Groundings take effect as Australia’s skies empty

Last year, 64 international airlines flew over Australia’s airspace, operating 634,000 trips.

But now the skies are almost empty – as shown in these startling images from Flightradar24.

A Saturday afternoon in February 2018 (Flightradar24)

These pictures show the scene on a typical Saturday afternoon in February 2018 versus the scene at the same time and day in April 2020.

A Saturday afternoon in April 2020 (Flightradar24)

Meanwhile, these images were taken on Tuesday, 7 April over the skies of Sydney and Melbourne.

The scene above Sydney on the afternoon of 7 April (Flightradar24)

As March came to an end, Qantas, Virgin and the majority of international airlines paused nearly all of their international flights.

The scene above Melbourne on the afternoon of 7 April (Flightradar24)

There are, though, some signs of life.

Qatar remains one of the few airlines to be committed to soldiering on throughout the crisis.

The airline will add an extra 48,000 seats on services from Doha to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane from 29 March until mid-April.

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And on 6 April, the government announced it had struck a deal with Qantas and Virgin to resume limited repatriation flights to Australia from London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Auckland.

Comments (7)

RonnHunter

April 8, 2020 at 7:36 am

Hi Adam,
This is very interesting.could you source a map of flights in February 2020 , showing the thickness of the routes flown. Eg I would expect the Sydney – Melbourne corridor to be very thick, but the Broome -Alice Springs to be very thin.
Then compare that with March April 2020 and I expect that Sydney -China will be very sparce compared with the February flights

Then I will super impose the spread of the corona virus which may mirror the February airlines map.
Like the spread of AIDS , the lesson to be learned from epidemics / pandemics is that unless a vaccine is available immediately, then Governments must close their borders. This can be done best by democracies with a unicameral system of Government like NZ , or a dictatorship like Singapore. The worst situation is a government in denial like Japan, or a poor nation without the facilities for testing , or without rich neighbours prepared to help,
Migrant 8.4.20

Federico

April 8, 2020 at 8:01 am

The earth and the environment say thank you!

Michael Andrew

April 8, 2020 at 9:09 am

Who’s idea was it to exempt Qantas crews from COVID 19 quarantine, what other little gems have we not been told?
Who made this call? Whoever did, please supply your name and contact details, so that I personally register my dissatisfaction, colourful language WILL be used!!
We are all may be in this together, just like a marriage? But not until the death us do part bit!!!

Don Mcdonald

April 8, 2020 at 9:10 am

many of the airborne aircraft are freighters (or carrying freight) together with many (advanced) flying training light aircraft

Doug

April 8, 2020 at 2:07 pm

Interesting that the Arab countries continue to operate to and from Australia, incl Qatar Airlines and Qantas’ code share partner Emirates (https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/emirates-to-ground-nearly-all-passenger-flights-will-still-fly-to-australia-20200323-p54cu9.html) while Qantas gets pretty much grounded. There is obviously more to this than I have information on that might explain this, but in the meantime, one can’t help but wonder why Qantas didn’t retain a share of some these routes for the duration.

toby

April 8, 2020 at 5:23 pm

The worldwide pilot shortage is finally self-healing.

Marum

April 10, 2020 at 1:16 pm

@Doug.
Most national carriers in the world, are usually fully or part Government funded. Last time I looked. Qantas was one of the few that wasn’t.

This may explain why some of the “oil-rich countries national carriers can keep flying on marginal or even nil profits. I will have to check, and bring my data up to date. Last time I checked was ten years ago. Thus I have no information on Chinese airlines.
Current Government-owned airlines
Airline Country Stake
Abu Dhabi Amiri Flight United Arab Emirates
Aeroflot Russian Federation As of March 2020: 51%[1]
Aeroflot-Cargo
Aerogaviota Cuba 100%[citation needed]
Aerolíneas Argentinas Argentina As of December 2014: 100% [2]
Aerotaxi
Afriqiyah Airways Libya [3]
Air Algérie Algeria As of December 2013: 100%[4]
Air Botswana Botswana 100%[citation needed]
Air Calédonie New Caledonia (France) 52.45%[citation needed]
Air China China 53.46%[5]
Air Côte d’Ivoire Ivory Coast As of April 2017: 58%[6]
Air Djibouti
Air Gabon
Air Greenland
Air Guinée
Air India
Air Ivoire
Air Jamaica
Air Kiribati
Air Koryo
Air Liberia
Air Macau
Air Madagascar
Air Malawi
Air Malta
Air Mauritius
Air Namibia
Air New Zealand As of March 2020: 52%[7]
Air Niger
Air Niugini
Air Rwanda
Air Sénégal International
Air Serbia
Air Seychelles
Air Tanzania
Air Vanuatu
Air Zaïre
Air Zimbabwe
AirBaltic
Aircalin
Alitalia
Ariana Afghan Airlines
Arkaim
Aurigny
Azerbaijan Airlines
Bahamasair
Belavia
Berkut Air
Biman Bangladesh Airlines
Boliviana de Aviación
Cambodia Angkor Air
Cameroon Airlines
Caribbean Airlines
Cayman Airways
China Airlines
Conviasa
Croatia Airlines
Cubana de Aviación
Czech Airlines
Donavia
Druk Air
Dubai Royal Air Wing
Ecuato Guineana
EgyptAir
Emirates
Eritrean Airlines
Ethiopian Airlines
Etihad Airways
Eurocypria Airlines
Fiji Airways
Finnair
Flydubai
Gambia International Airlines
Garuda Indonesia
Ghana Airways
Guine Bissau Airlines
Heli Air Monaco [8][9]
Iran Air
Iraqi Airways
Kenya Airways
Kuwait Airways
LADE
LAM Mozambique Airlines
Lao Airlines
Libyan Airlines
Lina Congo
LOT Polish Airlines
Malaysia Airlines
Mandarin Airlines
Merpati Nusantara Airlines
MIAT Mongolian Airlines
Middle East Airlines
Myanmar National Airlines
Myanmar Airways International
Nauru Airlines
Nepal Airlines
Nigeria Airways
Oman Air
Pakistan International Airlines
PLUNA
Qatar Airways
Qatar Amiri Flight
Qatar Executive
RAM Cargo
Régie Malagache
Rossiya
Royal Air Lao
Royal Air Maroc
Royal Brunei Airlines
Royal Jordanian
Royal Swazi National Airways
Royal Tongan Airlines
RwandAir
Saratov Airlines
Satena
Saudia
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS)
Sierra National Airlines
SilkAir
Singapore Airlines
Singapore Airlines Cargo
Solomon Airlines
South African Airways
South African Express
SriLankan Airlines
Sudan Airways
Surinam Airways
TAAG Angola Airlines
TACV
TAME
TANS Perú
TAP Portugal As of 2015: 50%
TAROM
Thai Airways International
Toumaï Air Tchad
Tunisair
Turkmenistan Airlines
Turkish Airlines
Uganda Airlines
Uzbekistan Airways
Vietnam Airlines Vietnam Vietnam 86.10%[10]
Yemenia Yemen Yemen 51.00%[11]

List of Former Government-owned airlines
This is a list of airlines which were formerly government owned. They have since been privatized or have ceased operations.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Airline Country End of Government Ownership Fate
Aero Caribbean Cuba Cuba 2015 Merged into Cubana[12]
Air Bissau Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau 1998 Liquidated[13]
Air Burundi Burundi Burundi 2009 Ceased Operations[14]
Air Mali (1960-89) Mali Mali 1989 Shut Down[15]
Lufthansa Germany Germany 1994 Privatized[16]
Norfolk Air (collapsed) Australia Australia 2011 Ceased Operations[17]
Qantas Australia Australia 1992 Privatized[18]
Ukrainian Cargo Airways Ukraine Ukraine 2009 Shut Down[19]
Zambia Airways Zambia Zambia 1994 Ceased Operations

Regards….Marum

Comments are closed.