The aircraft tracking website Flightradar24 has provided some dramatic screenshots of the extraordinary drop in air travel over the past month and past year.
On 28 March, it tracked 69,510 flights — nearly 20,000 fewer flights than the day before and less than half of what would be typical for late March of 180,000 flights.
READ: US airline to put passengers on each other’s flights to save fuel.
The screenshot at the top is the North Atlantic on March 28, 2020 at peak hour and the one directly below is how it was at the same time on March 2.
These two shots show friday evening in Europe – February 28 vs March 27.
The next two shots show the impact to the main low cost airlines in Europe, easyJet, Ryanair, Norwegian, and Wizz.
This screenshot immediately below was taken on March 27, 2020 and the one below it February 27, 2020.
However the essential airfreight fleet is hardly impacted by the coronavirus. The next image below shows 151 747s airborne and all but 18 are pure freighters.
On a lighter note some general aviation pilots are writing messages with their flight tracks.
This image is from Hungary with a pilot of a Magnus Fusion 212 giving the thumbs up to medical staff.
This message to “stay at home” was drawn by an Austrian pilot.
