Unveiled: Most Frequented Air Travel Routes Globally in 2024
Yearly flight route rankings released by OAG place Hong Kong to Taipei as the world's most widely utilized international route, with around 7 million available seats for 2024.
The Hong Kong-Taipei route's 6,781,577 fellow travelers have revitalized the route's popularity, bringing it back to its pre-pandemic status (topping the list in 2019), as it ranked third in 2023.
Singapore-Kuala Lumpur led the list in 2023, with a modest 4.9 million seats.
Joining Cairo-Jeddah in the second position is Cairo-Jeddah, with a nearly 5.5 million seat sale. Remarkably, the Egypt-Saudi Arabia route's prominence has skyrocketed in the past five years, moving from 14th place in 2019 to the second spot in 2023 and 2024.
Seoul claims two of the next spots, with Tokyo Narita and Osaka Kansai earning third and fourth place respectively.
Three spots in the top 10 belong to Singapore Changi airport, including routes to Kuala Lumpur (fourth), Jakarta (eighth), and Bangkok (ninth).
Middle Eastern, European, and even American destinations are represented in the top 10, with Dubai-Riyadh at the sixth position and New York JFK-London Heathrow wrapping up the list.
Domestically, Asia's top three are Jeju International-Seoul Gimpo, Sapporo New Chitose-Tokyo Haneda, and Fukuoka-Tokyo Haneda, with Jeju-Seoul retaining its position as the world's busiest domestic route, boasting 14.2 million seats or around 39,000 daily.
By region, Cairo served as Africa's primary hub, with routes departing from Cairo taking the top five positions for African routes. London Heathrow presided over European routes, with JFK-LHR taking the top spot, followed by connections with Dubai and Dublin at second and fourth places, respectively.
Latin America is represented by San Juan-Orlando and Lima-Santiago for the top two positions in Latin America, while Jeddah-Cairo and Dubai-Riyadh top the Middle Eastern routes. The Jeddah to Riyadh route is the fastest-growing in the top 10, with a 10% year-on-year expansion in capacity, amounting to 8.7 million.
The rankings are determined by calculating the total quantity of airline seats offered in both directions on each route.
The eye-catching growth (especially for the top-ranking route, Cairo-Jeddah, which has risen from 4.9 million to 6.78 million seats, an increase of 1.3 million) is not so great for the planet.
In 2022, aviation accounted for 2.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Air Transport Action Group, or 3.5% of total planetary warming emissions. At the time, Matteo Mirolo from Transport & Environment, which advocates for cleaner transportation, expressed concern over the expanding aviation industry, stating, "If we don't take action now, in a few years, aviation will become one of the main contributors to climate change."
"It's not about the current situation," he continued. "We should focus on the forecast."
The news of Hong Kong to Taipei regaining its top position as the world's most widely utilized international route for 2024 has sparked interest in travel news. With an estimated 7 million available seats, eager travelers are planning their trips along this popular route.
In light of concerns about aviation's environmental impact, the increasing capacity of the Hong Kong-Taipei route, as shown in OAG's annual rankings, highlights the need for sustainable travel options in the travel industry.
