Coronavirus lockdown: Map reveals fewer planes flying due to suspensions

As the COVID-19 crisis brings the world’s airlines to their knees, there’s no clearer picture of the crisis than what the skies above us looks like now.

Flight radar images over Australia demonstrate the chilling way the coronavirus pandemic has ground normal life to a halt.

Fresh data from FlightRadar24 shows almost empty skies over the country as travel bans stop people from flying and all Australia's airlines ground almost their entire fleets.

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Virgin Australia and Qantas have suspended their international flights and almost all domestic services, while Tigerair Australia has been grounded completely.

Flights seen over Australia in 2019. Picture: FlightRadar24

Flights over Australia on April 1 at 1pm AEDT. Picture: FlightRadar24

It’s a similar story around the world. FlightRadar24 says the decline in global air traffic is “unprecedented”, with commercial air traffic plummeting 41 per cent below 2019 levels in the last two weeks of March.

Pre-COVID-19, there could be up to 20,000 planes in the sky at any given time.

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A few examples of how the skies have changed in the last month.

This is global flight traffic 1-31 March each day at 15:00 UTC.

1 March at 15:00: 14,629 flights
31 March at 15:00: 5632 flights

Live flights: https://t.co/krDfUYSbzK pic.twitter.com/pwHk4qolgN

— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 31, 2020

Just 8 Airbus A380 airborne.
5 x Qatar Airways and 3 x Thai Airways

Screenshot from March 31, 2020 - 20:00 UTC pic.twitter.com/UuvrwAmw4i

— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 31, 2020

On March 1, there were 14,629 flights at 3pm coordinated universal time (UTC). Yesterday, there were 5632 flights at 3pm UTC.

While some airlines continue to operate commercial flights to keep vital links open and return travellers to their home countries, many of the planes seen in plane tracking images are cargo planes carrying essential supplies such as food and medical equipment.

Cargo handling at London's Heathrow Airport has actually doubled this week, the BBC reported.

Lockdowns are also making international flying logistically difficult. The United Arab Emirates is in the midst of a 14-day blanket ban on flights, meaning popular transit hubs at Dubai and Abu Dhabi, relied on by many of the world’s major airlines for long-haul routes, can no longer be used for commercial flights.

Air traffic took another massive hit when India announced a lockdown of its entire population of 1.3 billion people.

Travellers in New York on March 24. Picture: Mary Altaffer/AP

Meanwhile, in the United States – which has recently become the source of the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world – hundreds of thousands of people are still catching flights, but a lot less than used to.

According to the latest numbers from the US Transportation Security Administration, 203,858 people were screened at checkpoints across the country on March 26.

But that was a small proportion of the 2,487,162 people screened on the same day in 2019, Fox News reported.

Meanwhile, airlines are dealing with the new challenge of what to do with massive fleets of grounded aircraft.

British Airways planes parked at Heathrow Airport.

easyJet planes parked on the tarmac in the UK.

Qantas planes grounded at Avalon airport. Picture: Mark Wilson

Airlines are scrambling for parking space, which adds and extra expense on top of what they're losing by not flying. CNN reports major European hubs can charge about $480 an hour for aircraft parking.

The airline industry has been one of the worst-hit sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Updated analysis from the International Air Traffic Association, published last week, warned global passenger revenue could fall by $424 billion as a result of travel restrictions and an expected global economic recession brought on by the virus outbreak.

Virgin Australia and Qantas have put forward cases for federal government bailouts to keep them afloat during the coronavirus crisis.