According to the latest report by OAG, a travel data expert, the Kuala Lumpur International-Singapore Changi route has become the busiest air route in 2023, with 4.9 million seats. The previous leader, the Cairo-Jeddah route, has been pushed down to second place with 4.8 million seats.
7 of the top 10 busiest international routes are in the Asia-Pacific region. The Hong Kong-Taipei route takes third place with 4.6 million seats, a 43% decrease compared to 2019. The New York JFK-London Heathrow route is in eighth place with 3.9 million seats.
Asia Far Ahead
The busiest domestic and international routes in 2023 in Asia were Jeju International-Seoul Gimpo which topped the list with 13.7 million seats, followed by Sapporo New Chitose-Tokyo Haneda with 11.9 million and Fukuoka-Tokyo Haneda with 11.3 million. Notably, no Western flights were among the busiest domestic routes, all in the Asia-Pacific or Middle East regions.
The European busiest international route was Lisbon (LIS)-Madrid (MAD), with 2.3 million passengers in 2023. Barcelona-Palma, Madrid-Palma, and Bergen-Oslo were the most popular domestic routes.
In the United States, the busiest air route within the country was between Honolulu and Kahului, with 3.6 million scheduled airline seats between the two Hawaiian cities. Atlanta-Orlando and Los Angeles-Las Vegas were close behind, each with approximately 3.5 million seats.
Heathrow Regains Color
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has retained its title of the world's busiest airport, with a capacity of 61 million seats for 2023. This airport in Georgia was also the busiest in 2019 and 2022. London Heathrow (LHR) is now in fourth place, with 49,370,859 seats, behind Dubai International Airport (DXB) in second place and Tokyo Haneda in third.
The busiest day in the skies for 2023 was Friday, August 11, with 18,586,233 seats operated by airlines. On the other hand, January 21 saw only 13,967,001 seats in operation, which was 16% less busy than the daily average.
Top 10 Busiest Air Routes Worldwide
- Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) to Singapore Changi (Singapore)
- Cairo (Egypt) to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia)
- Hong Kong to Taipei
- Seoul Incheon (South Korea) to Osaka Kansai
- Seoul Incheon (South Korea) to Tokyo Narita (Japan)
- Dubai (UAE) to Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)
- Jakarta (Indonesia) to Singapore Changi (Singapore)
- New York JFK (USA) to London Heathrow (UK)
- Bangkok (Thailand) to Singapore Changi (Singapore)
- Bangkok (Thailand) to Seoul Incheon (South Korea)