Dubai: The business hubs in the world’s largest continent have dominated the international flight traffic in the ongoing year securing 7 spots in the global ranking for the top 10 busiest routes. This striking stat was unveiled by the recent report of OAG on The Busiest Flight Routes on December 17.
The report from the UK-based data provider of the global travel industry has confirmed that the Dubai-Riyadh route has successfully secured sixth rank in the list of busiest global routes with an 8% and 34% increase from last year and 2019, respectively.
Dubai’s DXB Airport Emerges a Top Contender in Middle East Ranking
Based on the total airline capacity for both domestic and international flights and the largest volume of scheduled airline seats in 2024, the OAG created this curated list of the top 10 busiest routes in the ongoing year globally. The sixth ranking of the Dubai-Riyadh route in this list can be understood as the “revenge travel” trend, which emerged post-pandemic due to travel restrictions implemented due to the COVID-19 breakout.
The initiative of Emirates Airlines to increase the frequency of flights to compensate for the increased growth in visitor traffic as the two prominent GCC nations UAE and Saudi Arabia were actively promoting tourism to attract tourists and support their tourism sectors. This effort can be attributed to the UAE’s vision to strengthen Dubai’s position as the Middle East’s tourism hub and Saudi Arabia’s vision of transforming the country into a global destination for tourism and culture under its two innovative initiatives, Neom and AlUla.
John Grant, the Chief Analyst at OAG stated in a press conference on December 17 that the most impressive development is the expansion in the Middle East markets with a special focus on Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 project to consistently drive business and leisure demands. The CEO of Dubai Airports, Paul Griffiths gave a statement in which he highlighted that the DXB Airport’s emergence as the synonym for excellent customer service has continued making itself a matter of major focus for us. He said with ongoing investment in customer service and advanced technological advantages, we will ensure the success of DXB in offering superior hospitality.
Top 10 Busiest Flight Routes in 2024
In the global ranking report of the busiest flight routes of the ongoing year by OAG, a maximum of 7 spots have been secured by Asian routes. This report was created by collecting data from the period spanning from the start to the end month of 2024 to offer a comprehensive views of route performances and trends.
#1 Hong Kong-Taipei route secured the first rank in the list of busiest airline routes in 2024 with 6.8 million routes and a 48% increase from last year.
#2 Cairo-Jeddah route takes second place in the list of the 10 global busiest airline routes with 5.5 million seats and a 14% increase from 2023.
#3 Seoul Incheon-Tokyo Narita secured the third spot in this list with a striking volume of 5.4 million seats and a 30% increase from last year.
#4 Kuala Lumpur-Singapore Changi became the fourth busiest route globally with only 28, 293 seats behind the Seoul-Incheon route. However, the route has shown an increase of 10% from 2023.
#5 Seoul Incheon-Osaka Kansai secures a fifth position in the list of international busiest routes with 4,982,769 seats and an 18% increase from the previous year.
#6 Dubai-Riyadh route of the Middle East connectivity secures the sixth spot in this list with 4,306,599 seats and a 8% increase from last year.
#7 Bangkok-Hong Kong route with a striking growth of 29% from the previous year secured seventh rank in this list with 4,201,802 seats.
#8 Jakarta-Singapore Changi became the eighth busiest airline route in the world with a seat count of 4,069,071.
#9 Bangkok-Singapore Changi route has shown 16% growth from the previous year and takes place as the 9th busiest route with 4,033,344 seats.
#10 New York JFK-London Heathrow route secures the last position in the list with 4,011,235 seats and a 3% increase from last year.
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