Wednesday, July 24, was one of the busiest travel days ever recorded with over 225,000 flights operating. According to Flightradar24, a real-time air-traffic-tracking service, this was the first time it had ever tracked that many aircraft in the skies on a single day, including personal aircraft, cargo planes, commercial flights, helicopters, private jets, gliders, and sightseeing flights. Most military flights, however, are excluded since they can’t be tracked.
Photo: Flightradar24/Twitter
July 24 Was One of the Busiest Air Travel Days in History
The photo below is a staggering representation of every flight in the air on July 24.
Yesterday, we tracked over 225,000 flights in a single day for the first time. Follow more than 20,000 flights right now at https://t.co/A4mWRJu9Vi. pic.twitter.com/Pxh21WiAy3
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) 25 juillet 2019
The service has only been tracking flights since 2006, though it’s unlikely that this number would have been surpassed prior to that date given the increase in aircraft volume in recent years. But however impressive this record may sound, it probably won’t stand for very long. Ian Petchenik, who manages media and community relations for Flightradar24, told Business Insider that the record will likely be broken a few more times this year, or even possibly later this week, as the summer months are peak travel periods. 