BUSIEST FLIGHT ROUTES IN THE WORLD

View and interrogate OAG’s ever-popular Busiest Airline Routes whenever you need as they evolve and change over time, regularly providing updates on the busiest flight routes in the world. These include the Top 10 Busiest Global Airline Routes, Top 10 Domestic Airline Routes and International Airline Routes by region. Our flight routes data is powered by Schedules Analyser.

Find extensive flight data and analysis for domestic and international airline routes below and discover the busiest air routes in the area of your choice.

KEY POINTS

• The top three busiest global domestic routes remain unchanged since last month and are all in North East Asia.
• South Korea’s Jeju International (CJU) - Seoul Gimpo (GMP) remains in first place globally, followed by the Japanese route connections of Sapporo New Chitose (CTS) to Tokyo Haneda (HND) and Fukuoka (FUK) to Tokyo Haneda (HND) in second and third place respectively.
• In the top ten busiest domestic routes Jeddah (JED) to Riyadh (RUH) has had the biggest increase in capacity compared to last year, adding 10% more seats and is in fifth place.
• The route with the largest decline in capacity is Jeju International (CJU) - Seoul Gimpo (GMP) which is down 8%, followed by Melbourne (MEL) – Sydney (SYD), which is down 3%, compared to April 2024.

KEY POINTS

• Beijing (PEK) to Shanghai Hongqiao (SHA) remains the busiest domestic route in China in April 2025 with 654,000 seats. Shanghai (SHA) to Shenzhen (SZX) is the second busiest route with 593,000 seats.
• Guangzhou Baiyun (CAN) to Shanghai Hongqiao (SHA) is in third place with 545,000 seats however capacity has dropped by 12% compared to last year which is the biggest decrease in capacity year on year in the top ten.
• All of the top three routes are connecting Shanghai Hongqiao (SHA) to another large airport.
• Hangzhou (HGH) to Shenzhen (SZX) has had the biggest increase, adding 9% more seats year on year.

KEY POINTS

• The top four busiest domestic routes in the USA all have capacity within 9,000 seats of each other this month, with Denver (DEN) to Phoenix (PHX) as the busiest domestic route with 288,359 seats.
• This is followed by New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX), then Atlanta (ATL) to Orlando (MCO) and Los Angeles (LAX) to San Francisco (SFO) in fourth place, all of which have seat capacity of over 280,000 seats for the month.
• Atlanta (ATL) - New York La Guardia (LGA) has had the biggest decrease in capacity year on year with seats dropping by 14%.

KEY POINTS

• In April 2025, Hong Kong (HKG) to Taipei (TPE) continues to be the busiest international route with 571,000 seats, with a 7% increase in capacity compared to April 2024. Cairo (CAI) to Jeddah (JED) is in second place with 487,000 seats which has decreased by 6% compared to last year. Kuala Lumpur (KUL) to Singapore Changi (SIN) is the third busiest international route with 476,000 seats, a capacity increase of 7% compared to last year.
  
  
• Dubai (DXB) to Riyadh (RUH) has moved into the top ten busiest international routes compared to April 2024 when it ranked outside the top ten; the route holds the eighth place this month. Bangkok (BKK) to Singapore (SIN) has dropped out of the top ten compared to April 2024 when the route was ranked the eighth busiest international route.
  
  
• Five global regions are covered in the top ten busiest international routes:
  • Seven routes within Asia Pacific,
  • One within Middle East,
  • One linking North America to Europe
  • One linking Africa to the Middle East.
    
    
• Across the top ten routes, two routes are to/from Hong Kong (HKG), Seoul (ICN) Taipei (TPE), Singapore (SIN), or Tokyo (NRT).

The busiest air routes are defined as those with the largest volume of scheduled airline seats in the current calendar month. Data is for flights in both directions on each route and is sourced from OAG Schedules Analyser in the first week of each month. The data reflects the most recent full calendar month for the busiest scheduled domestic and international aviation routes in each category.