Aviation intelligence company OAG has revealed the world’s busiest international routes for 2024.
The world’s second busiest international route for 2024 includes the North African city of Cairo in Egypt.
BUSIEST INTERNATIONAL ROUTES FOR 2024
| Busiest International Flight Routes | ||
| Ranking | Route | Number of seats (in millions) |
| 1 | Hong Kong-Taipei | 6.78 |
| 2 | Cairo-Jeddah | 5.47 |
| 3 | Seoul Incheon-Tokyo Narita | 5.41 |
| 4 | Kuala Lumpur-Singapore | 5.38 |
| 5 | Seoul Incheon-Osaka | 4.98 |
| 6 | Dubai-Riyadh | 4.31 |
| 7 | Bangkok-Hong Kong | 4.20 |
| 8 | Jakarta-Singapore | 4.07 |
| 9 | Bangkok-Singapore | 4.03 |
| 10 | New York JFK-London Heathrow | 4.01 |
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ASIA-PACIFIC ROUTES
Seven of the 10 busiest international routes in the world are in the Asia-Pacific area.
Hong Kong-Taipei is the busiest international flight route, according to the OAG report.
The route tops the list despite seat capacity remaining 15% below pre-pandemic levels.
The third busiest route, Seoul Incheon to Tokyo Narita, also showed significant growth compared with pre-pandemic levels.
Japan has become an increasingly popular destination in the last year. New airlines have also launched flights into Japan in 2024.
“On top of that, a few new carriers have entered the market, including airlines such as Eastar and Air Japan. And finally, Haneda airport is effectively full so that new capacity has had to go to Narita.” said John Grant, chief analyst at OAG.
The Kuala Lumpur Singapore route, which was the busiest international route in 2023, has moved to fourth place, with 3% fewer seats than 2019 levels.
AFRICA-MIDDLE EAST
The second busiest route for 2024, Cairo to Jeddah, has around 5.5 million available seats, which is 62% higher than 2019 levels, according to OAG.
Another busy route in this region is Dubai to Riyadh. This route offered 4.31 million seats in 2024.
In addition, both of these routes have shown significant growth since 2019.
OTHER REGIONS
The New York (JFK) to London (Heathrow) route is the only route in the top ten outside of Asia and the Middle East.
This important route connects North America and Europe.
According to OAG, seat capacity on this route increased by 3% in 2024, reaching 4 million seats,
