Video: every flight in world over a 24-hour period, in one minute

Here's a little light-hearted Friday afternoon fun: an amazing video showing all commercial flights around the world in a 24 hour period, compressed into little more than one minute!

We're told the video simulation was cooked up by some 'aspiring scientists' at the Zurich School of Applied Sciences using data drawn from FlightStats.

The flights appear like bee swarms as they head towards major destinations.

You can see air traffic peak, taper off and pick up again as day changes to night – watch for those flights racing the sun to hit an early morning arrival into Australia, the west coat of the USA and Europe.

You'll also spot some flights seemingly travelling at warp-speed near the top of the map, most noticeably heading in from the right-hand side close to the 1.05 mark.

While those aircraft appear to make the Concorde look like a Sopwith Camel, their speed is exaggerated because they're crossing the Arctic Circle – a 3D area that's distorted on this 2D map.

So click, watch and marvel at just how many aircraft and fellow travellers are in the skies at any moment!

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David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.