The busiest flight routes in the world

Some air routes are so busy that a plane leaves every few minutes all day long. The busiest tend to be short domestic hops between big cities, while a few international corridors carry enormous numbers of travelers between countries. Here is a look at both.

The busiest domestic routes

Short flights connecting two major cities in the same country top the list, because they run at high frequency with lots of business travelers.

• Jeju to Seoul (South Korea): consistently one of the single busiest routes on earth, a short hop that operates like a bus service.
• Tokyo to Sapporo and Tokyo to Fukuoka (Japan): huge domestic corridors serving Japan's dense population.
• Melbourne to Sydney (Australia): the classic Australian shuttle between the two biggest cities.
• Mumbai to Delhi (India): the busiest route in one of the fastest-growing aviation markets.

The busiest international routes

Cross-border routes carry fewer flights than the domestic giants but still move millions of people a year.

• Hong Kong to Taipei: long one of the busiest international routes in the world.
• Kuala Lumpur to Singapore: a short, high-frequency hop between two Southeast Asian hubs.
• Cairo to Jeddah and Dubai to major Indian cities: corridors driven by business, tourism, and migration.
• New York to London: the busiest long-haul premium route across the Atlantic. You can see its flight time here.

How long do they take?

The busiest routes are usually the shortest, from under an hour for the domestic shuttles to a few hours for the international corridors. Curious about any of them? Drop the airport codes into the FlightBeat calculator to see the exact distance and flight time.

Try the flight time calculator