Global Flight Paths Visualised

These amazing images were created by Michael Markieta from Arup. The global flight paths have been visualised clearly showing human travel across the globe. Even without any visual aid you can clearly make out all the major continents and countries.

“There are currently more than 58,000 flight paths criss-crossing the globe, but each individual airport services only a limited number of others. Markieta began to work on the visualisations in his spare time using geographical information systems (GIS) technology to create “maps” of the data. The busiest airport is Frankfurt International, which has 235 direct flight destinations... Not surprisingly, bright hotspots appear in areas where many flight paths coincide with the world’s major cities. Markieta found that there was no need to apply a base layer to the images to help viewers identify different parts of the world. The flight paths themselves trace the outlines of all major continents, demonstrating one of the typical patterns of human settlement: living in coastal regions. All images: Michael Markieta, GIS Consultant, Arup. Data from openflights.org”