THE BUSIEST FLIGHT ROUTES OF 2023

Welcome to our annual review of the world’s busiest flight routes. The Busiest Flight Routes of 2023 explores data from January to December 2023, powered by OAG's Global Airline Schedules Data, to provide an overview of route performance and trends. 

Discover the busiest international and domestic flight routes worldwide, with comparison to 2019 and 2022. Additionally, we have included data on the largest aviation markets, China and the USA, by providing insights into the busiest domestic airline routes within these regions.

Listed below are the number one international airline routes per region, based on seats. Full top 10 rankings for each of these regions, plus further breakdowns, alongside the global busiest international and domestic routes rankings, is free to download -just click on the yellow button below for instant access.

• The busiest domestic airline route of 2023 is Jeju (CJU) to Seoul (GMP) with 13.7 million seats, this was also the busiest domestic route in both 2019 and 2022. There is a 15% gap in capacity between first and second place on this list.
• Compared to 2019, the CJU-GMP route has 21% less airline capacity this year.
• In second place in our Top 10 is Hokkaido’s Chitose Airport (CTS) to Tokyo Haneda (HND) with 11.9 million seats.
• Fukuoka (FUK) to Tokyo Haneda (HND) is the third busiest route with 11.3 million seats - there is only a 6% gap in capacity between second and third place.
• Hanoi (HAN) to Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) is the fourth busiest domestic airline route in 2023 with 10.9 million seats and Melbourne (MEL) to Sydney (SYD) is the fifth with 9.3 million seats.
• Jakarta (CGK) to Denpasar (DPS) is in tenth place and is the only route in the top 10 which did not appear in the top 10 in 2019.

KEY POINTS

• The busiest domestic route in China for 2023 is Beijing (PEK) to Shanghai Hongqiao (SHA) with 8.4 million seats. That is 3% higher than 2019 and 49% more than in 2022 - both years in which PEK-SHA was the busiest domestic route in China.
• Guangzhou (CAN) to Shanghai Hongqiao (SHA) is in second position with 7.2 million seats and Shenzhen (SZX) to Shanghai Hongqiao (SHA) is in third with 7 million seats.
• There are three routes in China’s top 10 busiest domestic routes in 2023 which were not in the top 10 in 2019, these are:
  • Hangzhou (HGH) to Shenzhen (SZX), 6^th place
  • Guangzhou (CAN) to Beijing Daxing (PKX), 7^th place
  • Beijing Daxing (PKX) to Shenzhen (SZX), 10^th place
• Most of the domestic routes in China for 2023 have increased capacity compared to 2019, ranging from 3% to 31%. However, routes from Beijing (PEK) have decreased capacity by 16% to 43% due to the opening of Beijing Daxing (PKX) airport in September 2019.

KEY POINTs

• Honolulu (HNL) to Kahului (OGG) is the busiest domestic route in the USA in 2023 with 3.6 million seats, just 3% more than Atlanta (ATL) to Orlando (MCO) in second place with 3.5 million seats.
• Honolulu (HNL) to Kahului (OGG) was not in the top 10 busiest routes in 2019 and was third in 2022.
• Las Vegas (LAS) to Los Angeles (LAX) is in third place with 3.5 million seats and New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX) is in fourth place with 3.2 million seats.
• There are three routes in the top 10 busiest domestic routes in the USA which were not in the top 10 in 2019, these are:
  • Honolulu (HNL) to Kahului (OGG), 1^st place
  • Denver (DEN) to Las Vegas (LAS), 5^th place
  • Denver (DEN) to Phoenix (PHX), 8^th place
• Los Angeles (LAX) to San Francisco (SFO) was the busiest route in the USA in 2019 but in 2023 it is in 6^th place with 3.1 million seats, a 33% decrease in capacity compared to 2019.

Listed below are the number one domestic airline routes per region. Full top 10 rankings for each of these regions, plus further breakdowns, alongside the global busiest international and domestic routes rankings, is free to download - just click on the yellow button below for instant access.

SEATS

The busiest air routes are defined as those with the largest volume of scheduled airline seats in the year 2023. Data is for flights in both directions on each route. The annual Busiest Routes report is collated from the monthly Busiest Routes reports, which are sourced from the OAG Schedules Analyser in the first week of each month. The data reflects the most recent year for the busiest scheduled domestic and international aviation routes in each category. Historical capacity data for 2019 and 2022 has been used for comparison.