Throughout the years, many air-routes stood apart from the pool as they enjoy higher demand and more traffic for many reasons, ranging from their respective start and end points, traffic capacity and seasonal demand.

Today we will explore the top ten most profitable air routes and go through the reasons why they came to be this way.

#10:

Vancouver – Toronto

Airline: Air Canada

Total revenues 2018/2019 : $541.1m

Revenue per hour: $11,936

Air Canada’s route between Vancouver and Toronto bottoms out the list with $541 million of revenue in 2019. Due to low population density and high infrastructure costs between Canada’s 2 major cities.

#9:

 Singapore – Sydney

Airline: Singapore Airlines

Total revenues: $549.7m

Revenue per hour: $20,821

Singapore, being a huge connecting hub for east asian – australian traffic, takes up #9 on the list. The airline also uses this hub to connect passengers to further european destinations.

#8

Hong Kong – London Heathrow

Airline: Cathay Pacific Airways

Total revenues: $604.5m

Revenue per hour: $13,887

Cathy Pacific is a huge player in the southeast Asian market, transferring passengers and cargo operations across one of Asia’s financial hubs being Hong Kong and London. Seeing up to 7 Boeing 77-300ER daily across this route.

#7

Doha – London Heathrow

Airline: Qatar Airways

Total revenues: $639.1m

Revenue per hour: $20,415

Connecting between London’s Heathrow and Qatar’s Doha Hammad international are 6 daily flights by Qatar Airways with 2 A380’s, 2 A350’s and 2 777. Qatar Airways also play a huge role in connecting between The UK and Australia and Newzeland.

#6

LAX – New York JFK

Airline: American Airlines

Total revenues: $661.7m

Revenue per hour: $13,099

One of the US’s busiest routes stands the Newyork – Los Angles Route, Connecting between 2 of the countries busiest cities are 12 A321’s everyday by American Airlines. This serves a huge part in connecting the US’s Atlantic to Pacific coasts.

#5

San Francisco-Newark

Airline: United Airlines

Total revenues: $689.3m

Revenue per hour: $12,882

In addition to the JFK-LAX route, AA’s Chief rival United Airlines dominates the EWR-SFO routes with up to 15 daily flights using 757’s and some brand new 787-10’s.

#4

Singapore – London Heathrow

Airline: Singapore Airlines

Total revenues: $735.5m

Revenue per hour: $18,771

Singapore Airlines again coming on the list at #4 with it’s London – Singapore route as it helps to connect its passengers from the far east to Europe’s busiest capital. Seeing 2 A380’s and 2 777-300 ER between the 2 hubs.

#3

Dubai – London Heathrow

Airline: Emirates

Total revenues: $796.2m

Revenue per hour: $24,926

Emirates is one of the world’s biggest airlines and plays a huge role in connecting passengers throughout the globe through it’s Dubai mega hub and the DXB-LHR route sees up to 10 flights a day with a huge fleet of A380’s and 777’s.

#2

Melbourne – Sydney

Airline: Qantas Airways

Total revenues: $861.2m

Revenue per hour: $23,773

The 800 km flight surprisingly ranks at #2 on the list, due the vastness of Australia, Aussies prefer the 1.5 hr flight rather than the 800 km drive.

#1

London Heathrow – New York JFK

Airline: British Airways

Total revenues: $1.159bn

Revenue per hour: $27,159

British Airways’ service between London Heathrow and JFK New York has retained its spot as the world’s highest grossing airline route, earning revenues of over $1.15bn in the last year. It is the only route to break the ‘billion-dollar barrier’ and also reported an increased revenue per hour of about 10 per cent in the 12 months from April 2018 to March 2019.