an airplane window with wing and sky

Mumbai airport recently broke the record for number of flights handled in a 24 hour period. Can you guess the record? Try – 969 flights in 24 hours, at an airport only operating one runway at a time. That’s about 40 flights per hour! If you’ve been hoping to brush up on largely useless, but amusing and occasionally useful (in pub quiz) knowledge – here’s a look at some other world breaking stats from the world of air travel.

a city skyline with trees and waterWorld’s Busiest Airport

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport – 104,171,935 passengers in 2016

World’s Longest Non-Stop Current Passenger Flight

Auckland – Doha (Qatar Airways) – 14,524 km, ~17.35 hours

World’s Shortest Passenger Flight

Westray – Papa Westray (Loganair) – 2.7km, ~1 minute

a large airplane flying in the skyWorld’s Largest Passenger Plane Configuration

Emirates Airbus A380 – 2 class, 615 passengers

World’s Largest Airline Fleet

American Airlines – 1,556 (2016)

Airline Serving The Most Worldwide Destinations

American Airlines/Air Canada – 350 destinations (2017)

World’s Busiest Airport By Cargo Traffic

Hong Kong International Airport – 4,521,000 tonnes

a plane parked on the tarmacWorld’s Fastest Current Commercial Passenger Plane

Boeing 747-8i – average cruise speed 0.86 Mach/~1,062 km/h

World’s Largest Airline Alliance

Star Alliance – 28 airlines

World’s Oldest Airline Still Operating

KLM – founded 1919

Now, go ahead – ace that pub quiz…

Gilbert Ott is an ever curious traveler and one of the world's leading travel experts. His adventures take him all over the globe, often spanning over 200,000 miles a year and his travel exploits are regularly...

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