This image shows a snapshot of the world at its most frenetic: A full day of flights, on the busiest day for aviation last year.

The volume of air traffic worldwide is staggering. US airlines alone transport an average of more than 2 million people each day, according to the industry group Airlines for America. Add to that the rest of the world’s carriers, private aircraft, planes hauling freight or mail, and military and other government aircraft, and the skies get very crowded.

The number of planes aloft in the US tends to peak in late July, according to air traffic control data from the Federal Aviation Administration — last year’s maximum was on July 20.

But worldwide, the peak of aerial activity in 2016 came on Aug. 26, according to data collected by the flight-tracking website Flightradar24. It’s a good bet that this year’s global peak will come in the next few weeks.



“If the pattern holds, the busiest day will be in August, toward the end of a week toward the end of the month, as people head back from vacation,” Ian Petchenik, Flightradar24’s head of media and community relations, told BuzzFeed News.