The world's busiest passenger air routesIn our new monthly feature, Routesonline reveals the top 20 busiest air routes in the world by passenger numbers and analyses the services growing at the fastest pace.
By David Casey
Posted7 September 2017 15:00 [size=font-size: 0.8em,0.8em]| 1 Comment
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Ninety percent of the top 20 most in-demand flights on Earth were in the Asia-Pacific region during July 2017, new research by
Routesonline has found, with no routes from Europe or the Americas making the list.
The busiest flight in the world during the month was Jeju International (CJU)-Seoul Gimpo International (GMP), a service that links the largest island off the coast of the Korean Peninsula with the capital city of South Korea.
More than 1.28 million passengers travelled the 450km between the two airports – almost 600,000 passengers more than the second busiest route, Sapporo New Chitose (CTS)-Tokyo International (HND). The 1.28 million figure was also 94,000 more than the number who travelled on the route during June, and 300,000 higher than July 2016.
In total, there were 5,858 flights between Jeju International and Seoul Gimpo International in July 2017, equivalent to an average of 189 per day. The average base fare for paid the 65 minute hop was $86.70.
The research, which used OAG to analyse the top 50 routes in the world by capacity in July 2017 and then ranked them by passenger statistics on Sabre, found that Asia-Pacific dominated the top 20 busiest flights in the world, with just two routes outside the region making the table.
Sydney Kingsford Smith (SYD)-Melbourne Airport (MEL) was the third most in-demand flight with 663,037 passengers, while Jeddah (JED)-Riyadh King Khalid (RUH) was the 16th busiest with 365,316 passengers.
With an average base fare of $68.48, Ho Chi Minh City (SGN)-Hanoi (HAN) was the cheapest route in the top 20, while Okinawa Naha (OKA)-Tokyo (HND) was the most expensive at $320.92. The average fare across the top 20 was $142.77.
While Jeju International-Seoul Gimpo International added the most passengers during July 2017, compared with June, Surabaya-Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta grew at the fastest rate in the top 20. The number of passengers was 20.4 percent higher at 423,799.
Top 20 busiest routes in the world (July 2017):
