Airplanes crisscross the skies

[Erbab]

''At a given moment, roughly 5000 airplanes crisscross the skies above the United States alone.''

What is the exact meaning of crisscross at this sentece? What is its difference from ''fly'' at this sentence?

Can I say '' Plenty of tourists have crisscrossed our city this year.'' ?


If I make that sentence, it means like '' Plenty of tourists have come to our city this year?''


Thanks for your help.

 

[GoesStation]

Crisscross means "cross in every direction". It doesn't work in the sentence about tourists.

 

[Erbab]

Thank you. I understand now.

 

[GoesStation]

You're welcome. Remember not to put a space after an opening quotation mark or before a question mark.

 

[Skrej]

Slightly off topic, but there are a lot of live flight radars websites one can look at if you'd like a visual image of the sentence the OP asked about.

It's pretty amazing just how many planes are in the air at any given time. You can click on an icon to get detailed flight information on most flights. It's interesting to zoom out a bit, and see the most common flight paths. It's almost like there are highways in the sky.

Here are just a couple of such sites.
https://flightaware.com/live/
https://www.flightradar24.com/36.75,-104.28/5

 

[emsr2d2]

In BrE at least, your opening would be more natural as "At any given moment".

 

[GoesStation]

Likewise in American English.