OAG: Canadian Air Route Tops 2024 List of N. America’s Busiest

Canadian city pairs took the first and 10th places for the busiest 2024 air routes in North America, while one U.S.-based route made the global top 10 list, OAG announced Tuesday. Ranks are determined by the volume of scheduled departing seats for flights in both directions.

Vancouver-Toronto was the top North American route in 2024 with nearly 3.5 million seats. Vancouver-Calgary closed out the top 10 list with 2.96 million seats. The eight intervening routes all were for U.S. city pairs. Atlanta-Orlando was the busiest U.S. route at 3.47 million seats, followed by Honolulu-Kahului at 3.37 million. Those U.S. pairs alos were the top two in 2023, but in reverse order. 

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New York LaGuardia-Chicago O’Hare in 2024 had the largest increase in capacity, 17 percent year over year, according to OAG, and moved into the top 10 domestic routes, coming in eighth for the U.S. with 3.12 million seats.  

“Although American Airlines and United [Airlines] maintained similar route capacity from New York LaGuardia to Chicago, the addition of 700 flights from Spirit Airlines helped position it as one of the busiest U.S. routes this year, pointing to an evolving competitive landscape,” OAG chief analyst John Grant said in a statement. 

Busiest N. American International Routes

The route between New York John F. Kennedy International Airport and London Heathrow was the busiest international North American route, with 4.01 million seats. Dropping off to 2.31 million seats in second was Orlando-San Juan, P.R. 

JFK claimed three of the top 10 North American routes, with Paris Charles de Gaulle-New York JFK fourth with 2.11 million seats, and New York JFK-San Juan ninth with 1.4 million seats.

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Busiest Global Routes

The top North American route—JFK-Heathrow—was the only North American based route to make the top 10 global business air routes, coming in 10th. Last year it was seventh. Seats on that route increased 3 percent year over year and were up 5 percent when compared with 2019, according to OAG.

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Leading all routes globally was Hong Kong-Taipei, with 6.78 million seats, a 48 percent increase year over year, but a 15 percent decrease compared with 2019. The route reclaimed the top spot from 2019 after falling to third last year, according to OAG.

Last year’s No. 1 route, Kuala Lumpur-Singapore Changi, dropped to fourth this year, with 5.38 million seats, representing a 10 percent increase in seats compared with 2023, but a 3 percent drop versus 2019. 

Cairo-Jeddah retained its No. 2 ranking with 5.47 million seats, representing a 14 percent increase year over year and 62 percent rise from 2019 levels. Seoul Incheon-Tokyo Narita followed in third with 5.41 million seats, up from fifth last year. Capacity on this route increased 30 percent compared with 2023 and was 68 percent higher than 2019 levels.

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