Seoul Airport. Photo: Shutterstock Global travel industry aviation data and analytics company OAG is wrapping up the year with its traditional list of the top 10 busiest routes for 2025. This year, nine of those 10 routes were in the East, followed by the rest of the world.
1. Jeju International - Seousl Gimpo line in South Korea
Number of seats: 14,384,766
2. Sapporo New Chitose - Tokyo Haneda line in Japan
Number of seats: 12,099,499
3. Fukuoka - Tokyo Haneda line in Japan
Number of seats: 11,496,706
4. Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City line in Vietnam
Number of seats: 11,078,775
5. Jeddah - Riyadh line in Saudi Arabia
Number of seats: 9,819,558
6. Melbourne - Sydney line in Australia
Number of seats: 8,951,497
7. Tokyo Haneda - Okinawa Naha line in Japan
Number of seats: 8,052,864
8. Mumbai - Delhi line in India
Number of seats: 7,642,016
9. Beijing - Shanghai Hongqiao line in China
Number of seats: 7,454,950
10. Shanghai Hongqiao - Shenzhen line in China
Number of seats: 7,138,673
Photo: Shutterstock1. Hong Kong - Taipei line
Number of seats: 6,832,683
2. Cairo - Jeddah line
Number of seats: 5,753,491
3. Kuala Lumpur - Singapore Changi line
Number of seats: 5,574,409
4. Seoul Incheon - Tokyo Narita line
Number of seats: 5,069,779
5. Seoul Incheon - Osaka Kansai line
Number of seats: 4,959,596
6. Jakarta - Singapore Changi line
Number of seats: 4,619,323
7. Dubai - Riyadh line
Number of seats: 4,465,632
8. Bangkok - Hong Kong line
Number of seats: 4,169,125
9. Tokyo Narita - Taipei line
Number of seats: 4,021,181
10. New York JFK - London Heathrow line
Number of seats: 3,971,000
The Asia Pacific region continues to lead global passenger traffic. Nine of the ten busiest routes in the ranking operate in this region, mainly on short-haul domestic flights with high frequency.
At the top of the list is the route between Jeju and Seoul, South Korea. In 2025, about 14.4 million passengers flew on this route, which is about 39,000 passengers per day. The capacity on the route is only 1% higher than last year (2024), but still 17% lower than in 2019. Seven airlines operate on the route, with ticket prices down 11% from last year, with an average of $44 one-way.
The busiest domestic flight in the Middle East is the one between Riyadh and Jeddah, and in Spain, it is the one between Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca with 2,955,696 seats.
In international flights, routes in the East are significantly dominant, but it is notable that the second-largest route in the world is between Cairo and Jeddah. The top ten busiest routes in the world is rounded out by the busiest route departing from JFK Airport in New York, the New York-London route.