The world of travel really has changed as the Coronavirus continues to shake up international flying. Gone, at least for now , are the routes which were the staple of global business such as New York to London, London to Hong Kong, Bangkok to Dubai. And in their place, the new busiest routes are domestic, with just a smattering of international flights.
Recently OAG, a leading flight database and statistics company, updated the busiest airline routes and the results were a little shocking.
As example, the busiest international airline route right now is Cairo to Jeddah, followed by Atlanta to San Juan (which technically could be domestic). In Asia the busiest international routes are Dubai to London and Seoul to Tokyo. Although it should one noted that half of the top ten busiest routes are in Asia.
Digging deeper the busiest global routes are all domestic routes, and all in Asia. Asia has done much better than other continents in handling the pandemic and their flying frequency and level of travel rebound reflects that.
Traffic in China is also doing quite well.
The stats also show the US is slowly recovering, but with COVID-19 rates spiking again, the industry is bracing for more slow downs.
In summary, it makes sense that the world’s busiest airline routes right now are domestic, and routes in countries which have done a better job of keeping their population safe. Let’s hope the pandemic’s numbers drop and flight traffic increases in the months ahead.
