While watching a meteor shower last summer, probably two jets a minute overhead, I was surprised how big they still looked or the fact that we could hear them at all, considering they may well be five to seven miles above us, and then many miles away before disappearing.
How many passengers and how much freight a day? And then, how much coming the other way? And how many military?
Within the U.S. every day, there are 2.9 million passengers and 45,000 flights – not all of them commercial.
Think, too, of the number of diseases that could be carried from one continent to another or some other social upheaval.
It averages out to 46,500 passengers U.S. to Europe a day, or nearly 2,000 an hour. The United Kingdom and Germany are the leading destinations.
Surprisingly, U.S. to Central America flights predominate over the European traffic.
Altogether, 44 airports in the U.S. and Canada have nonstop flights to 41 European airports.
Each day has between 355 and 435 flights in one direction, up to 117,000 seats for sale – roughly 5,000 an hour.
So they’re rarely flying to compacity.
Jnana's Red Barn 