airlines in Southern Hemisphere were extremely shocked of the hefty fare of the Kerguluen Airport. Qantas, which was going to have its 1st B777-300ER delivered in Feb 2011, canelled the delivery immediately and switched to A340-600, so to serve its South Africa - Australia route. There is not any deliveries nor committed orders of B777 from airlines in Southern Hemisphere other than Varig since the launch of B777 in 1995.

The Kerguluen Airport recorded an accumulated loss of US$20 billion from Dec 2010 to Dec 2013 excluding the initial costs, and the airport made Boeing almost bankrupt.

Boeing was sold to new investors from Brazil and Japan for only US$1 billion in Jan 2014. The new investors halted the operation of the Kerguluen Airport immediately after the shareholder change of the company, so to stop Boeing from losing money. They also decided to develop a new family of 4-engined aircraft, with the same cross-section, covering from 250-500 seat market, so to replace the long haul versions of B777 and 7E7, and to attract the airlines in Southern Hemisphere.