The Most popular route

Aviation Airlines
1

Just wonderin’, whats the most popular domestic and international route in terms of 1) Daily flights and 2) Number of seats Thank you!!! 8)

2

Domestic

1: PHNL-PHOG
2: PHNL-KLAX
3: PHNL-PHLI
4: KLAX-KSAN
5: KLAX-PHNL

3

Daniel, really?! :question:

I’d have thought the most travelled routes domestically would include LGA/BOS, LGA/IAD, or LGA/ORD and international would be JFK/LHR.

4

Yep, the LGA routes you mention are in the teens. Compare this to this.

5

No way HNL-LAX is number 2. Try ORD-LGA.

6

There may be a problem with the LAX/HNL stats although the inter-Hawaii flights are definitely #1. I will look at it later.

7

Daniel, the comparison may depend on which day you look at it or what time of day.

Assuming that each page has the same number of flights, the KLGA/KBOS page is filled with a Wed. 5:45 p.m. flight. The PHNL/PHOG page is filled with a Wed. 12:01 p.m. flight. PHNL/PHOG had room for 9 more flights departing before 5:45 p.m. KLGA/KBOS had to push their afternoon flights to a page 2. That indicates that KLGA/KBOS is busier.

Also, the KLGA/KBOS route is served by several Airbus A319 flights, which are comparable to the B737-300 and B737-700 whereas PHNL/PHOG is almost exclusively a B737-200 route. Doesn’t that indicate higher passenger density between KLGA and KBOS?

8

As a general guide, here are passenger figures for 2004. It’s not broken down by flight or by metro airport (JFK/LGA etc.) but should tell you where to start looking.

Top 25 U.S. City Pairs2004

Origin-Destination Passengers (Thousands) (Outbound + Inbound)
1 New York Fort Lauderdale 3,885
2 New York Orlando 3,277
3 New York Chicago 2,861
4 New York Los Angeles 2,747
5 New York Atlanta 2,509
6 New York Washington 1,922
7 New York West Palm Beach 1,873
8 New York San Francisco 1,821
9 New York Las Vegas 1,817
10 New York San Juan 1,809
11 Chicago Las Vegas 1,712
12 Chicago Los Angeles 1,692
13 Honolulu Kahului, Maui 1,632
14 New York Boston 1,625
15 New York Tampa 1,614
16 Dallas/Fort Worth Houston 1,543
17 Chicago Orlando 1,374
18 Chicago Phoenix 1,367
19 New York Miami 1,365
20 New York Dallas/Fort Worth 1,354
21 Los Angeles Las Vegas 1,332
22 Atlanta Washington 1,285
23 Los Angeles Oakland 1,259
24 Chicago Washington 1,253
25 Chicago Atlanta 1,184

(Includes all commercial airports in a metropolitan area.)
airlines.org/files/2005AnnualReport.pdf

9

That’s a great reference, Pat. I’m glad you posted the link.

10

I think the discrepancy results from counting flights instead of counting passengers.

Not only do the intra-Hawaii flights have less seats (mostly B712 and B732), but there are also a lot of small-ish (twin turboprop) cargo flights that don’t appear in the passenger statistics.

11

Top 20 domestic airport pairs in November 2005 according to FlightAware:



 PHNL         | PHOG         |  1493
 PHOG         | PHNL         |  1433
 KLAX         | KSAN         |  1280
 KSAN         | KLAX         |  1268
 KLAS         | KLAX         |  1198
 PHLI         | PHNL         |  1174
 PHNL         | PHLI         |  1168
 KLAX         | KLAS         |  1138
 KPDX         | KSEA         |  1076
 KLGA         | KBOS         |  1057
 KSEA         | KPDX         |  1057
 KLAS         | KPHX         |  1052
 KBOS         | KLGA         |  1041
 KPHX         | KLAS         |  1026
 KPHX         | KLAX         |   975
 KLGA         | KDCA         |   972
 KLAX         | KPHX         |   971
 KHOU         | KDAL         |   968
 KDCA         | KLGA         |   962
 KDAL         | KHOU         |   953
12

For the period of December 2004 to November 2005, the top domestic routes, based upon passengers (not available seats or flights) are:

  1. ATL-MCO 1.34 million
  2. MCO-ATL 1.34 million
  3. LAS-LAX 1.23 million
  4. LAX-LAS 1.19 million
  5. LAX-ORD 1.17 million
  6. ORD-LAX 1.14 million
  7. LGA-ORD 1.14 million
  8. ORD-LGA 1.13 million
  9. ATL-DFW 1.12 million
  10. LGA-ATL 1.12 million

Source is Bureau of Transportation Statistics

13

Interesting.

Looks like the two sources are using different criteria. For example ATL-MCO does not appear in one list but is top in the other. “New York”-MCO is near the top in one but again missing completely from the other. Looks to me like one is O & D based, the other uses flight segments instead of the whole itinerary. Still you know what they say about statistics… :confused: