25/31: Busiest air routes and airpots
Ever since aviation became a regular thing focused not only for business but also for tourism airplanes started going everywhere, air routes between the biggest cities became more and more demanded so more companies offered these routes. Every day millions of people take a plane in order to get somewhere, and studying this routes and their data is an interesting way of seeing how cities, states, countries and continents are connected.
There are a lot of factors that need to be considered in order to see if an air route should exist or not. Not only population is important. Diplomatic relationships between countries come into play, as well; big companies can also create important air routes, as sometimes they would need their employees to travel from HQ City to Factory City often; industrial relationships between different branches can also contribute in making an air route important; touristic destinations also create important routes. Weather changes; close relationships between cities; history; airport and landing prices for airlines, countries policies, and many more things.
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) the busiest air route in the world is between the Korean cities of Seoul and Jeju, a small 450 km trip that just in 2015 transported 11.1 million people. It’s not surprising that the most traveled route in the world is a domestic flight, this kind of flights can be cheaper because there are less policies that you need to follow. But why the busiest route is between Seoul and an island with less than 700 thousand people? Well, tourism. Jeju Island is considered the most popular vacation spot for Koreans, and in a city with close to 25 million people a short and cheap escape to some paradisiacal island sounds like a great weekend plan, and more where there’s a plane going there every 15 minutes.
The second and third places are held by Japan. Tokyo to Sapporo transported 7.8 million people in 2015, for those who aren’t really good at Japanese geography, it’s an 819 km flight from the capital city of Japan to an island in the north called Hokkaido, which is not accessible by car, just by train; Sapporo is also the fifth largest city in Japan and the first one on the list outside of the main island, so the only way to go there is by train or plane. This may be the biggest reason why this route is so busy.
The third route is Tokyo to Fukuoka with 7.6 million passengers. Fukuoka happens to be the second biggest Japanese city outside of the main island, located in Kyushu, and even when there’s a bridge that connects both island the travel is 883 km, which for Japanese standards is a long road trip, so plane sounds like a good idea as well.
The fourth most traveled route is the first one outside of Asia and it’s between the Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne, which transported 7.2 million passengers in 2015.
The fifth one is Beijing to Shanghai, which could have been one of the first guesses for the busiest route in the world, since both are in the top 10 of biggest cities in the world. But seems that the good Chinese infrastructure for high speed trains divides the population traveling between the biggest city and the capital (and also third biggest city).
The first international flight in the list is between Hong Kong and Taipei, which transports 5.1 million passengers every day.
If the list goes by continents, with the ones that weren’t mentioned before. In Europe the first one is between Paris and Toulouse, with 2.3 million passengers in 2015. In North America the busiest one is Chicago to New York city with 4 million passengers in 2015. In South America the Brazilian cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (which is also the sixth busiest route in the world) with something around 6 million passengers in 2015. And in Africa, South Africa holds the first place with Cape Town to Johannesburg with 116 flights per day.
The busiest intercontinental route in the world is between London to New York City, which sounds logical considering that both countries have a high air travel culture and that both cities are closely related in all aspects.
Now, if we are talking about airports, things change a little. The list is also interesting, but other things need to be considered here. Airports are popular not because of the population of the city, things like airlines hubs, government travel strategies, land prices, landing prices, and many more things are part of what makes an airport busy or not.
In 2016 the busiest airport by passengers was the Harsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Which is not surprising if you have ever traveled in the US, Atlanta is the hub of Delta Air Lines which happens to be the second biggest airline in the world. Almost all Delta Air Lines flights arrive to Atlanta in order to make the first or second connection for the client. In 2016 104 million people traveled to or through Atlanta airport.
After that Beijing Capital International Airport holds the second place, with 94 million people. It isn’t surprising, a country with more than 1 billion people has one of the busiest airports in the world, which is the hub of four of the biggest Asian airlines.
The third place is held by Dubai International Airport, which usually serves as a connection between Europe and Middle East, East Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania. So in 2016, 83 million people traveled through Dubai International Airport.
Once again if we go by continents, not mentioned before. Heathrow Airport is the first one in Europe, with 75 million passengers in 2015 (and the seventh place in the world). In Oceania we have Sydney Kingsford-Smith Airport with almost 42 million passengers in 2016. In Africa O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg is the busiest one with 28 million passengers in 2016. And finally in South America, São Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport has the first place with almost 39 million passengers per year.
Air related statistics never stop to impress me, whether is about the flight, the airports, airlines or routes, I like to learn more and more about it.
Flying is still the best option for traveling in the world as I explained in How I (sort of) overcame my fear to fly, and this numbers change over the years, most of this data is based on the IATA report of 2016, so be sure next years there would me some movement in the rank.
This story is part of my 31/31 challenge. Following a friend’s idea I will publish at least one story every day for the next month.
If you see any error please let me know, the idea is to stop over-reviewing my stories before publishing them.
If you liked it be sure to show me your love clicking the 💛 below. And you can also subscribe to my new publications Shanghai Living and Lost Facts.
You can connect with me via Twitter following me at @fernandlicon.
