FlightRadar24 Tracked a Record 230,000 Flights Thursday
In the middle of the busy summer travel season, the real-time aircraft tracking service FlightRadar24 observed a record number of flights Thursday, with 230,000 trips tracked by the service. This is the most traffic FlightRadar24 has ever recorded in one day since its launch in 2006.
Along with an announcement of the record-breaking day, the company tweeted out a sped-up video of the trips it followed that day.
Most traffic is over North America, Europe, most of China and East and Southeast Asia, where constant air traffic at nearly all hours is so dense that it hides the map from view. Meanwhile, massive holes in airplane traffic are visible over conflict regions where most refuse to fly; Libya, Yemen and Syria are air-traffic deserts. Many routes over oceans — which we've described as "highways in the sky" — are easily visible as well.
FlightRadar24 does not claim Thursday was the busiest day in aviation, as its data is limited to information received from planes equipped with ADS-B transponders and tracked by antennas affiliated with the Flightradar24 network. Still, 230,000 flights is an impressive number. The spike could have been caused by busy summer travel in the lead-up to a weekend.
It may not be stopping, either. In the same tweet, FlightRadar24 suggested that Friday could be even busier.
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