KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur to Singapore Changi route is no longer the busiest international airline route, according to OAG's annual assessment of the world's busiest flight routes between January and December this year.
The KUL-SIN route, the busiest international airline route last year, dropped to fourth place with 5.4 million seats, just 28,293 or 0.5 per cent behind third place.
The route, however, was still above 2023 levels by 10 per cent and just below 2019 levels by three per cent.
The Hong Kong (HKG) to Taipei (TPE) route emerged as the busiest international route with 6.8 million seats.
Last year, the route ranked as the third busiest route, although it held the top spot in 2019.
According to the report, the capacity on this route has grown by 48 per cent compared to the previous year, yet it remains 15 per cent lower than the levels seen in 2019.
All routes across Asia Pacific have seen significant growth this year, as the region continues the post-pandemic recovery, with the HKG - TPE route showing the most substantial increase.
The second and third busiest international airline routes were Cairo (CAI) to Jeddah (JED) with 5.5 million seats and Seoul Incheon (ICN) to Tokyo Narita (NRT) with 5.4 million seats respectively.
The Bangkok (BKK) to Hong Kong (HKG) moved up into the Top 10 Busiest International Routes this year in seventh place with 4.2 million seats, a capacity increase of 29 per cent compared to 2023 but still 13 per cent behind 2019.
According to the OAG, the majority of routes in the Top 10 Busiest International Routes for 2024 were in Asia, with seven routes in total.
From other regions, one route is from Africa (Cairo to Jeddah), one from Europe and North America (New York JFK to London Heathrow) and two operate within the Middle East (Cairo to Jeddah and Dubai to Riyadh).