FIFTEEN of the top 20 busiest global air travel routes are in Asia, but none of them involve the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL) or the Mactan Cebu International Airport (CEB) or any of the international airports in the Philippines.
Air travel intelligence company OAG revealed the busiest routes and the top airlines for the period March 2018 to February 2019 in its Busiest Routes 2019 report, which was released Wednesday, March 27.
Based on the OAG reports, the busiest international routes revolve around a cluster of Asian hub airports, namely, SIN, HKG, KUL and BKK - the airport codes for Changi Airport, Hong Kong International Airport, Kuala Lumpur International Airport and New Bangkok International Airport, respectively.
The busiest international route, which is also one of the shortest, is still KUL-SIN with 30,187 flights in one year, which are operated by eight carriers with an average of 82 flights per day.
“At just 296 kilometers, you have barely taken off from Kuala Lumpur before you’re descending into Singapore. With a flight time of just over an hour, passengers can choose between 41 different flights every day, and eight different airlines,” the OAG report stated.
On average Asian routes (domestic and international) operate with seven carriers while US and European routes have an average of only three carriers per route.
Among the domestic routes, meanwhile, the busiest is that between Jeju and Seoul Gimpo with nearly 80,000 annual flights by seven carriers that operate over 200 daily flights.
The second busiest domestic route is MEL-SYD (Melbourne-Sydney) in Australia with around 148 flights each day.
The OAG report said the top 20 busiest domestic routes are located in 13 different countries in every continent except Europe.
“Indonesia is home to more of the Top 20 busiest domestic routes than any other country, with three. Each of Australia, China, India, Japan and the United States have two of the busiest domestic routes," it added.
Among the top international carriers per route are: Air Asia, Malaysia Airlines, SilkAir, Jetstar Asia and Malindo Airways for the KUL-SIN route; Cathay Pacific Airways, China Airlines, EVA Airways, Hong Kong Airlines and Cathay Dragon for the HKG-TPE route; and Garuda Indonesia, Singapore Airlines, Lion Air, Jetstar Asia and Indonesia AirAsia for the CGK-SIN route. (Ventures Cebu)
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