Has anyone looked at the air traffic worldwide today?

[GoneOffShore]

https://planefinder.net/

Look at the difference between the number of flights over the US and over Europe.

Note that a lot of planes in the air over Europe are either FEDEX, UPS, DHL, and private with a few major carriers. Then look at flights over the US.

I think the US is fucked.

[DonaldsRump]

1. wow....was expecting US skies to be empty n/t

[GoneOffShore]

3. As the expression goes - You sweet summer child.

[HarlanPepper]

24. They are, compared to normal times.

I watch these maps constantly. Usually it's just one continuous mass of airplane avatars with no daylight in between any of them.

[Bev54]

29. Can the time change between Europe and the US have something to do with it?

[HarlanPepper]

31. Yeah that has something to do with it

But their travel is way way down as well. Also important to note what the passenger loads are of the aircraft that are flying. If anecdotal accounts are to be believed it on the extremely light side.

[subterranean]

32. The skies aren't empty, but many of the planes are.

Many passenger flights are operating with load factors (the percentage of seats filled) in the single digits.

This is due to both to social distancing requirements and the drastic drop in demand. In some cases, planes have flown with only a single passenger on board!

[marble falls]

2. We won't be fucked this easily. The depression, WWII, the Nixon administration, the Reagan years.

[GoneOffShore]

4. Well, the cockwomble is getting ready to sack 7 more Obama IG's

So there's that.

[marble falls]

5. And Reagan decertified their union and fired almost all air traffic controlers forcing them to ...

reapply for their jobs.

Nixon re-expanded the war after running as a "peace"candidate.

[Arthur_Frain]

8. Fewer than 5% who walked/were fired ever got their jobs back.

And then not for many years, most moved on to other careers. I’d say 95% of the replacements were hired off the streets with no air traffic history, no college. Changed the face of the controller work force completely.

[Roland99]

6. But how many passengers are actually onboard?

I’ve read accounts of single passengers being on multi-hour flights

And some airlines are flying just to keep their slots

But still, WN and AA have hundreds of infected workers now

[Turn CO Blue]

7. Many of those are likely repositioning flights to park the AC

And if it is a domestic passenger flight instead of a repositioning or ferry flight, then there are probably only 2 or 3 passengers on there spaced 20 rows apart.

Most airlines have parked most of the aircraft, have dropped capacity by 80 to 90% and are reporting in the neighborhood of 2% to 6% load factors (on the new reduced capacity). That means about 1-2 passengers per flight, which then are usually cancelled, then the plane repositioned.

Also, routine and heavy maintenance is still ongoing, so AC are repositioned to maintenance facilities. At my airline, the engineering departments are taking this opportunity to get touch time on the aircraft for periodics and heavy checks, etc. Mechanics will be far apart, of course.

Just my take (went back to airline industry two year ago). All airlines are going to have different numbers.


Updated for clarification

[GoneOffShore]

11. Let us hope that this is the case.

[Arthur_Frain]

9. Lhufthansa announced they were permanently retiring some aircraft.

Nothing is writ in stone yet, but there will definitely be an uphill to climb economically. Globally, of course.

But damn we’re resilient.

[DFW]

14. I noticed one plane that was flying was from here (DUS) to Munich (MUC)

I guess some people just HAVE to make the trip from Düsseldorf to München, and they figure they have less chance of being contaminated on a 5 hour train trip than on a 55 minute plane ride?

[GemDigger]

10. That is not a way to contain a highly contagious virus.

We have nothing but idiots and cowards on the republican side.

[DFW]

12. There is another site with even more info

flightradar24.c0m

You can actually see the progress of planes as they move, what kind of plane, etc etc

You really get to wondering when you click on a plane, and it says "all information is blocked." The McConnell Cash Express Cargo Company?

[genxlib]

19. I got all that info from the linked site

In fact, I lost a good half hour of my life mesmerized by it.

If you zoom in, you can click on the planes and it tells you lots of info. And you can see them moving. After clicking, it even shows the entire route.

[GoneOffShore]

25. Damn! That's a great tracker! I could waste a whole day on it.

[DFW]

33. I only heard of it this morning

The guy from my office in Geneva--a man who ironically enough had bad claustrophobia and cannot fly at all--told me about it. His son told him about it, and I looked it up. Quite an amazing site!

[manhattan123]

13. NY Mag has a story about this very issue, sort of explains why...

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/heres-why-so-many-planes-are-still-flying-nearly-empty.html

[GoneOffShore]

17. Thank you for the link.

[mnhtnbb]

15. Many of the US flights may be carrying more cargo

than passengers.

In March, while waiting in Miami for my connecting flight home from Bonaire, I watched huge amounts of cargo being loaded on an American Airlines flight. I didn't check where the flight was going, but I was impressed with the huge amount of cargo being loaded.

[lostnfound]

16. Cargo and medical personnel

Few people are flying

[tblue37]

18. Wow! K&R for visibility. nt

[uponit7771]

20. How do we know those aren't cargo planes?

[GoneOffShore]

21. The reason I posted the first link had to do with someone that I know sending me

a video of flight movements.

I sent the Intelligencer link article about what some of these flights are about.

[kentuck]

22. I got an offer thru email for a 1-cent ticket.

Plue taxes and fees.

From Frontier.

[GoneOffShore]

23. And I got a refund from EasyJet. They never give refunds.

I'm not going to be flying anywhere for a long time.

[yonder]

26. Anecdotally, I've noticed less traffic overhead. We live under a corridor.

Since I was a kid, I've always looked up at airplanes, contrails, etc. and it seems to me there are fewer flights the last couple of weeks than before.

[GoneOffShore]

27. I live 30km from Marseille Provence Airport

We're not even seeing one flight a day.

Helicopters because we're 500m from the hospital.

[LiberalArkie]

28. Just trying to spread the joy to everyone.

[sl8]

30. "To Stay Aloft With Federal Aid, Airlines Must Keep Flying"

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/02/825550048/to-stay-aloft-with-federal-aid-airlines-must-keep-flying
To Stay Aloft With Federal Aid, Airlines Must Keep Flying


That's from nearly a week ago, don't know if it's changed since then.

[GoneOffShore]

34. All good info.