Among the world’s busiest airport pairs, the route linking South Korea’s southern Jeju Island and its capital Seoul, via Gimpo International Airport, was the most popular globally last year, used by 13.2 million passengers, according to the International Air Transport Association.

Following closely behind, the second busiest route was between Japan’s Sapporo and Tokyo Haneda airports, while the third busiest route was also in Japan, between Fukuoka and Tokyo Haneda.

IATA reports that the Asia-Pacific region continues to dominate the top 10 rankings. Only one pair outside the region — between Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah and Riyadh — made the list, placing sixth with 6.3 million annual passengers.

In North America, the busiest route was New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Los Angeles with 2.2 million passengers, while Europe’s most-used connection was the Spanish route between Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca with 2 million, Latin America’s top route was Bogota-Medellin in Colombia with 3.8 million, while Africa’s busiest was Cape Town-Johannesburg in South Africa with 3.3 million.

don@heraldcorp.com