PETALING JAYA: The Kuala Lumpur-Singapore route is no longer the busiest international airline route, as the Hong Kong-Taipei route takes the top spot in 2024, according to OAG Global Airline Schedules Data.
In 2023, the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore route through Changi Airport was the busiest, but it dropped to fourth place in 2024, with 5.4 million seats — just 28,293 seats (0.5%) behind third place.
“The Hong Kong-Taipei route with 6.8 million seats took the top position, which it last held in 2019,” said OAG.
This marks a 48% increase in capacity compared to 2023, although it still remains 15% below levels seen in 2019.
The second busiest international route is Cairo-Jeddah, with 5.5 million seats.
This route has seen a 14% increase in capacity compared to 2023 and is 62% higher than 2019 levels.
The Seoul Incheon-Tokyo Narita route takes third place with 5.4 million seats, reflecting a 30% increase in capacity compared to last year.
Other notable routes in the top 10 include:
5th: Seoul Incheon-Osaka Kansai
6th: Dubai-Riyadh
7th: Bangkok-Hong Kong
8th: Jakarta-Singapore Changi
9th: Bangkok-Singapore
10th: New York JFK-London Heathrow
The rankings are based on the volume of scheduled airline seats for 2024, as reported by OAG’s monthly Busiest Routes Right Now reports, which draw data from the OAG Schedules Analyser during the first week of each month.