Security, passport control, baggage collection, taxi drop-off – airports are busy places. But while you’re thinking about all the queues there are ahead of you, there can be a whole load of congestion above our heads, too.
Thanks to analysis of OAG’s Global Airline Schedules Data, a list of the flight routes that were the busiest in the world list year (according to the total number of seats which journeyed across them) has been published.
Claiming the top spot was the route between Hong Kong and Taipei, which saw a whopping 48 percent increase in capacity to 6.8 million seats this year, and jumped from third place in 2023. However, there’s still another 15 percent to go before this route is back up to its 2019 capacity.
In second place was Cairo to Jeddah, which has soared by 62 percent since 2019, and in third place was Seoul Incheon to Tokyo Narita, which is only 1.1 percent behind. Routes in Asia completely dominate this list, claiming seven of the top 10 spots.
These were the 10 busiest flight routes in the world
- Hong Kong to Taipei
- Cairo to Jeddah
- Seoul Incheon to Tokyo Narita
- Kuala Lumpur to Singapore
- Seoul Incheon to Osaka
- Dubai to Riyadh
- Bangkok to Hong Kong
- Jakarta to Singapore
- Bangkok to Singapore
- New York JFK to Heathrow
Come fly with us
We cover all the latest aviation news, whether it’s about the world’s most beautiful airports or the launch of brand-new services. Check out the development of the first supersonic aircraft since the Concorde, and plans to launch the longest flight in the world.
Did you see that these are all the strikes you need to watch out for in Europe right now?
Plus: These are the places to visit in 2025, according to Forbes.
Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out Travel newsletter for all the latest travel news and best stuff happening across the world.