Surprising Facts And Figures About Air Travel
- Editor OGN Daily
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
If you want to know about the most popular routes, the fastest planes, biggest airlines - and other statistics - read on.
Busiest Route: The busiest international route is Hong Kong-Taipei, with 6,781,577 seats available in 2024, but that is nothing compared to the most crowded flight path on Earth. According to aviation analyst OAG, it is actually the 280-mile hop from Seoul Gimpo to Jeju International, on the Unesco-listed island billed as South Korea’s answer to Hawaii. A staggering 14,183,719 seats were available on flights between the two airports in 2024, with an average of 225 flights per day.
Fastest Plane: The fastest commercial jet is actually the good old 747 jumbo jet, which most airlines have phased out of their fleets. The swiftest of all the 747s is the 747-8I, which has a cruising speed of Mach 0.855 (564 mph), but is only currently used by three operators: Lufthansa, Korean Air and Air China. By comparison, Concorde (which made its first flight in 1969) had a maximum cruising speed of 1,354 mph (Mach 2.04) - more than twice the speed of sound.
Flies to Most Countries: Turkish Airlines is number one, with 124 nations on its route map (as of June 2025). and is the only airline to visit more than 100 countries. Why? Turkey’s geographical location - at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa - is critical. The podium is completed by two other airlines based in or near the Middle East: Qatar Airways (92 countries) and Ethiopian Airlines (87).
Biggest Airline: There are several ways to judge a carrier’s size, but whichever you skin the numbers, US carriers top the list:
By revenue: Delta ($61.6bn in 2024)
By passengers carried: American Airlines (226m in 2024)
By fleet size: United (1,046)
By destinations served: United (387)
Busiest Airport: It's Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, which has held the record since 1998. Last year it welcomed more than 108m passengers. Dubai is closing the gap, however, with 92.3m.
Best Selling Plane: It’s not the venerable 747 'Jumbo Jet' - Boeing delivered 1,574 of them between 1969 and 2023 - but, drum roll, the best-selling aircraft of all time is the Cessna 172 Skyhawk. This humble little aircraft first flew in 1955 - 70 years later, more than 44,000 have been built, sold and shipped to clients across the globe.
Oldest Airline: Dutch carrier KLM (Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij) was founded on 7 October 1919 and tops the charts as the oldest airline still operating under its original name.