Airline Traffic in September — Here Are The World’s Busiest Routes!

Based on the latest OAG data, we’ve analyzed the world’s airline traffic and present the busiest airline routes in September 2021. Additionally, we provide information about changes compared to last month’s ranking. Here’s an overview of what you will find on this blog post:

• World’s Busiest Domestic Routes
• Busiest Asian Domestic Routes
• Busiest North American Domestic Routes
• World’s Busiest International Routes
• Spotlight on African International Routes
• Spotlight on Asian International Routes

World’s Busiest Domestic Routes

Compared to the last ranking the busiest airline routes haven’t changed significantly. Actually, nine out of ten routes remain in the top 10. The Latin American route Cancun-Mexico City is no longer part of the top 10 and replaced by another Chines route (Chengdu – Beijing).

Moreover, and also similar to previous rankings, Asian routes make up the biggest part of the ranking. In fact, Jedda-Riyadh is the only “non-Asian route” in the top busiest airline traffic routes. From a capacity point of view, there’s no clear trend since some routes declined in terms of capacity but other increased seats.

Busiest Chinese Domestic Routes

Besides the world’s busiest airline routes, we also took a specific look at China. As shown in one of our recent blog posts, China is one of the rare airline markets that record traffic figures similar to pre-COVID times. Unsurprisingly, China’s big metropolitan areas, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, or Guangzhou, play the most crucial role in domestic traffic.

Besides that, the list contains no significant changes compared to previous rankings. However, worth mentioning that all routes recorded a capacity increase in September. This is quite contrary compared to other world regions.

Airline Traffic: Busiest North American Domestic Routes

When looking at North America’s airline traffic many of the busiest routes remained the same in September. However, it is interesting to see that the capacity of the Denver-Phoenix routes on position three is only 8,000 seats bigger than Denver-Chicago on rank seven. And even the routes on positions eight to ten are quite close to the ones on positions three to seven. Therefore, we will likely see some changes with next month’s ranking.

World’s Busiest International Routes

Similar to August, the world’s busiest international remain dominated by flights to/from Simferopol. However, it is arguable whether this should be counted as an international route. Different from the busiest domestic routes, there’s not a single Asian route contained in the list. On the contrary, we have North American, European, African, and Middle East routes.

After London Heathrow re-entered the list in August with the route JFK-LHR, we have also the Dubai-London route back in the top 10.

Spotlight on African International Routes

Egypt’s capital Cairo plays an important role when looking at the top international African routes. Like the last ranking, flights from Cairo to Jeddah, Dubai, and Riyadh rank on positions one to three. Moreover, the route Cairo-Khartoum adds a fourth and Cairo-Kuwait a fifth Cairo-routing to the top 10!

Spotlight on Asian International Routes

Looking at important Asian international routes, Singapore plays an essential role. As a result, Singapore is part of four of the top 10 routes. Besides that, Chinese airports play an important role and are part of five routings.

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Used Data
The shown information is based on OAG data and internal data sources. Whenever stated, EMEA refers to airlines based in Europe, the Middle East, or Africa.