AvGeeks, this is what you’ve been waiting for… travel industry data platform OAG has crunched the numbers to reveal the world’s busiest air routes and airports of the past 12 months.
Unsurprisingly, Asia dominates both rankings, despite opening up more slowly post-pandemic and being down on pre-COVID numbers at the end of the year.
In its annual review of the world’s busiest flight routes, OAG found that the busiest air route of 2023 was Jeju (CJU) to Seoul (GMP), with 13.7 million seats.
While the South Korean route is 21 per cent lower than what it was in 2019, it still offered 15 per cent more seats than the second-placed route on the list from Japan’s Chitose Airport (CTS) to Tokyo Haneda (HND), with 11.9 million seats. CJU-GMP was also the busiest route in 2019 and in 2022.
Another Japanese route from Fukuoka (FUK) to Tokyo Haneda (HND) was the third busiest route with 11.3 million seats, while Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) was the fourth busiest route, with 10.9 million seats).
At home, Melbourne (MEL) to Sydney (SYD) continued to be one of the world’s busiest routes, coming in fifth with 9.3 million seats.
Among international routes, Asia-Pacific continued to dominate, claiming the top spot – Kuala Lumpur (KUL) to Singapore Changi (SIN) with 4.9 million seats – and seven of the top 10 busiest flight paths.
But perhaps the biggest surprise was the rise in capacity from Cairo (CAI) to Jeddah (JED), which grew more than 40 per cent to second place – to 4.8 million seats from 3.4 million seats in 2019.
The emergence of the Egypt-Saudi route reflects Saudi Arabia’s ambition to raise its profile in world travel and tourism; earlier this year, it introduced new carrier Riyadh Air to the world, while the country’s Red Sea International Airport recently won the gong for World’s Leading New Airport at the 2023 World Travel Awards.
“Asia continues to have the busiest routes in the world due to its popularity as a tourism hotspot,” OAG chief analyst John Grant said.
Hectic hubs
Meanwhile, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL) was named the world’s busiest airport, processing 61.2 million passengers in 2023.
Second-placed Dubai International Airport (DXB) and third-placed Tokyo Haneda (HND) were the only other airports to record more than 50 million passengers, welcoming 56.5 million and 52.7 million flyers respectively.
London Heathrow (LHR) was the fourth busiest airport with 49.1 million seats, placing just ahead of Dallas-Fort Worth with 48.1 million passengers.
“Although capacity is not back to 2019 levels, London Heathrow remains a pivotal hub for global air travel,” Grant said.
Dubai was the busiest airport based purely on international flights, with 56.5 million passengers, followed by Heathrow (46.5 million flyers) and Amsterdam (37.2 million flyers) airports.
Elsewhere, Shanghai Airport (PVG) added the most routes (54) of any airport this year, mirroring China’s re-opening to the world. With 239 routes, the airport is now operating at above pre-pandemic levels (236 routes).
