Visualizing a Day in UK Air Travel

During its peak, UK airspace can see as many as 8,000 flights invade the airports and helipads strewn across its various islands. In fact, over the course of a year some 2.2 million aircraft “movements” are tracked and guided by Britain’s flight controllers. To highlight how complex (and beautiful) their work can be a division of the UK’s traffic control operation, NATS, created a stunning visualization of their work.

While most air traffic flows through the UK’s busy Heathrow Airport, NATS visualization features a number of surprising revelations. Most impressive might be the seemingly unending wall of trans-Atlantic flights that bombard the isles every day. On the northern shores of the UK, Aberdeen’s helipads also play an oft-forgotten role in the dramatic tapestry of England’s invisible infrastructure, ferrying workers and supply to oilrigs working the North Sea. Though smaller players certainly add a level of difficulty to the synchronicity of the UK’s air traffic system, the crown jewel of the operation has to be the impeccably coordinated holding stacks that float miles above Heathrow airport.

Circling over London’s main terminal, waiting for an opportunity to land, airlines from the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Continent are funneled onto the two runways of Heathrow airport. Once on the ground passengers spread out to connect with local flights, continental flights, and a myriad of spots both in and around the British capital.

Needless to say, the UK’s air traffic system is quite a beauty to behold. It boggles the mind to think that over nearly ever metropolis across the globe a similar pattern is occurring in a single, coordinated rhythm.

Image and Video Courtesy of NATS