This post was originally published in 2019 and contains a summary of my air travel experience and flight statistics from 2018. I decided to keep it on the blog as a record of a particular stage of my travel journey.
Time: 5 days, 7 hours and 55 minutes
I have spent a lot of time in the air in 2018. Do I fly a lot? What is my air travel experience? Let’s put this in perspective with a crew member who flies an average of 900 hours per year. In this comparison, my 128 hours do not look so impressive. However, since I am not a crew member, I conclude that I spend quite a lot of time in the air.
Statistics 2018 in numbers
- distance – how many kilometres I have travelled by plane – almost 65’900 km
- how the distance I flew can be compared to a flight around the earth – I circled it over 1.6 times
- how the distance I flew can be compared to the distance from Earth to the moon – 0.1171. (Well, there is still a long way ahead of me).
- shortest flight: in Turkey on the route Istanbul – Izmir (322 km)
- longest flight: on the route from Munich in Germany to Porto in Portugal (1791 km)
- The northernmost airport: Moscow Sheremetyevo, Russia
- The southernmost airport: Izmir, Turkey
Where did I fly in 2018?
Countries I visited during this time (number of visits in brackets):
- Belgium (15)
- Turkey (7)
- Germany (5)
- Hungary (3)
- Czech Republic (1)
- United Kingdom (1)
- Greece (1)
- Portugal (1)
- Romania (1)
- Russia (1)
Which aircraft did I fly most often?
The list of aeroplanes I flew most often (in brackets, the number of flights).
- Boeing 737-800 (13)
- Embraer 195 (13)
- Dash 8 Q400 (7)
- Embraer ERJ 175 (6)
- Boeing 737 MAX 8 (6)
I will add one comment from my side. Despite many delays in departures and arrivals, frequent and exhausting turbulence, and long hours spent at airports, I still love to fly and will never get bored with it.
The world through an aeroplane window
Why is an aeroplane flying so exciting? Although the final destination can give you a fantastic experience, the journey can be amazing. Please see how my “world” looks through the aeroplane window as proof of my theory.
Frequent flyer program – Miles & More
Where did all this data come from? A few years ago, I joined the Miles & More program as a frequent flyer, collecting miles for all my air travel. Miles & More is the largest traveller loyalty program in Europe, and LOT, Brussels Airlines, and Lufthansa (those airlines I use the most frequently) are all part of it. The awarded miles can be exchanged later for rewards. You can also exchange them for air tickets, hotel reservations or car rentals.
You can read more about the Miles & More program directly on the website. However, this post is not about airline frequent flyer programs, so I will no longer continue this topic. I will add that I like analysing my travel statistics (maybe because I like numbers and statistics 😊), so I am thrilled that my Miles & More program keeps collecting them and making them available for review.
Travel photographs
My travel statistics can help me understand how many photos I uploaded to social media at that time (over 250 posts). Interestingly, despite many foreign trips I took at that time (10 countries), 8 out of 9 of my highest-rated photos in 2018 were taken in ….. Warsaw is my hometown. What does it mean? This proves that you do not have to travel to the other side of the world to make an interesting picture. Sometimes you need to leave your house and look around you. Your inspiration for creating an interesting photo can be everywhere.
What has changed over the years?
Several years have passed since this post was first published. The pandemic and changes in my professional life have influenced the way I travel, and I no longer fly as frequently as I did in 2018. However, I still love looking out of an aeroplane window and treat every journey as the beginning of a new adventure.
Today, the number of kilometres travelled matters less to me than the places I visit, the experiences I collect and the memories I bring back home.