World’s busiest air traffic day coincides with hottest day ever

Air traffic

The number of global commercial flights set an all-time high on July 6, coinciding with the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth.

Last week saw an all-time record for daily flights, according to data released by FlightRadar24, which tracks global air traffic in real time.

The Swedish internet-based service that shows aircraft tracking information on a map took to social media on Friday (July 7) to announce what it called the “busiest day for commercial aviation that we’ve ever tracked.”

That record-setting day, the company says, was on Thursday, July 6, during which it tracked 134,386 commercial flights.

The day after (Friday) was also “shaping up to be another busy day,” the company said. “More than 20,000 flights are in the air right now.”

Coincidentally, the hottest temperature planet Earth has ever experienced was also recorded on July 6.

Data shared by the University of Maine in the United States showed that the global average temperature for July 6 was 17.23°C (63F), surpassing the previous high reading of 17.18°C (62.9F) on July 4 and 5.

The previously recorded highest average temperature was measured as 16.9 C (62.4 F) in 2016, NASA reported.