Is there a list that shows which routes are the most frequented/most important ones for different airlines? You would think that most of these are intra-hub routes, but that is not necessarily true.
For Lufthansa for example, I know that they fly 1,9 mio passengers between Frankfurt and Berlin and Munich and Berlin, making these their busiest routs domestically, but how does that compare to their international destinations etc.? So, what are the world's busiest routes flown by any given airline?

For BA JFK-LHR is a very important route
For EK I would assume LHR-DXB is up there

As already said above, LHR-JFK must be the single most important route for BA, and generally LHR-North America seems to work out nicely for them.

I suspect this will be moved to Polls & Preferences; however, topics like this are why I joined.

In discussions to be found elsewhere here at a.net, the topic of Lufthansa's future fleet and shuffling of the current fleet has brought to my mind your very question. At the moment, the shuttle between FRA & MUC to/from TXL is quite busy, and fares might be quite high; however, in the long run, I think Lufthansa's more profitable routes are its long-haul, and they are counting with German efficiency every Euro, studying how to maximize profit on every route by knowing the exact day in which to switch seasonal routes on and off. LAX, for example, goes from once daily to FRA & once daily to MUC to twice daily to FRA starting in mid-May, with the second flight being the 747-8. And because many seasonal routes are premium heavy, the 747-8 subfleet can be shifted worldwide to meet that kind of demand. When we flew the 747-8 last year, every single business seat had been sold, and this was on the second flight of the day, after the A380!

As far as any airline goes, though, I think one could say the most important routes are those that are 1) the most predictable, 2) the most reliable, 3) the most premium-paying and consistently high-yielding, and 4) the most cargo carrying. Gonna toot our own horn down here in San Diego, but a decade ago we were just a fairly sleepy spoke on everyone's domestic hub machines, with Southwest filling in most of the other routes, and only the occasional Mexico route that would come and go. Even Air Canada couldn't seem to make us fit!. But then Bermuda II went away, and suddenly AA and BA could start code-sharing out of LHR, meaning SAN OneWorld FF's can start earning miles with BA to LHR. A 777-200 triumphantly returns, which is then upgauged on and off to a 777-300 and 747-400, both because of increased cargo and true first class. Then Japan Air Lines arrives with the 787, a plane literally designed for SAN. The route proves important enough to JAL that when the 787 is grounded temporarily, a 777-300 is substituted, although weight-restricted. The 787 returned and the route gloriously continues today. Then Condor and Edelweiss Air announce service to SAN, setting off a frenzy of speculation. And sure enough, a marketing-research summer of the Lufthansa group carefully studied yields, and determined that full Lufthansa service was warranted. Now we find out that the quite beautiful A340-300 service is being upgauged three times a week to it's even longer A340-600 sibling, with a larger premium cabin AND more cargo capacity.

Mind you, this is not to say that SAN is the most important route anywhere; however, it does show that every route is important, and studying every route is important to right-size the equipment.

British Airways' most important route is JFK-LHR since it accounts for $1.037 billion in revenue for them every year.

Qantas' MEL-SYD makes them US$855 million every year, their most important route.

Emirates' LHR-DXB makes $819 million every year, number one for them.

American's LAX-JFK earns them $698 million every year.

United pulls $687 million out of SFO-EWR annually.

Cathay Pacific earns $632 million each year on HKG-LHR.

Qatar's annual revenue from LHR-DOH is $553 million.

Air Canada makes US$552 million on YVR-YYZ.

All of the above is from OAG, reported here: https://thepointsguy.com/news/top-reven ... ne-routes/

You're citing revenue figures, not profit.

For Ryanair this must be Dublin - London Stansted. Their two largest hubs, flown 5x daily or something like that.

For KLM it's Amsterdam - London Heathrow, this even beats Amsterdam - Paris Charles de Gaulle which is their partner hub.

This could lead to endless discussions... but like others said, this is within the airliners.net DNA

There are figures for the busiest domestic sectors of the world, busiest international routes, and busiest intercontinental routes, and data can be combined in different ways. Wikipedia has an extensive entry dedicated to all this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_b ... air_routes

Considering that, most of the airlines with heavy presence on these corridors are likely to have those as the most important sectors of their networks. In Europe I would say the busiest city pairs are very important for the legacy carriers of the countries involved. Example with the busiest air routes inside the EU, including Switzerland, Iceland and Norway:

1)TLS-ORY: most important route for AF?

Although other carriers have a piece there, I'm sure it's more important for AF than it is for Easyjet.

2)MAD-BCN: most important route for IB.
3)NCE-ORY: AF
4)CTA-FCO: AZA
5)OSL-TRD: probably most important for Norwegian than for SAS.

Every airline has definitely one most important route in different categories (domestic, international, long-haul). Following with this, my example with Iberia:

Domestic: MAD-BCN
International: MAD-LHR
Intercontinental: doubts between MEX and EZE.

KLM: IAH - AMS been operating since the 1950s started with HOU then switch to IAH. Now UA also operates this route.
IAH - FRA : Lufthansa operated it first, then UA tagged along.
DXB - KHI - EK first route
KUL - SIN - MH and SQ
AKL - SYD NZ and QF

Well, most of the airlines have their most long haul routes and short haul routes:
TP: LIS-GRU and LIS-OPO
IB: MAD-BCN and MAD-EZE
QR: DOH-LHR
LY: TLV-JFK
LOT: KRK-WAW and WAW-ORD
AC: YYZ-YUL, YYZ-LHR and YUL-CDG
TK: IST-ESB or IST-TLV
SU: SVO-LED or SVO-JFK

and there are many more...

PatrickZ80 wrote:

For Ryanair this must be Dublin - London Stansted. Their two largest hubs, flown 5x daily or something like that.

For KLM it's Amsterdam - London Heathrow, this even beats Amsterdam - Paris Charles de Gaulle which is their partner hub.

I’d say it’s more than double 5x daily for FR on DUB-STN, DUB-BHX/MAN is around 5x daily

DUB-LGW is 8x daily, STN moves between up to 7-8x daily, and both BHX and MAN are 6x daily.

With a high frequency like that, out of Ireland and UK (most "national" markets for Ryanair) I find FCO-CTA which is 6x daily.

For AS, it's definitely SEA-ANC, SEA-LAX and SEA-SFO...

Interesting trying to think of what this would be for DL and unlike many others, struggling a bit, maybe ATL-LGA??

What about Southwest? Maybe LAS-LAX, or SFO-LAX, or MDW-HOU

caliboy93 wrote:

What about Southwest? Maybe LAS-LAX, or SFO-LAX, or MDW-HOU

For WN I would say HOU-DAL. I pulled up a random weekdate December 17th and they have 19 trips per day. That's one of WN's original routes.

For DL I would say ATL-MCO. One of the many strengths of DL's ATL hub is how much traffic they funnel through Florida, and MCO is their biggest spoke in Florida. Sometimes DL even schedules a 767 on the one hour ATL-MCO leg. On the 17th DL has 15 trips, and they typically are on 757s or A321's that is a lot of seats.

For Alitalia, Linate to Rome is a pretty important one, as is Rome to JFK, since they have 3 flights between the two cities per day.

AA: LAX-JFK and LAX-MIA
DL: ATL-MCO
UA: IAH-FRA, as previously mentioned
WN: LAX-OAK and LAX-LAS
AS: SEA-LAX and SEA-MIA
HA: HNL-OGG
B6: LAX-JFK and LAX-BOS
SY: MSP-LAX
NK: FLL-LGA
F9: DEN-LAX
G6: LAS-OAK

bfitzflyer wrote:

Interesting trying to think of what this would be for DL and unlike many others, struggling a bit, maybe ATL-LGA??

That is challenging for DL as they have so many important domestic routes as well as international routes like ATL-AMS. I would say ATL-MCO is massive for DL too.

compensateme wrote:

AA: LAX-JFK and LAX-MIA
DL: ATL-MCO
UA: IAH-FRA, as previously mentioned
WN: LAX-OAK and LAX-LAS
AS: SEA-LAX and SEA-MIA
HA: HNL-OGG
B6: LAX-JFK and LAX-BOS
SY: MSP-LAX
NK: FLL-LGA
F9: DEN-LAX
G6: LAS-OAK

Yes but for SY I would say MSP-LAS not LAX.

Just throwing another spin on it, I wonder how many airlines both have the same route as the most important to them?

Eg in Australia I think both QF and VA would argue that MEL-SYD is their main route.
Similar in Korea, I’d imagine both KE and OZ would have SEL-CJU.

Would AA and BA both count NYC-LON?
Or perhaps HKG-MNL for CX and PR?

MIflyer12 wrote:

You're citing revenue figures, not profit.

And the actual question was “busiest”? Though it was a bit nebulous.

For Saudia:

Domestic: JED-RUH
International: JED-CAI

MIflyer12 wrote:

You're citing revenue figures, not profit.

It would be unusual business practice to expend so much effort on one single part of a business if it were not particularly profitable

Obzerva wrote:

Or perhaps HKG-MNL for CX and PR?

For CX it's definiteliy not HKG-MNL .

For many years, CX/BR/CI prints money on HKG-TPE routes. It's still an important route, although the profitability probably dropped quite a bit. Nowaday IIRC CI/BR makes the most money on those non-stop cross-strait flights, at least on short-haul.

As for CX - Short haul it's probably HKG-TPE, HKG-PEK, and HKG-PVG (or SHA). Long-haul is definitely HKG-LHR, follow by HKG-SYD (and maybe HKG-MEL) along with (maybe) HKG-JFK.

Meanwhile, in Japan, I would say HND-FUK and HND-CTS are both "important routes" for JL and NH when it comes to profit and operation. HND-ITM is also up there, but faced heavy competition against Shinkansen. Long-haul I would say it's TYO-HNL and HND-JFK (again, applied to both JL and NH).

CA/MU's most important route is probably PEK-SHA. CZ would be CAN-PEK and CAN-SHA. For CA PEK-CTU is also an important route. No clue about long-haul for any of the Chinese Airlines, though.

Down in Singapore. SQ definitely place lots of importance on their "flagship" SIN-EWR and SIN-LAX/SFO. Kangaroo route is also important for SQ, although they're facing heavy competition against ME3. Short-haul/Regional-wise it's definitely SIN-CGK.

I wouldn't call it "their most important route" but ORY-TLS is AF's busiest route with up to 25 daily frequencies. CDG-GVA is their international route that sees the most frequencies with 9 daily fligths (recently down from 10), CDG-JFK is the transatlantic route they fly the most frequently (4 dailies including 2 A380. 5 if you include the daily DL - soon to be 2 flight - This route used see 8 dailies AF's flights in its heyday). LYS-NTE and LYS-BOD are, with 6 daily flights each, their busiest routes that do not touch Paris.

Obzerva wrote:

Similar in Korea, I’d imagine both KE and OZ would have SEL-CJU.

Just more note on KE and OZ.

SEL (Actually GMP only, since there are no flights between ICN and CJU) to CJU is definitely most "important" routes for both, and dominates in terms of capacity. SEL-PUS is #2, but I believe KTX took over the demand between the two airports for the most part.

Internationally, SEL-TYO and SEL-OSA has the most capacity for both KE and OZ, follow by SEL-SHA. Long-haul is definitely ICN-LAX for both KE and OZ, followed by ICN-JFK.

Obzerva wrote:

Or perhaps HKG-MNL for CX and PR?

Forgot to mention in my previous post, but wouldn't MNL-CEB considered the "most important" route for PR? MNL-HKG does have the most capacity internationally, though, while I would argue that MNL-LAX and MNL-SFO are their "flagship" (albeit not necessarily money making) routes.

Some other airlines:
VN (And probably Vietjet along with Jetstar Pacific) - HAN-SGN. Hard to tell which one is their "most important" international route, though.
TG - BKK-HKT? BKK-SIN and BKK-HKG are also somewhat busy routes for TG, although lately TG had been focused on the Japan market. Of course, there's the "flagship" BKK-LHR route.
MH - KUL-SIN and KUL-CGK internationally; KUL-BKI (?) for domestic. Like TG, their "flagship" is probably KUL-LHR.
GA - CGK-SUB and CGK-DPS are their #1 and #2 routes in terms of frequency/capacity. CGK-SIN is (by far) their busiest international route. Long-haul is either CGK-AMS or one of their DPS-Australia routes.

S. America:
AV: Domestic it's BOG-MDE and BOG-CLO. Long-haul is BOG-MAD. Other notable route would be BOG-MIA.
LATAM: SAO-RIO is a definite (for LA/JJ). Intl routes are harder to tell (SCL-LIM and SCL-GRU for regional flight? They don't really have a single long-haul route that dominate, though, not even GRU-LIS or MAD-SCL or MAD-EZE).

For Aegean it's definitely Athens-Larnaca, it's their top selling destination within the network.

What about Wizz Air? BUD-LTN?

With Cathay HKG SIN is right up there, alongside HKG PEK.

What about Chinese carriers?

Thibault973 wrote:

I wouldn't call it "their most important route" but ORY-TLS is AF's busiest route with up to 25 daily frequencies. CDG-GVA is their international route that sees the most frequencies with 9 daily fligths (recently down from 10), CDG-JFK is the transatlantic route they fly the most frequently (4 dailies including 2 A380. 5 if you include the daily DL - soon to be 2 flight - This route used see 8 dailies AF's flights in its heyday). LYS-NTE and LYS-BOD are, with 6 daily flights each, their busiest routes that do not touch Paris.

Many EU domestic routes are under increasing competition from high speed rail as new lines open.
MAD-BCN and FRA/MUC/DUS-TXL have significant (and growing) rail market share.
CDG-BRU/AMS and LHR-CDG/BRU were formerly very busy air routes which rail now dominates.
ORY-BOD has just gained a new LGV line so air's share will decrease.

TLS and NCE are the two destinations in France whose rail competition from Paris is low because the LGV network has not reached them yet.
Inter-regional links in France are still best served by air, as you quote.
Italy also has an extensive high speel rail network, impacting eg MXP-FCO, but Sicily is badly served so air will continue to dominate there.

TYO/OSA-HNL for JL & NH, TLV-EWR/JFK for LY

I think the question is "which route, if it didn't exist, would cause the airline the most trouble?" That's a little different from "what route is most unique to the airline?"

In my mind, that means that DL's 'most important' route shouldn't necessarily be MCO-ATL. While it is obviously an incredible part of the ATL fortress, it doesn't necessarily command great yields off of Disneyland tickets. I'd instead suggest three other routes: ATL-LGA, as suggested above; ATL-DCA, as it is the route the US government buys the most and Delta's ability to hold both the US gvt contract and the route's profitability is a testament to the success of the upguaging strategy; and DTW-AMS because six-a-day A330s and A350s is really something.

Also, I'd put SFO-BOS and SFO-EWR over IAH-FRA for UA. I'm impressed at United's ability to fill 77Ws on both of these routes, in addition to the usual 757s.

Rios221 wrote:

I think the question is "which route, if it didn't exist, would cause the airline the most trouble?" That's a little different from "what route is most unique to the airline?"

In my mind, that means that DL's 'most important' route shouldn't necessarily be MCO-ATL. While it is obviously an incredible part of the ATL fortress, it doesn't necessarily command great yields off of Disneyland tickets. I'd instead suggest three other routes: ATL-LGA, as suggested above; ATL-DCA, as it is the route the US government buys the most and Delta's ability to hold both the US gvt contract and the route's profitability is a testament to the success of the upguaging strategy; and DTW-AMS because six-a-day A330s and A350s is really something.

Obviously not DLs most important route but I find it odd that DL flies DCA-MSN. Do they get that much government traffic going back and forth?

Blerg wrote:

What about Chinese carriers?

Pure speculation.

CA: PEK-SHA/CAN/SZX/CTU (Domestic), PEK-HKG ("Intl"). They don't really have a long-haul route that dominate, though. To N. America it's PEK-LAX/JFK and to Europe it's PEK-LHR that have highest capacity.
MU: SHA-PEK/CAN/SZX/KMG (Domestic), SHA-HKG ("Intl"), PVG-TYO/OSA/SEL/BKK (Non-Greater China Intl). Again, no dominant long-haul route. To Europe it's PVG-CDG and to N. America, it's PVG-LAX/JFK (So basically similar to CA). KMG-JHG is also a surprisingly busy route.
CZ: CAN-PEK/SHA are highest frequency, then there's CAN-NKG/HGH in YRD and CAN-CKG/CTU/XIY/KMG in "Western China". Long-haul routes, well, CAN-LAX/JFK (Notice a pattern?), and CAN-SYD/MEL (i.e. "Canton Route").
3U: CTU-PEK
HU: I seriously have no idea. Their network is everywhere in China on purpose.

For both CA/MU, PEK-SHA are definitely by far the "most important" (single) route. It's also why MU is trying to stay in PEK instead of moving to Daxing for their Shanghai flight.

In general, "busy" route in China consist of a combination of an airport in North (Actually PEK only), one in West (KMG/XIY/CTU/CKG, with CTU being the most important), one in Pearl River Delta (CAN or SZX), and one of the larger airports (PVG/SHA/NKG/HGH) in Yangtze River Delta. HKG-PEK and HKG-PVG (inc. HKG-SHA) are also both very busy and important route. Not surprisingly, the airports I listed are the Top 11 (12 if you include HKG) busiest airports in (greater) China.

BestWestern wrote:

With Cathay HKG SIN is right up there, alongside HKG PEK.

HKG-Shanghai (PVG and SHA) is more important than HKG-PEK. Both are arguably more of an "important route" for KA rather than CX, though. For CX it's HKG-TPE, HKG-BKK, and HKG-SIN; then HKG-TYO (Split between NRT and HND) and HKG-MNL. Long-haul it's definitely HKG-London (6x daily, 5x to LHR and 1x to LGW), HKG-NYC (5x daily if you include CX888/865), and HKG-SYD (4x daily).

For FI it's KEF-CPH and -LHR on the European side and KEF-BOS and -JFK on the N-American side. AMS, ARN, FRA and YYZ are probably up there as well.

There's a big difference between busiest, highest revenue, most profitable, and "most important".

No airline I've ever worked at had a "most important" route. Sure, some routes got more protected than others in irregular operations, got newer and better equipment, or were more integral to the network, but no one classified things by such a subjective measure.

Malaysian is likely LHR-KUL. Aeromexico JFK-MEX (I've ridden 789s on the route). Air Canada YVR-YYZ?

cofannyc wrote:

There's a big difference between busiest, highest revenue, most profitable, and "most important".

No airline I've ever worked at had a "most important" route. Sure, some routes got more protected than others in irregular operations, got newer and better equipment, or were more integral to the network, but no one classified things by such a subjective measure.

Except there are routes that airlines definitely treat differently compare to others, and consider “more important”.

Take JL for example. On their domestic flights, HND-ITM is the only route which they operate domestic First Class on all their flights. HND-CTS and HND-FUK also has large majority (with 1 or 2 flights out of 15+ daily being exceptions) of their flight operated with planes with domestic First Class. That’s almost having a dedicated fleet for the route.

Closwr to home, AA operates their A321T on JFK-LAX/SFO, no exception. That’s definitely different from the 1000+ other domestic flights that AA operates everyday.

Alternatively, even long-haul international flights have differentiation. NH, for example, operates their lowest density 77W only on HND-JFK/FRA/LHR, along with NRT-JFK (and well, a single rotation on HND-PEK). Alternatively, once they get the A380, in it goes to NRT-HNL. Those are examples of flight that can be argue as “important” for an airline.

Lastly, well, you know a route is important if an airline put a brand new type on that route, short or long term. CX does this, for example, with their A350-1000s (flying HKG-SIN initially IIRC).

zakuivcustom wrote:

Except there are routes that airlines definitely treat differently compare to others, and consider “more important”.

Take JL for example. On their domestic flights, HND-ITM is the only route which they operate domestic First Class on all their flights. HND-CTS and HND-FUK also has large majority (with 1 or 2 flights out of 15+ daily being exceptions) of their flight operated with planes with domestic First Class. That’s almost having a dedicated fleet for the route.

Closwr to home, AA operates their A321T on JFK-LAX/SFO, no exception. That’s definitely different from the 1000+ other domestic flights that AA operates everyday.

Alternatively, even long-haul international flights have differentiation. NH, for example, operates their lowest density 77W only on HND-JFK/FRA/LHR, along with NRT-JFK (and well, a single rotation on HND-PEK). Alternatively, once they get the A380, in it goes to NRT-HNL. Those are examples of flight that can be argue as “important” for an airline.

Lastly, well, you know a route is important if an airline put a brand new type on that route, short or long term. CX does this, for example, with their A350-1000s (flying HKG-SIN initially IIRC).

Sure, like I said, there are routes that get better treatment and make more of an impact. But the title says most important, which implies selecting one out of many and I just don't think it's so simple...as the disagreement through the thread seems to back up.

cofannyc wrote:

zakuivcustom wrote:

Except there are routes that airlines definitely treat differently compare to others, and consider “more important”.

Take JL for example. On their domestic flights, HND-ITM is the only route which they operate domestic First Class on all their flights. HND-CTS and HND-FUK also has large majority (with 1 or 2 flights out of 15+ daily being exceptions) of their flight operated with planes with domestic First Class. That’s almost having a dedicated fleet for the route.

Closwr to home, AA operates their A321T on JFK-LAX/SFO, no exception. That’s definitely different from the 1000+ other domestic flights that AA operates everyday.

Alternatively, even long-haul international flights have differentiation. NH, for example, operates their lowest density 77W only on HND-JFK/FRA/LHR, along with NRT-JFK (and well, a single rotation on HND-PEK). Alternatively, once they get the A380, in it goes to NRT-HNL. Those are examples of flight that can be argue as “important” for an airline.

Lastly, well, you know a route is important if an airline put a brand new type on that route, short or long term. CX does this, for example, with their A350-1000s (flying HKG-SIN initially IIRC).

Sure, like I said, there are routes that get better treatment and make more of an impact. But the title says most important, which implies selecting one out of many and I just don't think it's so simple...as the disagreement through the thread seems to back up.

Well, "most important routeS", to be fair to the OP .

I don't disagree with you otherwise - it's VERY rare for an airline, especially fairly large one, to have only a SINGLE "very important" route. BA does to some extent (LON-NYC is definitely way above all the other routes), but that's about it. And I agree with you on another point - it's often that an airline has some "key/trunk" domestic (especially in countries multiple large population/economic centers - i.e. US or China or even Germany and Brazil) or regional (for airlines like CX/SQ or even KL) routes, then some long-haul international routes that are consider "gold mine" (most of them, not surprisingly, involved NYC or London, those two cities are indeed centers of high-yield commercial aviation) or at a minimum, a "prestige" route (Again, London or NYC seems to come up most often - i.e. African carriers to NYC or all those SE Asia/South Asia/Middle East carriers to London).

PER-LHR for Qantas, London has always been a focus city for QF and to be able to fly it direct from Australia after having to make stops every year since the 50's is quite revolutionary, its also their most profitable route and not to mention a route that really pushes the 787 to its limits, having broken many speed records.

Others I can think of include:

SIN-LHR or SIN-SYD for Singapore Airlines (Singapore to the motherland, SYD gets 5x flights a day & SIN-SYD was SQ & the worlds first scheduled a380 flight)
AKL-LAX-LHR for Air New Zealand (Connecting New Zealand with the motherland)
TLV-JFK for El Al (Connecting the city with the biggest Jewish population to Israel)