Most traveled U.S. airline market routes in 2023

[iheartthed]

Someone compiled the 100 busiest air routes in the U.S. last year from data published by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. See link below for the full dataset.

Top 25 busiest routes in 2023, average daily passenger count, and total annual passengers

1. New York City <-> Miami - Fort Lauderdale | daily avg passengers: 10,398 | annual passengers: 7,590,650
2. Los Angeles <-> San Francisco Bay Area | 9,826 | 7,172,660
3. New York City <-> Orlando | 7,219 | 5,270,170
4. New York City <-> Los Angeles | 7,092 | 5,177,510
5. New York City <-> Chicago | 5,054 | 3,689,190
6. Los Angeles <-> Las Vegas | 5,008 | 3,655,880
7. New York City <-> Atlanta | 4,704 | 3,434,180
8. New York City <-> San Francisco Bay Area | 4,645 | 3,390,970
9. Los Angeles <-> Seattle | 4,412 | 3,221,030
10. San Francisco Bay Area <-> Las Vegas | 3,809 | 2,780,840
11. San Francisco Bay Area <-> San Diego | 3,671 | 2,680,010
12. New York City <-> Palm Beach | 3,598 | 2,626,430
13. Los Angeles <-> Dallas | 3,582 | 2,614,610
14. Los Angeles <-> Chicago | 3,543 | 2,586,680
15. Atlanta <-> Miami - Fort Lauderdale | 3,420 | 2,496,900
16. Washington - Baltimore <-> Orlando | 3,350 | 2,445,470
17. Washington - Baltimore <-> Greater Boston | 3,344 | 2,440,990
18. New York City <-> Dallas | 3,311 | 2,417,320
19. Los Angeles <-> Denver | 3,299 | 2,408,450
20. Los Angeles <-> Phoenix | 3,280 | 2,394,500
21. Washington - Baltimore <-> Miami - Fort Lauderdale | 3,202 | 2,337,680
22. New York City <-> Tampa Bay | 3,107 | 2,268,280
23. San Francisco Bay Area <-> Seattle | 3,105 | 2,266,490
24. Washington - Baltimore <-> Atlanta | 3,044 | 2,222,410
25. Greater Boston <-> Orlando | 2,994 | 2,185,730

Count of busy routes per city

1. New York City: 23
2. Los Angeles: 19
3. Chicago: 14
4. San Francisco Bay Area: 13
5. Washington - Baltimore: 11
6. Orlando: 11
7. Dallas: 11
8. Atlanta: 9
9. Miami - Fort Lauderdale: 9
10. Greater Boston: 9
11. Denver: 9
12. Houston: 9
13. Las Vegas: 8
14. Phoenix: 8
15. Seattle: 5
16. Tampa Bay: 4
17. Honolulu: 4
18. San Diego: 3
19. Philadelphia: 2
20. Detroit: 2
21. Sacramento: 2
22. Portland, OR: 2
23. Austin: 2
24. San Juan, PR: 2
25. Palm Beach: 1
26. Maui: 1
27. Salt Lake City: 1
28. Charlotte: 1
29. Nashville: 1
30. Raleigh: 1
31. Big Island, HI: 1
32. Fort Myers: 1
33. Minneapolis: 1

Full dataset: https://www.datawrapper.de/_/QTSPf/?v=2

[Gordo]

SF Bay Area is at #5 and #19 on the second list.

The routes mostly make sense to me, I guess. I would not have guessed NYC-South Florida as #1 though. The top five cities match with the five biggest CSAs (I think?), so that basically tracks. I'm surprised that Orlando is as high as it is - tourism, sure, but still.

[UrbanImpact]

Originally Posted by Gordo

SF Bay Area is at #5 and #19 on the second list.

The routes mostly make sense to me, I guess. I would not have guessed NYC-South Florida as #1 though. The top five cities match with the five biggest CSAs (I think?), so that basically tracks. I'm surprised that Orlando is as high as it is - tourism, sure, but still.

South Florida is like New York City's 6th borough. Basically, if your not originally from Latin America or the Caribbean, then you are originally from New York City.

[bobdreamz]

Originally Posted by UrbanImpact

South Florida is like New York City's 6th borough. Basically, if your not originally from Latin America or the Caribbean, then you are originally from New York City.

Yeah but instead of crossing a bridge or using the Subway you just hop on a plane instead!



I did know that the Miami/South Florida Air corridor was #1 on the East Coast but didn't think it would be #1 in the Nation.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Gordo

SF Bay Area is at #5 and #19 on the second list.

The routes mostly make sense to me, I guess. I would not have guessed NYC-South Florida as #1 though. The top five cities match with the five biggest CSAs (I think?), so that basically tracks. I'm surprised that Orlando is as high as it is - tourism, sure, but still.

Fixed it, thanks.

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by Gordo

SF Bay Area is at #5 and #19 on the second list.

The routes mostly make sense to me, I guess. I would not have guessed NYC-South Florida as #1 though. The top five cities match with the five biggest CSAs (I think?), so that basically tracks. I'm surprised that Orlando is as high as it is - tourism, sure, but still.

Perhaps the New York area to Orlando could be #1, but I am not surprised. In addition to people from the NYC area going down to Florida, which is plenty enough, Miami and Fort Lauderdale are connection airports to the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.

What did strike me as unusual was putting Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports together (but Palm Beach is separate, per the same list). Miami is the big place to fly to Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, and so on. Fort Lauderdale is where you connect to fly on budget airlines like JetBlue or Southwest to Nassau, Punta Cana, Montego Bay, and so on.

[Prahaboheme]

Originally Posted by Gordo

SF Bay Area is at #5 and #19 on the second list.

The routes mostly make sense to me, I guess. I would not have guessed NYC-South Florida as #1 though. The top five cities match with the five biggest CSAs (I think?), so that basically tracks. I'm surprised that Orlando is as high as it is - tourism, sure, but still.

Orlando shouldn’t be so surprising given its 50 million tourists annually and conventioneer crowd on top of that.

[Gordo]

Yeah I knew it would be up there, but I didn't think that there's any way that it would be bigger than LA-Bay Area.

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by Gordo

Yeah I knew it would be up there, but I didn't think that there's any way that it would be bigger than LA-Bay Area.

The numbers are basically the same, around 10k per day. And of course that number is dwarfed by the daily traffic on I-5 between LA and SF.

[Crawford]

Palm Beach is kinda it's own thing? I mean, Miami to Palm Beach is like NYC to Philly. Culturally, I feel PB is quite distinct from Dade/Broward. PB has a pretty small airport, and you wouldn't really fly in there if your destination were Miami (or vice-versa).

[UrbanImpact]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Palm Beach is kinda it's own thing? I mean, Miami to Palm Beach is like NYC to Philly. Culturally, I feel PB is quite distinct from Dade/Broward. PB has a pretty small airport, and you wouldn't really fly in there if your destination were Miami (or vice-versa).

True, residents of Miami-Dade & Broward Counties usually use MIA or FLL as they both have a ton domestic/international flight options and are more centered in the metro whereas PBI in Palm Beach County has limited/expensive options and is further from the bulk of the population despite it being next to downtown West Palm Beach.

[TWAK]

Looking at the list to see what is "surprising" and...nothing really is. I was gonna say Bay Area to SD (don't ever hear much about that route), but no that makes sense .
Folks are catching cruises or heading to destinations in Mexico.

19 and 20 are Southwest, or at least Phoenix is.

[bobdreamz]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Palm Beach is kinda it's own thing? I mean, Miami to Palm Beach is like NYC to Philly. Culturally, I feel PB is quite distinct from Dade/Broward. PB has a pretty small airport, and you wouldn't really fly in there if your destination were Miami (or vice-versa).

To us who are from Southeast Florida isn't that big of a deal. It's all built up along the coast and Palm Beach county is only about a hour or so driving from Miami. We used to go to clubs up there all the time.

It seems like the driving time between NYC & Philly is almost double that of Miami-WPB.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Palm Beach is kinda it's own thing? I mean, Miami to Palm Beach is like NYC to Philly. Culturally, I feel PB is quite distinct from Dade/Broward. PB has a pretty small airport, and you wouldn't really fly in there if your destination were Miami (or vice-versa).

Yes, totally. It might be grouped together, but a different world

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Palm Beach is kinda it's own thing? I mean, Miami to Palm Beach is like NYC to Philly. Culturally, I feel PB is quite distinct from Dade/Broward. PB has a pretty small airport, and you wouldn't really fly in there if your destination were Miami (or vice-versa).

It's still inconsistent. You lump all the New York City airports into one group because people in an area have options for airports: people in the New York City area can fly out of JFK, Newark Liberty, La Guardia, Islip, and more. People in Chicago can fly out of O'Hare and Midway. People in Los Angeles can fly out of LAX, Burbank, Ontario, and more. So is it unreasonable to think that someone living in, say, Pompano Beach or Boca Raton would consider or use Palm Beach as much as Fort Lauderdale or Miami?

[Steely Dan]

^ Palm Beach is kinda pushing it.

It'd be like including Milwaukee's airport into Chicago's numbers. And even though some people in chicago's far northern burbs do use Milwaukee's airport, that would still be a silly thing to do IMO.

Palm Beach airport to Miami's airport: 63 miles

Milwaukee's airport to O'Hare airport: 66 miles

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ Palm Beach is kinda pushing it.

It'd be like including Milwaukee's airport into Chicago's numbers. And even though some people in chicago's far northern burbs do use Milwaukee's airport, that would still be a silly thing to do IMO.

Palm Beach airport to Miami's airport: 63 miles

Milwaukee's airport to O'Hare airport: 66 miles

Even more ridiculous is "Greater Boston," which presumably includes TF Green in Rhode Island, Boston-Logan and Manchester. It is 105 miles from Manchester to TF Green.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

It's still inconsistent. You lump all the New York City airports into one group because people in an area have options for airports: people in the New York City area can fly out of JFK, Newark Liberty, La Guardia, Islip, and more. People in Chicago can fly out of O'Hare and Midway. People in Los Angeles can fly out of LAX, Burbank, Ontario, and more. So is it unreasonable to think that someone living in, say, Pompano Beach or Boca Raton would consider or use Palm Beach as much as Fort Lauderdale or Miami?

I don't have a good reason for why Palm Beach wasn't aggregated with Miami. I believe MIA serves as both the airport code for Miami International and the location code for all Miami Airports, so you would probably get results for Palm Beach if you do a search for flights to Miami. It should be the same as getting Burbank or Ontario for Los Angeles, and receiving Islip and Stewart for NYC.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

It's still inconsistent. You lump all the New York City airports into one group because people in an area have options for airports: people in the New York City area can fly out of JFK, Newark Liberty, La Guardia, Islip, and more. People in Chicago can fly out of O'Hare and Midway. People in Los Angeles can fly out of LAX, Burbank, Ontario, and more. So is it unreasonable to think that someone living in, say, Pompano Beach or Boca Raton would consider or use Palm Beach as much as Fort Lauderdale or Miami?

Yeah, I'd say it's unreasonable. The three NYC airports are all quite large and proximate in distance to each other and the CBD. Same with Chicago. LA has one central airport hogging most of the traffic. Palm Beach is 70 miles from Miami. And it's a really small airport with pricey fares and wouldn't have any flights not present in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. Miami is a mega global hub. Ft. Lauderdale has all the discount airlines going to the Carribean. PB is very local.

Of course you could find someone traveling 70 or even 170 miles for a flight. My brother has not infrequently flown out of O'Hare even though he lives in Metro Detroit, given he strongly prefers directs and some intl. flights can be big savings. I think he's flown out of Toronto too, using same reasoning. But that wouldn't be a typical thing. But if you save $1,000 on an intl. flight, and it's direct, it might be worth the schlep.

[SIGSEGV]

Am I blind or is dallas-houston not on there?