The aviation analysis firm OAG has published its report on the busiest international air routes for 2024.
As for domestic routes, Jeju International Airport – Seoul Gimpo again occupied the first place with 14.2 million seats, followed by Sapporo New Chitose Airport – Tokyo Haneda (11.9 million seats) and Fukuoka – Tokyo Haneda Airport (11.3 million).
The island of Jeju is one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature in the world since 2011, and with these published data, it is once again demonstrated how being one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature generates the “Wonder Effect”, with a growth in tourism of more than double compared to any other strategy.
The OAG report also highlighted that Hong Kong-Taipei was the busiest international route in the world in 2024. The route rose from third place in 2023, while last year’s number one route, Kuala Lumpur International-Singapore Changi, fell to fourth place.
Hong Kong-Taipei had a total of 6.8 million seats in 2024, 48% more than last year, but still 15% less than in 2019 before the pandemic.
Cairo-Yeddah took second place with 5.5 million seats, with Seoul Incheon – Tokyo Narita in third place with 5.4 million.
Seven of the ten busiest international routes for this year were in the Asia and Pacific region, with New York JFK-Heathrow being the best located route to/from Europe in the tenth position with just over four million seats.
In relation to the news, OAG’s chief analyst, John Grant, said that “with the ASPAC (Asia-Pacific) region very close to a full recovery, the most traveled routes are concentrated in the main centers of Hong Kong, Seoul, Incheon and Singapore, although the composition of the offer on those routes is changing as the low-cost sector continues to grow at a faster rate than the traditional one.”
And he added “one of the most interesting developments is growth in the regional markets of the Middle East, with special emphasis on Saudi Arabia, where the Vision 2030 project continues to drive demand for both business and leisure.”
According to Businessness Traveller, in September, OAG published its latest ranking of the 50 airports with the best international connections in the world, in which London Heathrow Airport continues to occupy the first place.
The ranking compares the number of scheduled connections to and from international flights with the number of destinations served from the airport.