Why is the Melbourne-Sydney air route so busy? (calculated, flight path)

[shirleyeve]

It is the third busiest air route in the world, with the most passengers, serving 9 million passengers in 2018. I find it baffling that it is so busy, particularly compared to certain American flight routes. For example the LA-NYC air route ranks at #29, and served a much smaller figure of 3 million passengers in 2018. LA-SF, NYC-Chicago...they're all far less busier than Melbourne to Sydney yet the USA obviously has a much larger population than Australia. Some of those major US cities are at comparable distance of Sydney-Melbourne so I just cannot understand it.

The list can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ger_air_routes

[ciTydude123]

Combo of too far to drive, cheap air fares and no high speed trains. Plus being the two dominant cities in the country/region there's a lot of business travel between the two.

[elnina]

Right. This route is SECOND busiest in the world.
Probably because it's the fastest connection between those biggest and most important cities in Australia and due to lack of high speed railroad.

BTW:
If you wonder about the #1:
The most crowded flight path on Earth, according to a new report by aviation analyst OAG, is actually the 280-mile hop from Seoul Gimpo to Jeju International.

[MarisaMay]

There is a lot of business travel and the cities are close enough that people very often just go for the day. It is also pretty common to transit through Melbourne when flying from Tasmania and SA to Sydney. There are quite a lot of direct flights on those routes but if they are unavailable the transit option will work.

[BCC_1]

Those are airport pairs not city pairs. Two large cities both with only one airport in each. If Sydney and Melbourne had two airports each then ranking would fall well down.

[TheseGoTo11]

Originally Posted by BCC_1

If Sydney and Melbourne had two airports each then ranking would fall well down.

This factor draws down SF-LA significantly. Oakland to Burbank alone has about 20 flights each way daily.

[shirleyeve]

LA-NYC are too far to drive between too, like MELB-SYD and one would assume there would be business people flying between two cities, so why is the ranking lower for these two metropolises?

[BCC_1]

Originally Posted by shirleyeve

LA-NYC are too far to drive between too, like MELB-SYD and one would assume there would be business people flying between two cities, so why is the ranking lower for these two metropolises?

Because, as I said, the list you provided is airport pairs not city pairs. It's not rocket science.

[Milky Way Resident]

Originally Posted by elnina

Right. This route is SECOND busiest in the world.
Probably because it's the fastest connection between those biggest and most important cities in Australia and due to lack of high speed railroad.

BTW:
If you wonder about the #1:
The most crowded flight path on Earth, according to a new report by aviation analyst OAG, is actually the 280-mile hop from Seoul Gimpo to Jeju International.

I'm not surprised in the least that the busiest passenger air route is in Asia, though I expected it to be somewhere in China.

[PacoMartin]

Originally Posted by BCC_1

Because, as I said, the list you provided is airport pairs not city pairs. It's not rocket science.

Here are the rankings of the busiest domestic routes in the world.This list only tells part of the story, though. As mentioned, it is based on flight frequency rather than passenger loads.

Seoul Gimpo – Jeju: 79,640 flights
Melbourne – Sydney: 54,102 flights
Mumbai – Delhi: 45,188 flights
Sao Paulo – Rio de Janeiro: 39,747 flights
Fukuoka – Tokyo Haneda: 39,406 flights
Hanoi – Ho Chi Minh City: 39,291 flights
Sapporo – Tokyo Haneda: 39,271 flights
Jakarta – Surabaya: 37,762 flights
Los Angeles – San Francisco: 35,365 flights --------------- busiest in US
Jeddah – Riyadh: 35,149 flights
Cape Town – Johannesburg: 33,708 flights
Brisbane – Sydney: 33,443 flights
Cusco – Lima: 32,095 flights
Jakarta – Denpasar: 31,958 flights
Bogota – Medellin: 31,279 flights
Shanghai – Shenzhen: 29,401 flights
Beijing – Shanghai: 29233 flights
Jakarta – Makassar: 28,903 flights
Bengaluru – Delhi: 28,716 flights
New York JFK – Los Angeles: 26,286 flights

Seoul Gimpo – Jeju calculates to 79640 / 365 = 218 flights per day for the 280 mile route. Clearly they cannot efficiently use a large widebody jet, as the average flight to Jeju carries 186 passengers. As there are 1440 minutes per day /218 = 6.6 minutes between flights on average.

LAX-SFO calculates to 35149 / 365 = 96 flights per day in either direction. But the route is only 337 miles long, and cannot efficiently be flown with a widebody. But Los Angeles has multiple airports as does San Francisco, so you would get a much higher number if you calculated city pairs.

Sydney to Melbourne is only slightly longer at 439 miles, but that extra distance pretty much makes it an all-day trip driving. Unless you have a full automobile, it is probably always cheaper to fly than drive that distance. It may end up being the first route with standing (leaning) seating.