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Kuala Lumpur To Singapore Is Named The Busiest International Flight Route In The World

More than 4.9 million seats were sold for the route in 2023.

Cover image via Suhyeon Choi/Unsplash & Fasyah Halim/Unsplash

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Travel intelligence company OAG has released its annual listing of the world's busiest international flight routes and Kuala Lumpur to Singapore tops the list

This data is based purely on the number of seats sold on flights throughout 2023. The route between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore came up on top with 4.9 million seats this year.

Prior to the pandemic, the route averaged 82 daily flights. In recent times, that number has dropped to around 36 flights a day. The flight lasts just over one hour and is also the shortest international flight in the world.

All but one of the top 10 busiest routes are in Asia and the Middle East

Here are the busiest routes in the world:
1. Kuala Lumpur - Singapore Changi: 4.9 million seats
2. Cairo - Jeddah: 4.8 million seats
3. Hong Kong - Taipei: 4.6 million seats
4. Seoul Incheon - Osaka Kansai: 4.2 million seats
5. Seoul Incheon - Tokyo Narita: 4.1 million seats
6. Dubai - Riyadh: 3.9 million seats
7. Jakarta - Singapore Changi: 3.9 million seats
8. New York JFK - London Heathrow: 3.8 million seats
9. Bangkok - Singapore Changi: 3.4 million seats
10. Bangkok - Seoul Incheon: 3.3 million seats

Meanwhile, the busiest domestic airline route of 2023 is Jeju to Seoul with 13.7 million seats. This was also the busiest domestic route in both 2019 and 2022.

In second place is Hokkaido's Chitose Airport to Tokyo Haneda with 11.9 million seats, followed by Fukuoka to Tokyo Haneda with 11.3 million seats. 

Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City came in fourth with 10.9 million seats, and Melbourne to Sydney rounded off the top five with 9.3 million seats.

Read OAG's full report here.

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