See The World’s Airports Empty Out As Coronavirus Spreads [Animation]

Air travel is slowing dramatically amid the coronavirus pandemic. The number of seats on scheduled flights this week was down 15% worldwide compared to the week of January 20, according to data from OAG, but that understates the severity of the downturn given how many planes have been flying mostly empty. Foot traffic at airports may provide a better picture.

For example, on Wednesday, Milan’s airport, at the epicenter of the outbreak in Italy, was 80% less busy than usual, and foot traffic at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport was off 35%, based on data from Google’s tracking of smartphone users’ locations compiled by Wanderlog.

The San Francisco-based travel planning startup scraped data for roughly 200 airports from Google’s live popularity tracker, which shows how busy restaurants, museums and other places are compared to usual levels based on Google Maps users’ locations and Internet searches. The animated map below shows the change in the number of people tracked at those airports from March 8 through Wednesday.

Google didn’t respond to a request to clarify how many Google Maps users opt in to allow the company to track their location, but it’s reasonable to assume the data provides a fair approximation for activity at busy locations, particularly in wealthy first-world countries where smartphone use is prevalent. Google’s Android operating system has been installed on roughly 85% of smartphones sold over the past three years, and many iPhone owners use Google Maps.

The data may not be reliable for China, where Google services are blocked.

In Europe, all of Italy’s airports are now mostly empty, the data shows, with many countries barring flights from the country, where the death count from the pandemic surpassed China’s on Thursday. Madrid airport was 36% busy as usual Wednesday, and Copenhagen and Warsaw were off 69%.

San Francisco International has seen the steepest decline in foot traffic in the U.S. over the past two weeks, according to Wanderlog’s analysis, off 55% from usual, while Denver is off 47%. Foot traffic at Salt Lake City was off 67% Wednesday with the airport closed for four hours after an earthquake.

The worst is yet to come: with the U.S., Europe and other countries restricting international air travel to stem the spread of the disease, many airlines announced plans this week to halt the vast majority of their flights.



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