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Over 150k Flights: Airlines Just Flew the Busiest Day in Recorded History

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Re: Over 150k Flights: Airlines Just Flew the Busiest Day in Recorded History

#91

Post by bluefirebrand »

rob74 wrote: post #19
addaon wrote: post #2

This feels like one of those cases where it’s safe to say “history” instead of “recorded history.”

History, as recorded by Flightradar24: "a whopping grand total of 153,359 commercial flights were tracked between 00:00 UTC and 23:59 UTC on July 23, 2026" So I would say it's justified to qualify it. Not sure how Flightradar24's coverage has evolved over time, but it could theoretically be that there were more flights at some point before 2020, but some of them weren't tracked?

I think the parents point was that before recorded history we can be pretty sure there weren't airplanes for anyone to take flights on

Re: Over 150k Flights: Airlines Just Flew the Busiest Day in Recorded History

#92

Post by doubled112 »

nradov wrote: post #77
trallnag wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the suggestion is to not travel at all. How much of all air travel is for fun and leisure?

Right, people should just sit at home and be miserable. Fun is sinful.

I see you’ve met my mother!

Re: Over 150k Flights: Airlines Just Flew the Busiest Day in Recorded History

#93

Post by ImJamal »

elzbardico wrote: post #90
ImJamal wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if some high speed rail existed in the US, do you think it is practical to go from California to Maine? If you are going 2,500 miles on a train that is going 150 miles an hour it would take you 16 hours assuming there are no stops. Obviously there are going to be stops so your trip is going to be an entire day. I think a lot of people do not understand just how massive the US is.

California to Maine is a lot of distance. But would people fly from NYC to Boston if they had a bullet train?

The person I was responding to was saying that Europe and Asia have alternatives so it is wrong to say that flying has no viable alternatives. I was pointing out that some routes in the US are just not viable.

Sure some routes could have viable alternatives, but others just do not.

Re: Over 150k Flights: Airlines Just Flew the Busiest Day in Recorded History

#94

Post by dredmorbius »

rickydroll wrote: post #54
bluGill wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For short trips. Most plane trips are at a distance where there isn't a viable alternative. Sure there are some nice trains that can handle the more common trips, but airplanes really shine for much longer trips.

And planes go to more places than trains do. You want to add a new destination? Go through a few years of planning and construction for a couple thousand feet of tarmac, and people can go there using existing planes. Best of all, you don't need a large passenger base to justify the expense. For rail? You're looking at an order of magnitude more for planning and construction, all new infrastructure, all new rail stock…

OTOH, there's a lot of stuff that is far more feasibly moved on the Earth's surface rather than in flight. So some sort of surface-level infrastructure will be required: highways, railroads, canals, rivers, oceans.

Some of those are amenable to high-speed variants, some less so. And once you've established transport corridors, much of the hard part (rights-of-way acquisition) is accomplished, so that adding a high-speed route becomes far more tractable.

For the most part, actual construction costs are fairly modest, modulo bridges and tunnels, both of which can of course be quite expensive.

Re: Over 150k Flights: Airlines Just Flew the Busiest Day in Recorded History

#95

Post by dredmorbius »

londons_explore wrote: post #70
dudefeliciano wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about short distances? Why is it cheaper to fly Berlin-Stuttgart than to take a train? it makes absoutely no sense.

Trains are expensive because the track is 99.9% empty. If you could fill a train track as much as a road is filled, it would be very cheap

Track utilisation is limited by a number of factors, including headways, much of which is governed by stopping distance.

I believe a general minimum practical headway allows about 10--12 trainsets per hour on a given track. At 400 passengers/trainset, that's roughly 4,000 to 4,800 passengers/hour, per track.

That compares with about 1,500 vehicles/hour per highway lane, or about 2,550 passengers/hour at the U.S. average of 1.7 passengers/vehicle.

I've seen some suggestion that headways could be reduced to 3--4 minutes, or 15--20 trainsets/hour. I know that some urban rapid transit systems (e.g., BART in San Francisco) achieve this, but only on a small section of the system (Colma to Oakland, transiting downtown SF, IIRC). Train speeds there peak at 70 MPH, and I believe are much slower for most of this portion of track.

Re: Over 150k Flights: Airlines Just Flew the Busiest Day in Recorded History

#96

Post by dredmorbius »

fusslo wrote: post #33
buellerbueller wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess if you are really serious about saving the planet from airplanes, you could start a network of similar-feeling folks and begin randomly bombing enough flights to terrify the world into not flying. Give yourself an edgy name, like the Children of Kali, to make it stick. Honestly, if you think the stakes are that high then you implicate yourself with anything but fully committed action. Anything less, and you j…

I recently read Days of Rage about the various groups committing political violence during the 60s and 70s. Weatherman, Black Panthers, Black Liberation Army, etc. I don't know if there was really a 'message' more than just reporting what 'happened'. But, I have to say I came away with the idea that that kind of political violence is futile. Non-violent political action seemed to have MUCH more beneficial action than…

Different periods have seen different modes of action.

There was a tremendous amount of violence in the labour movement from the late 18th through mid-20th centuries, including numerous armed conflicts. This was perpetrated by both sides, though my sense is that capital was somewhat more prone to exacting violence on labour than vice versa.

The ANTIFA movement of the 1930s--1940s was a worldwide violent struggle, which ultimately proved effective. Nonviolent movements (say, the White Rose resistance in Germany) proved utterly ineffectual. It's useful to remember Gandhi's observation that ahimsa is predicated on an opponent with a conscience which can be shamed. That wasn't the case against Nazi Germany.

Civil rights, across multiple jurisdictions, has seen both violent and non-violent movements. The US civil rights movement of the 1960s is often seen as offering White America a choice between MLK's non-violent movement and the far more radical path pursued by the Nation of Islam, Black Panthers, and others.

The story is ... complex.

Re: Over 150k Flights: Airlines Just Flew the Busiest Day in Recorded History

#97

Post by FireBeyond »

epolanski wrote: post #81
rob74 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

History, as recorded by Flightradar24: "a whopping grand total of 153,359 commercial flights were tracked between 00:00 UTC and 23:59 UTC on July 23, 2026" So I would say it's justified to qualify it. Not sure how Flightradar24's coverage has evolved over time, but it could theoretically be that there were more flights at some point before 2020, but some of them weren't tracked?

Minor commercial flights at minor airports? The kind of 20 people flight between two cities in Indonesia not even Indonesians know much?

One would generally think that even those had ADS-B running.

Re: Over 150k Flights: Airlines Just Flew the Busiest Day in Recorded History

#98

Post by dudefeliciano »

reaperducer wrote: post #86
dudefeliciano wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically history only refers to the parts of the past for which we have written records.

Paleontologists would like to have a word…

Paleontology != History

Re: Over 150k Flights: Airlines Just Flew the Busiest Day in Recorded History

#99

Post by bestouff »

9cb14c1ec0 wrote: post #40
elil17 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that we are enabling people to travel long distances too cheaply.

Yes, let's make things more expensive, cause we experts know best. That poor guy that needs to attend a family funeral, he's a loser that should stay home. Inflation for the Win!

Does he really "need" it though ? For thousands of years people didn't travel shi fast to attend funerals (they only did it locally), where they less happy about it ?

Re: Over 150k Flights: Airlines Just Flew the Busiest Day in Recorded History

#100

Post by bestouff »

nradov wrote: post #77
trallnag wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the suggestion is to not travel at all. How much of all air travel is for fun and leisure?

Right, people should just sit at home and be miserable. Fun is sinful.

Can't you have fun in your life without taking a plane ? So weird.
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