Asia-Pacific domestic trunk routes continue to dominate the global rankings by capacity in summer 2025, led by Jeju–Seoul Gimpo with more than 8.3 million available seats. Japanese and Vietnamese city pairs also feature heavily on the list of busiest routes worldwide, underscoring the region’s reliance on high-frequency short-haul corridors.
Capacity on the South Korean domestic service connecting Jeju and Seoul Gimpo rose by 1.5% this summer, compared with the same period a year ago, with seven carriers offering flights on the short 280-mi. (243-nm) sector. The route transports mainly leisure passengers from South Korea’s dense capital city to the island of Jeju, famed for its white sandy beach resorts and volcanic landscape.
Sapporo–Tokyo Haneda and Fukuoka–Tokyo Haneda ranked second and third, respectively, both with more than 6.5 million seats this summer. Vietnam’s Hanoi–Ho Chi Minh City climbed to 6.2 million, while Jeddah–Riyadh ranked as the fifth-busiest route globally.
In Europe, leisure flows continue to drive the busiest routes. Barcelona–Palma de Mallorca rose by more than 5% to 1.86 million seats, while capacity on Antalya–Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen and Antalya–Moscow Sheremetyevo also expanded.
London Heathrow–New York John F. Kennedy remained Europe’s busiest city pair in summer 2025 with 2.44 million two-way seats, edging 1.7% higher than last year. Gulf connections from London Heathrow to Dubai and Doha also ranked among the busiest corridors.
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The Americas shows a mixed picture. Colombia’s domestic network still produced some of the world’s highest-capacity routes—although volumes eased back from 2024. Bogota–Medellín fell to 3.39 million seats, while Bogota–Cartagena and Bogota–Cali also contracted.
By contrast, U.S. trunk routes showed growth: New York JFK–Los Angeles reached 2.03 million seats, up from 1.85 million in summer 2024, and LaGuardia–Chicago O’Hare also expanded, ranking as the 11th-busiest route in the Americas region. In Canada, Vancouver–Toronto climbed to 2.29 million seats, up by 6.5%.
The Middle East continued to record some of the fastest growth globally. Jeddah–Riyadh surged past 5.7 million seats—a rise of 15.7%—cementing its place among the world’s top five busiest routes. Cairo–Jeddah and Cairo–Riyadh also grew, boosted by labor and religious traffic. Gulf trunk routes such as Dubai–Riyad, Dubai–Kuwait and Doha–London Heathrow also expanded.
In Africa, Cairo–Jeddah led with just under 3.2 million seats, while Johannesburg–Cape Town followed at 2.98 million. Durban–Johannesburg and Durban–Cape Town also posted growth, while North Africa–Europe corridors such as Algiers–Paris CDG strengthened.
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