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The London Eye welcomes an average of 3.5 million customers every year. You would need 6,680 fully booked British Airways Boeing 747-400 jumbo jets to move that number of fliers, it can carry 800 passengers per revolution – equivalent to 11 London red doubled-decker buses.

Each rotation takes about 30 minutes, meaning a capsule travels at a stately 26cm per second, or 0.9km (0.6 miles) per hour – twice as fast as a tortoise sprinting; allowing passengers to step on and off without the wheel having to stop.