Summary
- LAX dominates with 3 busiest routes
- NYC holds 3 top routes as well
- Denver rises with 3 routes in top 10
The United States is the world’s largest aviation market, and all of its top ten busiest routes scheduled for the month of September have around a quarter of a million seats. The busiest single route continues to be from Las Vegas (LAS) to Los Angeles (LAX), while the busiest international route is from NYC JFK to London Heathrow. Here are the busiest domestic routes in the US for September, according to information compiled by OAG.
LAX boasts three of the busiest routes
Three of the US’s three busiest domestic routes fly to Los Angeles. Los Angeles has the first (Las Vegas to Los Angeles with 285,893 seats), second (Los Angeles to San Francisco with 281,564 seats), and sixth (New York JFK to Los Angeles with 271,427 seats) busiest domestic routes. The Los Angeles to San Francisco route increased 2% in seats per day compared to the previous month, moving up two places to be the second-busiest route.
Photo: Balta Mihaita Sorin | Shutterstock
LAX had two more of the ten busiest domestic routes in previous months: Honolulu to Los Angeles and Los Angeles to Chicago O’Hare, but these routes dropped out of the top ten for September.
NYC has three of the busiest routes
NYC boasts three of the busiest domestic routes in the US (including the New York JFK to Los Angeles route mentioned above). The other two routes are New York LaGuardia to Chicago O’Hare (with 278,342 seats) and Atlanta to New York LaGuardia (with 254,214 seats). The LaGuardia to Chicago O’Hare route has fallen one place to the third busiest, while the Atlanta route is the seventh busiest for September.
Other top ten domestic routes
Denver has the eighth, ninth, and tenth-busiest domestic routes in the United States. These are Denver to Phoenix with 244,981 seats, Denver to Chicago O’Hare with 229,721 seats, and Denver to Las Vegas with 224,536 seats. These three have just moved up into the top ten.
Photo: Lukas Wunderlich | Shutterstock
The other two busiest domestic routes for September by number of seats are Atlanta to Orlando with 275,179 seats and Honolulu to Kahului with 272,812 seats. This internal Hawaiian route was the busiest domestic US route in 2023. Kahului Airport is the main airport on the island of Maui in Hawaii, with most of its flights coming from Oahu’s Honolulu International Airport (called the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport).
Kahului is the only non-international airport in the top ten list (NYC’s LaGuardia has limited international flights – mostly from Canada). Hawaii is now the only non-contiguous domestic reroute in the top ten after Anchorage to Seattle fell out of the ranking.
Photo: EQRoy | Shutterstock
One notable feature of the busiest domestic routes is that the list tapers off slowly, with no major drop-off between top routes. Las Vegas to Los Angeles has 285,893 seats, while the tenth route, Denver to Vegas, has 224,536 seats—a drop of only 61,237 seats or a bit over 20%.