Who says Arctic without either of the c sounds? I’ve never met anyone who did that, but if they did they would probably correct it quickly as to not sound like an idiot.
It's less common owing to the BBC making a decision to go over to the American meaning of "billion". However, many Brits still use Billion in it's original sense of a million squared. So jetpunk should accept billion as a correct answer to the question just as they should accept the British spelling of distil - or open themselves to the charge of being US-centric again.
And the spelling of Aluminium with a second "i" is internationally agreed convention