This Year’s 3rd Busiest Flight Route Worldwide: Incheon-Tokyo Round Trip

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The route between Incheon International Airport and Tokyo Narita International Airport in Japan ranked third among the world's busiest round-trip flights this year.

According to Bloomberg, aviation data analytics firm OAG released on the 17th (local time) the top 10 international scheduled round-trip routes worldwide with the highest total seat capacity operated from January to December this year.

On the 13th, one day before the Chuseok holiday, Incheon International Airport Terminal 1 duty-free area is bustling with crowds heading overseas during the holiday period. Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

Statistics show that the route with the highest seat capacity this year was between Hong Kong and Taipei, Taiwan, with a total of about 6.8 million seats flown between the two cities. The round-trip route between Cairo, Egypt, and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia followed with about 5.47 million seats.

The round-trip route between Incheon and Tokyo Narita airports recorded about 5.4 million seats, ranking third. This represents a 30% increase compared to last year and a 68% increase compared to 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to OAG. The route between Incheon and Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan, also ranked fifth with about 4.98 million seats.

According to the statistics, seven of the top 10 routes by seat capacity this year were concentrated in the Asia region, showing a trend of flight demand focusing on Asia. Bloomberg analyzed that routes with more travel demand than business, such as Hong Kong and Taiwan, Incheon and Tokyo, as well as Bangkok and Hong Kong (about 4.2 million seats), and Bangkok and Singapore (about 4.03 million seats), which also ranked within the top 10, were particularly active this year.

With Saudi Arabia's national development project 'Vision 2030' being actively promoted, the scale of flights to and from the Middle East also increased. The seat capacity of the round-trip route between Cairo and Jeddah, which ranked second this year with about 5.47 million seats, increased by 14% compared to last year.

Among routes in the Anglophone regions such as North America and Europe, the round-trip route between New York JFK International Airport in the United States and London Heathrow International Airport in the United Kingdom was the only one to rank within the top 10, with about 4.01 million seats (10th place).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.