It’s 8:30pm in California, and I just checked www.flightradar24.com for global airline traffic.

Check out how many planes are leaving the United States headed for Europe right now. It’s early morning in Europe, and all these flights will be arriving there in the next three to four hours.

See how empty of flights Africa is:

As compared to the United States:

All in all, there are 6818 planes in the air around the world right now.

This site is fascinating to check into at different times of the day. You can zoom in on any part of the world, and you can literally see the individual flights moving. You can click on a plane and see the airline, flight number, departure and arrival ports and times, and the type of airplane it is.

For instance, late at night, after midnight, you will find that FedEx and UPS planes are hustling around the country, and commercial traffic is pretty slow, except the long overseas routes, which are often timed to the destination ports.

Enjoy!