More than 230,000 flights took to the world's skies on Thursday, more than ever recorded in a single day, according to flight-tracking service Flightradar24.
Flightradar24, a real-time air traffic-tracking service, said that on Wednesday it tracked 225,000 flights, the most it had at that point ever followed in a single day since it began monitoring air traffic in 2006, according to a tweet on its official account.
It then tracked 230,000 flights on Thursday, beating the previous day's record and predicted that Friday would be "even busier".
The animated image captured in the service's tweet on Thursday shows the incredibly crowded airspace over Europe and North America.
Following Wednesday’s 225,000 flight day, yesterday we tracked 230,000 flights. Possible today will be even busier.
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) July 26, 2019
You can follow flights live at https://t.co/1hk0cAeBPB or download of our free app for iOS and Android at https://t.co/f99qumJeIk to follow wherever you are. pic.twitter.com/cCSfHbBIOB
The figures represent freighters and passenger flights including helicopters and private jets. The tracking coverage excludes excludes some sensitive air traffic, such as military flights.
The record-breaking travel day came during the peak summer travel season, with June to August being some of the busiest periods for air travel when airlines can maximise their profits.
It's likely that the record will be broken at least a few more times this year, Business Insider reported, citing Ian Petchenik, a Flightradar24 spokesman.
The number of people travelling by plane each year is expected to more than double to 7.3 billion by 2034, according to the International Air Transport Association.
