OAG REVEALS THE BUSIEST ROUTES IN LATIN AMERICA

São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro is the busiest route in Latin America and the fourth busiest domestic route in the world, according to the latest analysis from travel data and insight provider, OAG.

Close to 40,000 flights annually operate on the route between São Paulo's Congonhas Airport (CGH) and Rio de Janeiro's Santos Dumont Airport (SDU).

Service from Cuzco (CUZ) to Lima (LIM) ranked 13th among the world’s busiest domestic routes with 32,095 flights followed by Bogotá (BOG) to Medellin (MDE), which ranked 15th with 31,279 flights.

“Demand for air services in Latin America continues to grow, with passenger traffic up 3.7% over last year,” said John Grant, senior analyst with OAG. 



“This market growth is creating more carrier competition and consumer choice for the region’s most popular routes, including Buenos Aires (EZE) to São Paulo (GRU) and Cuzco (CUZ) to (LIM) Lima.”

The busiest international route originating in Latin America is Lima (LIM) to Santiago (SCL), with 10,369 annual operating flights. 

Flights departing from San Juan (SJU) to Orlando (MCO) ranked second with 9,446 flights, followed by service from São Paulo (GRU) to Santiago (SCL) in third (8,812 flights). 

Most of Latin America’s busiest international routes achieved an 80%-or-above in time performance (OTP) — a notable accomplishment considering the region’s increasing congestion and passenger growth. 



Specifically, the region’s busiest long-haul routes, São Paulo (GRU) to Panama City (PTY) and Panama City (PTY) to Santiago (SCL), recorded OTPs of 89.4% and 85.8%, respectively.

Globally, most of the world’s busiest routes are in the Asia-Pacific region. With over 79,000 flights annually, service from South Korea Jeju (CJU) to Seoul (GMP) is the busiest route on the planet.

For qualification criteria and more insights on the world’s busiest international and domestic routes, access the Busiest Routes analysis here.