[TominScotland]

I thought this table interesting and wondered how it would compare with data from, say, 10, 20 years ago? Notably, no European airports. What does it tell us? Rise of LCCs around the world? Inefficient use of smaller aircraft? Any thoughts on a Friday, folks?

[Swissdiver]

Various factors differentiate Europe:
– It is relatively small, so cities are closer to each other
– The train network is often efficient and includes fast trains
– Airports are often close to cities limiting the night trafic
– UK aside, there are not so many islands with large cities
– Economical growth is not with us anymore

That said, the numbers on the table can be surprising. How 100 flights a day (the first route) between cities would be possible?

[Bath_VIP]

This was something I used to like doing whenever I picked up an airline timetable years ago when they used to be printed.

I remember Southwest airlines about 20 years had about 30-40 flights a day between Dallas and Houston. Just checked online and these days they are doing 17 flights a day with a departure every hour between 6am & 10pm. But years ago it was every half an hour and at peak times every 15 mins.

The other one that used to be very busy was Aurigny between Jersey & Guernsey, again often every half hour.

[canucklad]

[quote quote=979685]This was something I used to like doing whenever I picked up an airline timetable years ago when they used to be printed.[/quote]

Ahhh, the humble timetable , still got a Concorde timetable from 1976 kicking about in a box back home !!

Anyway, I notice the list is airport to airport, which is possibly why New York doesn’t feature or indeed London

EDI to LTN, STN, LCY, LGW & LHR must be the UK’s if not Europe’s busiest route .
What surprised me was Vietnam coming in at number 3, and generally how many routes are in non 1st world countries !!

[capetonianm]

There are several sites where images of old timetables are stored and can be viewed and downloaded.

https://www.timetableimages.com/
http://airlinetimetableblog.blogspot.com/

[AMcWhirter]

Listing routes on an airport to airport basis is quite misleading.

I say that because London-Amsterdam used to be rated one of the busiest international routes (in the days before LCCs) yet while OAG compiles its data it comes well down the list.

Why ?

Because OAG quotes only :HR-AMS and as we know there are now flights to AMS from *six* London area airports whereas as we have noted previously pax volumes between LHR and AMS have not increased and may well have declined over the years.

Bath_VIP Regarding Southwest … this airline used to specialise in flying from the downtown airports at Dallas Love Field and Houston Hobby. So has more traffic shifted to the big carriers flying DFW-IAH ?

[Inquisitive]

I thought Singapore-Kuala Lumpur route is one of the busiest, but don’t see that in top list now.

The frequency listed shows that there is a fantastic opportunity for high speed rails between quite a number of cities.

I think 1500km is a good breakpoint where “total” travel time by air and high speed train will be about same. And many pair of cities from this list will qualify.

[AlanOrton1]

Shanghai to Beijing is served by a quite excellent high speed train route. That said, the sheer number of flights between the two cities on a daily basis, often on twin-aisle jets, has to be getting close to be being one the busiest point to point routes.

[TominScotland]

[quote quote=979671]That said, the numbers on the table can be surprising. How 100 flights a day (the first route) between cities would be possible?[/quote]

Swissdiver, I flew on the Gimpo – Jeju route this summer – literally services every 5 to 10 minutes mid-morning when I was travelling….

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Swissdiver

[IanFromHKG]

Am I mistaken, or are ALL these domestic flights? And most of them within mainland territory (ie not between different islands)?

I wonder whether the absence of European pairs is because relatively few European countries have two or more major centres (eg London is the UK’s main political and financial centre, ditto Paris for France) and also because European countries are often geographically smaller end-to-end – for example, contrast Germany which does have multiple centres and Vietnam where the two main centres are quite distant due to its “long and thin” topography.

[Seat62k]

These list only has domestic flights on.
What about LHR/JFK, LHR/CDG?

I believe the former is the world’s most profitable route, it would be surprising if it didn’t top Hanoi to SGN

[Swissdiver]

[quote quote=980912]LHR/JFK[/quote]

LHR-JFK: There are about 20 flights a day each direction. This is big for a long haul flight, but far from the number in the table above.

LHR-CDG: 6 airports in London, 2 in Paris, plus the Eurostar. So there is probably less LHR-CDG than LHR-JFK every day…

[esselle]

I think I’m right in saying that, pre Eurotunnel, LHR-CDG was one of the busiest routes. BA were rostering 777’s in the day.

[Bath_VIP]

Eurotunnel opened before the 777 came into service. But BA used to roster TriStars on the CDG route and AF had A300s.

[esselle]

May be I have got my timings a bit wrong, but BA operated 777’s on the CDG route. I took it many, many times.

[Author]

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