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The world’s busiest air route is a domestic link connecting an island off the coast of Korea with an older, secondary airport serving the capital, Seoul. Seven airlines compete on the journey. Fares are so low that even booking a Christmas Day flight just 48 hours in advance works out to just £14 for a 75-minute, 280-mile journey. Global aviation analyst OAG has revealed the clear winner in passenger numbers for 2025: Seoul Gimpo to Jeju Island.
The route is extremely popular with Korean holidaymakers, with approximately 40,000 seats available each day.
All top 10 links are domestic. The second, third and seventh places in the OAG table for 2025 will all start/finish at Tokyo’s main airport, Haneda. There are more than 33,000 seats daily on the route to Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaido; Fukuoka rates 31,000; Okinawa, in the far southwest, has 22,000 seats per day.
Vietnam is in fourth place: 30,000 daily seats from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. This is the busiest route in the world No Between a national capital and a city on an island.
The busiest route globally outside East Asia connects Saudi Arabia’s two largest cities: the capital, Riyadh, and the Red Sea port of Jeddah, with a capacity of 27,000 seats per day. There will be 14 departures each way between midnight and 6am on December 25. Fares are widely available on the 530-mile route, starting at £38 each.
Australia’s only representative takes sixth place: from Melbourne to Sydney, about 25,000 seats per day. This is the highest rated journey not involving the national capital. The two cities are less than 450 miles apart, making them ready for high-speed rail. Paris and Marseille, the same distance, often have trains taking around three hours.
There is a similar issue in India also. Delhi and Mumbai are at eighth place with 21,000 seats per day. There is a distance of 700 miles between the two cities.
Shanghai’s Hongqiao, another secondary gateway, features in the top 10. In ninth place, with 20,000 daily seats, is the link to Beijing; 10th is the route to Shenzhen in the south – closer to Hong Kong – with 500 fewer seats.
The highest-scoring international route, Hong Kong to Taipei, is close to the top 10 with about 19,000 seats per day.
In the ranking of domestic routes by continent, Africa and Latin America perform significantly better than Europe and North America.
Outside of Asia, Australia and the Middle East, which feature in the top 10, the highest-rated domestic link is in Colombia: connecting Bogotá and Medellin’s main airport, Rionegro. The distance between the two airports is just 134 miles flights Taking less than an hour. The road journey is so difficult that buses take about 10 hours. Christmas Day flights are available from £37.
The next best continent: Africa, specifically from Cape Town to Johannesburg, with about 15,000 daily seats.
Surprisingly, the most high-achieving track in North America is not in the US but in Canada. There are 10,000 seats available daily from Toronto to Vancouver.
Europe comes behind all the other continents except Antarctica. The busiest route is between Barcelona and Palma, with 8,000 seats per day.
What accounts for the relatively low scores of Europe and North America? The OAG study focuses on airport-to-airport routes rather than city-by-city. For example, London to Milan is served by five UK airports and three in Italy. Similarly, travelers traveling from New York to Chicago can choose between JFK, La Guardia, and Newark to Midway or O’Hare.
The busiest US domestic link is New York JFK to Los Angeles International, with 9,400 seats per day.
Top ten busiest air routes in 2025
- Seoul Gimpo-Jeju (Korea)
- Tokyo Haneda-Sapporo (Japan)
- Tokyo Haneda-Fukuoka (Japan)
- Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)
- Riyadh-Jeddah (Saudi Arabia)
- Melbourne-Sydney (Australia)
- Tokyo Haneda-Okinawa (Japan)
- Delhi-Mumbai (India)
- Shanghai Hongqiao-Beijing (China)
- Shanghai Hongqiao-Shenzhen (China)
Source: OAG