World’s busiest air route is in South Korea

sydney — The world’s busiest air route isn’t London to Paris or New York to Los Angeles, but the trip between Seoul and a tiny island off the coast of South Korea.

Planes made 65,000 trips between the Korean capital and Jeju island — a journey of little more than an hour — in 2017, equivalent to 178 flights a day, according to data from OAG Aviation Worldwide. That’s almost double the 35,000 trips on the busiest North American route: Los Angeles to San Francisco.

Asian cities dominated the list. Among the 10 busiest routes in the world last year, Los Angeles-San Francisco was the only North American entry and there wasn’t a single European destination. The top European route in OAG’s rankings was Dublin London Heathrow with about 14,500 flights.

Jeju-Seoul

The beaches and resorts of Jeju, an island off the southernmost tip of the Korean peninsula, have drawn local holidaymakers for decades. These days, Japanese and Chinese tourists are joining the South Koreans on the sand.

Melbourne-Sydney

Unless you have 10 hours to spare and love driving, a 90-minute flight is the best way to shuttle between Australia’s two biggest population centres. Weekday rush-hour connections are the domain of business travellers. Shoppers, sports fans and tourists take the cheaper seats.