The world’s busiest air routes in 2024

Hong Kong-Taipei is the busiest worldwide air route, in accordance with a report launched Tuesday by aviation intelligence agency OAG.

The route – which final held this place in 2019 – tops the record once more regardless of seat capability remaining 15% under pre-pandemic ranges, in accordance with OAG Report.

Seven of the world’s ten busiest worldwide routes are in Asia-Pacific, though seat capability on many of those routes has but to return to 2019 ranges.

Nevertheless, two routes on the record – each situated within the Center East – are displaying vital progress since 2019. The second busiest route, Cairo to Jeddah, has round 5.5 million seats out there, or 62%. greater than 2019 ranges, in accordance with OAG.

The third busiest route – from Seoul Incheon to Tokyo Narita – additionally confirmed vital progress (68%) in comparison with pre-pandemic ranges. A number of elements clarify why, mentioned John Grant, chief analyst at OAG.

“First, whereas the Chinese language worldwide market remains to be slowly recovering, airways have needed to allocate their plane to different markets. And Japan is a highly regarded vacation spot in the mean time,” he mentioned. “On prime of that… a couple of new carriers have entered the market, together with airways like Eastar and Air Japan. And eventually… Haneda Airport is definitely full, so new capability needed to be directed in direction of Narita.”

The Kuala Lumpur to Singapore route, which was the busiest worldwide route in 2023, fell to fourth place, with seats 3% under 2019 ranges. Bangkok to Hong Kong, the seventh busiest route, can also be not absolutely recovered, remaining 13% behind pre-pandemic capability.

New York-JFK to London-Heathrow is the one route within the prime 10 that lands in North America and Europe. Seat capability on this route elevated by 3% final yr, to 4 million seats, in accordance with OAG.

Flights from Latin America do not make the highest 10, however OAG says the area’s busiest worldwide route is the one from Orlando, Florida, to San Juan, Puerto Rico, with 2.3 million seats.

Home flights are a lot busier than worldwide flights, by way of scheduled seat quantity.

The busiest highway on this planet is in South Korea, connecting Seoul and Jeju Island. Some 14.2 million seats have been out there on the route in 2024, or round 39,000 seats per day, in accordance with OAG.

That is regardless that capability on the route remains to be 19% under pre-pandemic ranges, the corporate mentioned.

In accordance with the report, 9 of the ten busiest home air routes in 2024 are in Asia-Pacific.

The Hokkaido-Tokyo route comes second, adopted by one other route in Japan, the one connecting town of Fukuoka to Tokyo Haneda.

China’s busiest air route connects its two largest cities – Beijing and Shanghai – with some 7.7 million seats, simply forward of the 7 million seats connecting Guangzhou and Shanghai.

Seats on the latter route have fallen from 2023 ranges, in accordance with OAG, in what Grant referred to as a “re-adjustment” to 2019 schedules.

“Throughout the pandemic, native Chinese language airways shifted … their worldwide capability to home providers, and this route noticed a pointy improve,” he mentioned. “What we’re seeing now could be a realignment of capability in direction of extra regular ranges as Chinese language carriers slowly restore extra worldwide providers.”

The largest progress on this record is in Saudi Arabia, with seats on the Jeddah-Riyadh route growing by 9% in comparison with 2019.

The busiest route in Africa connects Cape City in South Africa to Johannesburg (5 million seats) and in Europe, Barcelona in Spain to the island of Majorca (2.9 million seats).

The busiest route in the USA connects Atlanta to Orlando (practically 3.5 million seats), however the busiest route in North America is Canada’s route between Vancouver and Toronto (3,498,835 seats).