An amazing animation has been released which shows the thousands of planes that fill London's airspace every single day. The time-lapse video created by UK air navigation service provider Nats, shows how over 3,000 planes take off and land at London's six runways every 24 hours.

60% of the roughly 2 million flights made over UK airspace every year take place over London's skies, with 1.2 million planes arriving or departing from one of London's five main airports - Heathrow, Gatwick, Stanstead, Luton and London City. Nats claim that despite this, only 0.2% of flights suffer from air traffic control (ATC) related delays.

The animation video was released soon after a political row emerged over the future of London's airspace. A report by the Airports Commission recommend building a third runway at Heathrow to help cope with increasing demand, as opposed to building a second runway at Gatwick. The plans would result in the destruction of 783 homes to make way for the new £19bn (€26.5bn) runway.

Major political figures, such as London mayor Boris Johnson, and Conservative MP for Richmond Park, Zac Goldsmith, have spoken out against the move.

Green groups also argued that the new runway, which would increase Heathrow's capacity by 220,000 flights a year, would have a serious environmental impact.

Heathrow expansion