The world"™s 20 busiest international airline routes includes 14 intra-Asia routes, according to a new report, and only three routes that either start or end in the U.S. and three that touch Europe.
Half of the routes can be flown in under two hours (An eleventh takes two hours and four minutes). On ten of the 14 intra-Asia routes, Airbus aircraft have a bigger share than Boeing. In general, the busiest Asia routes have more traffic and more competition than the North American and European routes.
The list was compiled by Luton, England-based OAG, a provider of air travel information and applications, using statistics for the 12 months ending in February.
The busiest international routes originating in the U.S. are New York La Guardia and Chicago O"™Hare to Toronto and New York Kennedy to London Heathrow. The busiest European routes are Dublin-Heathrow, Heathrow-Kennedy and Heathrow-Amsterdam.
The world"™s busiest international route, Kuala Lumpur-Singapore, had 30,537 flights over the 12-month survey period. Seven airlines compete, led by Air Asia with 25% of capacity. The 296- kilometer flight takes an hour and four minutes The Airbus A320 family accounted for 51% of flights, while the Boeing 737 had 40%. The Airbus A 330 had 5% while the A350 and the Boeing 787 each had 2%.
"Airbus has generally done very well in South East Asia (except China)," said John Grant, OAG executive vice president. "That combined with them being the aircraft of choice for Pan-Asian carriers such as Air Asia places them in a strong position»…
