Hong Kong-Taipei takes crown from Kuala Lumpur-Singapore as world’s busiest international airline route
PETALING JAYA, Dec 24 — Kuala Lumpur to Singapore Changi flight route, which was once the busiest international air connection, has dropped to fourth in 2024, based on OAG's yearly review of the world's most frequented airways.
Malaysia saw a slight decrease in the KUL-SIN route with 5.4 million people taking flights in the current year, dropping it from its ranking of being the highest in 2023.
Actually, the current route experienced a 10% surge compared to the previous year, but fell just 3% shy of the numbers seen in 2019 before the pandemic.
The busiest international route is now held by the Hong Kong to Taipei route (HKG-TPE), with seat availability rising to 6.8 million in 2024.
The increase this year is 48 per cent greater than last year's amount, although still 15 per cent lower than the 2019 figure.
This year, the same route saw the third-largest number of passengers, whereas in 2019, it held the top position.
According to this year's rankings, only two other routes have retained sizable traffic, namely from Cairo to Jeddah with approximately 5.5 million seats and Seoul Incheon to Tokyo Narita with roughly 5.4 million seats.
Meanwhile, the Bangkok to Hong Kong route is now among the top 10 busiest air routes in the world, claiming the seventh spot with approximately 4.2 million available seats per year. This represents a significant 29% increase from the figure in 2023, although it remains 13% lower compared to 2019.
OAG's report shows that air travel routes in the Asia-Pacific region have rebounded well, with particular highlights for Hong Kong-Taipei air routes which have experienced a substantial increase in capacity.
Seven routes in Asia dominate the list of the busiest international routes for 2024, with one route each in Africa (Cairo to Jeddah), a shared route between Europe and North America (New York JFK to London Heathrow), and two in the Middle East (Cairo to Jeddah and Dubai to Riyadh).
