Lockdown in Italy, 4 April 2020

Originally posted on my Facebook page on 4 April

Borders might be closed and most of the world's planes grounded, but there are still flights in our skies. On 17 January this year we took a screen shot of the flightradar24 site that shows live movements of aircraft over Europe. We took another one tonight.

17 January 2020

4 April 2020

I was initially surprised at how many planes are still flying, but it can be explained:

Countries are still trying to repatriate people back to their homes either via commercial airlines or chartered flights.

Some routes are being serviced to ensure essential personnel can continue moving. While passenger flights have been slashed by 95%, that still means one in 20 is taking off.

Cargo handling has doubled in places like Heathrow, as they bring in vital supplies. Much cargo was previously carried in the hold of passenger planes, but as those flights have been cancelled, dedicated cargo flights have grown. As an example, Heathrow used to see 47 cargo-only planes in a week, but on 31 March it had 48 cargo-only flights in one day.