There are over 100,000 commercial airline flights every day, or over 37 million every year.
That means the skies are constantly alive with passengers being flown to and from every corner of the earth. It's difficult to imagine what that must look like from outer space, but the Zurich University of Applied Science (ZHAW) is here to help.
ZHAW's video maps out every commercial airline flight in a 24 hour period — and the results are mesmerising
You'll see that as daylight laps from east to west, the number of flights — represented by thousands of tiny yellow dots — fluctuates depending on the time of day. The majority of flights take place during the day, and the number slowly decreases as the sun sets.
Europe and North America are, perhaps unsurprisingly, the largest hubs of activity with thousands of flights leaving their borders every hour. A large number of flights leave the US in the evening to reach the UK first thing in the morning — this is what they call a red-eye.
The animation is even more impressive when sped up to show an entire day in mere seconds.
When you consider that each yellow dot is carrying up to hundreds of people, it makes it all the more amazing.