The busiest flight route in the world in 2017 was again Jeju-Seoul Gimpo. As
many as 13.4 million passengers used this domestic service in South Korea.
This is evident from figures that Routes Online announced on the eve of the
international network event World Routes 2018 in Guangzhou, China.
 
The Jeju-Seoul route has a length of only 450 kilometers. Every day 180
flights take place between the two cities, with on board mainly tourists from
the South Korean capital Seoul who visit the island of Jeju. On average every
eight minutes a scheduled flight departs on this route.
 
It does not look like Jeju-Seoul is quickly overtaken by another route. On the
second busiest scheduled service flight in the world, Melbourne - Sydney
Kingsford Smith, 9.1 million people travel annually. In addition, the number
of passengers on the South Korean route grew by 9.4 percent in 2017.
 
The rest of the top ten of the world's busiest flight routes is dominated by
domestic liner services in Asia. The busiest international scheduled flight
was Hong Kong - Taiwan Taoyuan in 2017, with 6.7 million passengers. Of the
ten busiest international routes, six are from or to Hong Kong.
 
Top 10 busiest scheduled flights in the world:
                            Passengers (2017)
1 Jeju - Seoul Gimpo (CJU-GMP) 13,460,306
2 Melbourne - Sydney Kingsford Smith (MEL-SYD) 9,090,941
3 Sapporo - Tokyo Haneda (CTS-HND) 8,726,502
4 Fukuoka - Tokyo Haneda (FUK-HND) 7,864,000
5 Mumbai - Delhi (BOM-DEL) 7,129,943
6 Beijing Capital - Shanghai Hongqiao (PEK-SHA) 6,833,684
7 Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City (HAN-SGN) 6,769,823
8 Hong Kong - Taiwan Taoyuan (HKG-TPE) 6,719,030
9 Jakarta - Juanda Surabaya (CGK-SUB) 5,271,304
Tokyo Haneda - Okinawa (HND-OKA) 5,269,481
 
Top 10 busiest international scheduled flights in the world:
                             Passengers (2017)
1 Hong Kong - Taiwan Taoyuan (HKG-TPE) 6,719,030
2 Jakarta - Singapore Changi (CGK-SIN) 4,810,602
3 Hong Kong - Shanghai Pudong (HKG-PVG) 4,162,347
4 Kuala Lumpur - Singapore Changi (KUL-SIN) 4,108,824
5 Bangkok Suvarnabhumi - Hong Kong (BKK-HKG) 3,438,628
6 Dubai - London Heathrow (DXB-LHR) 3,210,121
7 Hong Kong - Seoul Incheon (HKG-ICN) 3,198,132
8 Hong Kong - Singapore Changi (HKG-SIN) 3,147,384
9 New York JFK - London Heathrow (JFK-LHR) 2,972,817
10 Hong Kong - Beijing Capital (HKG-PEK) 2,962,707
 
Top 10 fastest growing scheduled flights in the world:
                       Growth on annual basis
1 Bangkok Suvarnabhumi - Chiang Mai (BKK-CNX) 36.0%
2 Seoul Incheon - Kansai International (ICN-KIX) 30.3%
3 Jakarta - Kuala Lumpur (CGK-KUL) 29.4%
4 Delhi - Pune (DEL-PNQ) 20.6%
5 Chengdu - Shenzhen Bao'an (CTU-SZX) 16.8%
6 Hong Kong - Shanghai Pudong (HKG-PVG) 15.5%
7 Bangkok Suvarnabhumi - Phuket (BKK-HKT) 14.9%
8 Jeddah - Riyadh King Kalid (JED-RUH) 13.9%
9 Jakarta - Kualanamu (CGK-ENT) 13.9%
10 Kolkata - Delhi (CCU-DEL) 13.4%
 
Busiest routes by region
Asia-Pacific: Jeju - Seoul Gimpo (CJU-GMP)
Middle East: Jeddah - Riyadh King Kalid (JED-RUH)
Africa: Cape Town - O.R. Tambo Johannesburg (CPT-JNB)
Latin America: Cancun - Mexico City (CUN-MEX)
North America: New York JFK - Los Angeles (JFK-LAX)
Europe: Izmir - Istanbul Ataturk (ADB-IST)

--- D'Bridge 3.99 SR33
 * Origin: AVIATION HQ (2:292/854)