In April 2020 the world was mired in what for many seemed like a apocalypse: millions of people throughout the planet spent the days the days locked in their homesin what was an attempt -fichly say whether successful or not- for reducing the infections of Covid-19, the virus that a couple of months before began to unleash a Global Pandemia.
One of the most obvious effects of the crisis unleashed by the pandemic was Fall of tourismwhich was drastically reduced throughout the world and, by the hand of it, also trips: exactly 5 years ago, on April 12, 2020, it was recorded The day with the least amount of flights in the world From the beginning of the pandemic and at least the previous five years, according to the Flightradar24 flight monitoring service24.
That April 12, Flightradar24 registered in total 46,294 flights In the world, of which 23,926 were commercial. “Our data does not extend enough to the past to provide the date on which this level of activity was matched, but it is well below the amount we have tracked at any time of the last five years”(Since 2015), he then told Clarín Ian Petchenik, from Flightradar24.
To have a dimension of how Covid World Pandemia affected the air industry, the comparisons are worth, and very close in time: comparing that April 12 with the previous February 21 -we think about 45 days before -which was the day of the most flights of that year (196,756), The fall was more than 76%and in relation toOLO A MONTH BEFOREon March 12, 2020, the activity 74.2% collapsed worldwide.
And even more compared to the June 29, 2018the day then recorded the greatest amount of flights in history: 202,157, a record that was just overcome the May 26, 2023When Flightradar counted a total of 254,666 flights, 134,017 of which were commercial.
In fact, That April 12 marked a turning pointsince from that day the fall stabilized and then the activity began to recover: on May 12 89,858 flights were recorded, which implied a growth of 48% in a month, but even 50% less than March 12, two months before. For June 12, the total number of flights reached 135,545, which involved 65% more than at the minimum point.
The impact of the pandemic made 2020 The year with fewer flights since 2006: In that year there was a total of 23.8 million worldwide, while 2020 closed with 18.3 millionfar from the initial projection, prior to the pandemic, which was provided for more than 40 million flights for that year.
As a result of that situation, the airlines recorded losses that were counted in several billions of dollars both in 2020 and 2021 and even in 2022.
The situation improved just from 2023when the amount of transported passengers touched the 4,500 million, reaching values prior to the pandemic. And it was Even better in 2024when the day with more flights to date: it was the July 19 of that year, when the amount of daily flights reached 275.690a figure that is still a record to this day.
Thus, between one end and another, or between April 12, 2020 and July 19, 2024, The growth in the amount of flights was almost 500%.
In 2025, the first bimester showed better figures than 2024, although it later matched. So far this year, The most flight day was on April 10con 256.725.
We will see how many flights circulate in the world this April 12, to compare the recovery with respect to the same date of 2020, the day that remained in history as the one that collapsed the air industry.