Have you ever tried to catch a flight between Sydney and Melbourne on a weekday, at peak hour? If you answered yes, then you understand how chaotic an experience it can be. So, it should come as no surprise that the Sydney-Melbourne route has come in at second place on the most-recently updated busiest airline routes in the world list, released by Diio by Cirium. 

While the route between the Korean island of Jeju and Seoul might not have been your first guess of the route that would take the top spot, it is in fact the busiest, based on the number of flights and seats. It’s an extremely popular domestic trip for local Koreans. Tokyo, Jakarta and Delhi also made the list. 

Here are the busiest routes ranked by number of flights (for 12 months, ending Jan 2023): 

1. Seoul GMP – Jeju CJU: 88,117
2. Sydney SYD – Melbourne MEL: 48,599
3. Ho Chi Minh City SGN – Hanoi HAN: 45,131
4. Jakarta CGK – Bali DPS: 44,725
5. Tokyo HND – Fukuoka FUK: 38,867
6. Tokyo HND – Sapporo CTS: 38,183
7. Delhi DEL – Mumbai BOM: 36, 968 

Here are the busiest routes ranked by number of seats (for 12 months, ending Jan 2023): 

1. Seoul GMP – Jeju CJU: 17,141,432
2. Ho Chi Minh City SGN – Hanoi HAN: 10,578,032
3. Tokyo HND – Sapporo CTS: 10,527,855
4. Tokyo HND – Fukuoka FUK: 10,279,331
5. Sydney SYD – Melbourne MEL: 8,735,389 
6. Jakarta CGK – Bali DPS: 8,189,279
7. Riyadh RUH – Jeddah JED: 7,341,310

Related story: It’s back! Sydney Airport Lost Property Auction returns in 2023