This was published 6 years ago
World's busiest airline flight routes: Melbourne-Sydney now world's second busiest
By Kylie McLaughlin
Planes at Sydney Airport. There are now 54,519 flights between Sydney and Melbourne's airports annually.Credit: Daniel Munoz
Two of the busiest air routes in the world are found in Australia.
According to flight data website OAG.com, Sydney to Melbourne is the world's second busiest air route, with 54,519 flights a year.
And Brisbane to Sydney is the eighth busiest in the world, flying 33,765 times a year.
The world's busiest air route is in South Korea, from the holiday island of Jeju to the capital of Seoul. Airlines fly the route a whopping 64,991 times a year.
While most of the top 10 list was filled with Asian destinations such as Mumbai to Delhi at third busiest (47,462), the busiest US route was LA to San Francisco at number seven with 34,897 flights.
The 10th busiest was Cape Town to Johannesburg in South Africa, with 31,914 flights.
All of the top 10 busiest routes were domestic.
When it came to international routes, Hong Kong to Taipei topped the list with 29,494 flights a year.
Kuala Lumpur to Singapore is the second busiest (29,383 flights), and Jakarta to Singapore at third, (26,872 flights).
Of the top ten, eight routes were Asian. The busiest route outside of Asia is New York to Toronto, the sixth busiest with 17,116 flights a year, followed by Dublin to London, the ninth busiest route in the world (14,556 flights).
Meanwhile, the statistics for the Sydney - Melbourne corridor could add leverage to the argument that Australia needs a high-speed rail network, taking pressure and driving traffic away from its two biggest airports.
A high speed train could potentially travel from Melbourne to Sydney in three hours and three minutes, or two hours and 44 minutes express.
One study found a train, which would travel at 350 km/hr, was last projected to cost $112 billion.
That statistics come after 2017 was confirmed as the safest year on record for commercial air travel, with zero accident deaths recorded for commercial passenger jets.
There were just 44 deaths in 2017, equalling one fatal accident for every 7.36 million departures.
World's 10 busiest air routes
- Jeju-Seoul, South Korea: 64,991
- Melbourne-Sydney, Australia: 54,519
- Mumbai-Delhi, India: 47,462
- Fukuoka-Tokyo Haneda, Japan: 42,835
- Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo Congonhas, Brazil: 39,325
- Sapporo-Tokyo, Japan: 38,389
- Los Angeles-San Francisco, USA: 34,897
- Brisbane-Sydney, Australia: 33,765
- Cape Town-Johannesburg, South Africa: 31,914
- Beijing-Shanghai, China: 30,029
World's busiest international air routes
- Hong Kong-Taipei: 29,494
- Kuala Lumpur-Singapore: 29,383
- Jakarta-Singapore: 26,872
- Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur: 20,890
- Hong Kong-Shanghai: 20,818
- New York La Guardia-Toronto: 17,116
- Hong Kong-Seoul Incheon: 16,366
- Beijing-Hong Kong: 14,592
- Dublin-London Heathrow: 14,556
- Bangkok-Singapore: 14,455
Based on the largest global routes by total number of flights (arriving and departing) for domestic and international routes for jet operations only. Source: OAG.com
See also: The world's safest, and least safe, airlines named
See also: World's best airline for 2017 named as Qantas hits lowest ranking
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