The most popular air routes in the USA
Some cities are more popular destinations for fliers than others. For instance, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta is the busiest airport in America, according to the Airports Council International. But it isn’t part of the most popular flight route between cities.
Routes Online took data from air travel data company OAG’s schedule analyzer to figure out the busiest route in the Americas. Between North and South America, the busiest flight route is between Sao Paulo Congonhas and Rio de Janeiro Santos Dumont. The route between the Brazilian hubs sees more than 4 million passengers every year, according to Routes Online. (Every passenger should quit making these 16 airport mistakes before their next flight.)
In just the United States, the most popular route by far runs between Los Angeles International and John F. Kennedy International in New York. In a single year, 2.9 million passengers take a flight from one to the other, making it the third most high-traffic plane route in the Americas. The 2,474-mile trip costs $337.66 on average. (Those 2,000 miles make it way longer than the shortest flight in America, which lasts just 16 minutes.)
Another New York airport, LaGuardia, is part of the country’s second most popular flight route, between LGA and Chicago O’Hare, which sees 2.4 million passengers every year. (LGA also happens to be the country’s worst airport; find out what its $8 billion makeover has in store.) Los Angeles makes another appearance on the list, too, because the third most traveled air route goes between LA and San Francisco, with 2.2 million travelers.
Here’s a full list of the five busiest U.S. air routes, ranked by the number of passengers:
2. New York LaGuardia (LGA) and Chicago O’Hare (ORD) 2,362,480
3. San Francisco (SFO) and Los Angeles International (LAX) 2,238,043
4. Los Angeles International (LAX) and Seattle-Tacoma (SEA) 1,990,802
5. San Francisco (SFO) and New York JFK (JFK) 1,844,864