New aviation analysis has pinpointed the world's busiest flight path for 2025, with a short domestic hop in South Korea carrying the most passengers globally. The route, connecting Seoul's secondary Gimpo Airport to the holiday island of Jeju, sees nearly 40,000 seats available daily across seven competing airlines.
Asia Dominates the Skies
According to data from global aviation analyst OAG, the Seoul Gimpo to Jeju Island link is the clear leader. The popularity of the 75-minute, 280-mile journey is underscored by remarkably low fares, with tickets for a Christmas Day flight available for as little as £14 when booked just 48 hours in advance.
The dominance of Asian domestic travel is absolute, with all ten of the world's busiest routes falling within the continent. Japan's Tokyo Haneda airport features heavily, with services to Sapporo (over 33,000 daily seats), Fukuoka (31,000), and Okinawa (22,000) taking second, third, and seventh places respectively.
Vietnam's capital link from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City claims fourth spot with 30,000 daily seats, noted as the busiest route worldwide not connecting a capital to an island city.
Middle East, Australia and India in the Mix
The busiest route outside East Asia connects Saudi Arabia's two major hubs: the capital Riyadh and the Red Sea port of Jeddah. This 530-mile link offers 27,000 seats daily, with 14 departures scheduled each way between midnight and 6am on Christmas Day alone, at fares around £38.
Australia's sole entry is the Melbourne-Sydney corridor in sixth place, with nearly 25,000 daily seats. It is the highest-ranked journey not involving a national capital. The report notes the sub-450-mile distance makes it a prime candidate for high-speed rail, similar to the Paris-Marseille link in France.
India's key connection between Delhi and Mumbai takes eighth place, offering 21,000 seats daily across a 700-mile gap. China's Shanghai Hongqiao airport, another secondary gateway, rounds out the top ten with its routes to Beijing (9th, 20,000 seats) and Shenzhen (10th, 19,500 seats).
Why Europe and North America Trail Behind
The OAG study's methodology, which examines specific airport-to-airport pairs rather than city-to-city demand, explains the relatively low rankings for Europe and North America. For instance, travel between London and Milan is spread across five UK and three Italian airports.
Similarly, the New York to Chicago market is served by three New York-area airports and two in Chicago. Consequently, Europe's busiest route is Barcelona to Palma, with just 8,000 daily seats, placing it behind every other inhabited continent except Antarctica.
North America's top performer is not in the United States but Canada, with the Toronto-Vancouver link providing 10,000 seats daily. The busiest US domestic route is New York JFK to Los Angeles, with 9,400 daily seats.
On other continents, the highest-rated domestic links are Bogotá to Medellín in Colombia (134 miles, flights under an hour) and Cape Town to Johannesburg in Africa (almost 15,000 daily seats). The highest-scoring international route globally is Hong Kong to Taipei, with close to 19,000 seats daily, just outside the overall top ten.
