The Top 10 Busiest Airline Routes

Air travel is bouncing back in a big way two years into the COVID-19 pandemic with OAG-a leading provider of digital flight information, intelligence and analytics for airports, airlines and travel tech companies-reporting that domestic airline capacity in the U.S. is now just 8 percent below pre-pandemic levels (February 2019). As travelers return to the skies in large numbers, a select few routes are drawing more attention than others. Here's a look at the 10 busiest domestic airline routes by seats right now, based on the latest data available from OAG.

With 226,293 departing seats in February 2022, Honolulu (HNL) to Los Angeles (LAX) rounds out the top 10 busiest domestic routes this spring. It would appear that flights over the Pacific Ocean are only going to get more popular as Hawaii lifts COVID-19 restrictions.

Many travelers chose to escape the cold this winter by flying from the frigid Northeast to sunny South Florida, helping to make New York City (JFK) to Miami (MIA) one of the busiest airline routes in the U.S.

Edging out JFK-MIA by just 1,513 seats in February 2022, New York (LGA) to Miami (MIA) by way of the polarizing LaGuardia Airport is the nation's eighth-most popular route heading into spring.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the brief flight from Sin City (LAS) to L.A. (LAX) is among the busiest in the U.S. as travelers look to make the 230-plus-mile journey to SoCal in roughly an hour as opposed to driving several hours through the desert.

One of the most interesting routes to make the top 10 is an inter-island flight. The all-Hawaiian trip from Honolulu (HNL) to Kahului (OGG) on the island of Maui carried nearly 230,000 seats last month.

The 600-mile flight from Denver (DEN) to Phoenix (PHX) has returned to the top 10 this March, ranking fifth at the moment with a whopping 231,774 seats served. As of March 13, the flight will set passengers one hour back as Phoenix doesn't honor daylight saving time.

The Southeast jaunt from Atlanta (ATL) to Fort Lauderdale, Florida (FLL) jumped an impressive six places to the fourth-largest airline route in the U.S. this spring. Still, ATL-FLL isn't the top route from one of the world's busiest airports.

The busiest route from Atlanta (ATL) is actually even shorter than ATL-FLL. Orlando, Florida (MCO) is the number one destination from Georgia with the route operating an eye-popping 248,485 seats in February 2022.

Like ATL, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) is one of the busiest in the U.S. and many of the travelers passing through are arriving from New York (LGA) via La Guardia Airport. With 262,460 seats departing last month, the route is easily the second-most in-demand right now.

The coast-to-coast cross-country flight from New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX) is by far the busiest domestic airline route in 2022 with 273,004 seats served in February 2022. That's unlikely to change as business travel resumes and COVID-19 restrictions continue to lift across the nation.