Eurocontrol Data Snapshot: How many aircraft are in the air at a given moment?

This data snapshot analyses the total number of aircraft in the air for any 15 minutes interval in 2024. In other words, what was the maximum number of airborne IFR aircraft in the EUROCONTROL area at a given point in time? Let’s have a closer look.

The highest number of aircraft airborne within a 15-minute interval in EUROCONTROL airspace in 2024 was recorded between 11:30 and 11:45 (UTC) on 6 September with 4,577 airborne flights –more than half a million people in the sky! It also marks the peak for the entire 2019-2024 period. Interestingly, the peak traffic day in 2024 was different – on 14 June 2024 there were 35,710 flights, around 440 flights more than on 6 September.

In 2024 the lowest number of airborne flights in the EUROCONTROL network was 412 (01:00-01:15, 1 January). If we set aside Christmas and New Year's days when many airlines do not fly, the fewest airborne flights were 430 (00:45 -01:00, 21 February). This was still up on 2019 (371 flights on 2 January, 00:45– 01:00), despite overall traffic in 2024 being below 2019.

However, the day in 2024 with the minimum number of flights (EUROCONTROL area) was different: 17 January with 19,928 flights. Unsurprisingly, the absolute minimum number of airborne flights during the 2019-2024 period happened during the early days of the COVID pandemic when, on several occasions between the 11 and 14 April 2020, there were as few as 72 flights in the air.

A large share of flights in the EUROCONTROL area are short/medium haul, passenger flights – which, in addition to European restrictions on night-time flights, result in the daily peak being typically 3-4 times higher than the daily low. This is not the case for global hubs such as Dubai and Singapore, where these differences are around 60-70%.

Worldwide, the maximum number of airborne flights within a 15-minute interval in 2024 was 14,913 flights on 11 July between 14:15 and 14:30, approximately three times more than in the EUROCONTROL area. The lowest number of aircraft in 2024 (worldwide) was on 3 November with 7,557 airborne flights between 04:45 and 05:00.

View the Data Snapshot