An historical analysis of its renowned schedules database to identify world rankings of all new routes for September 2007, to coincide with the Routes World Development Forum, taking place 23-25 September in Stockholm has been conducted by OAG BACK Aviation Solutions, a division of flight information and data solutions company Official Airline Guide (OAG).

Compared with this time last year, 2506 new routes have been launched or reinstated (up by more than 400 over the previous year) with a total of more than 22,000 new flight services now operating on these new routes every week. That represents 4% of total worldwide flight schedules for this month.

New Route Operations Overall

Topping the global chart of new routes with the highest number of operations is the route between Shanghai Pudong International (PVG) and Wuhan (WUH) in China with 210 flights per week. Six airlines operate on this route: Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, East Star Airlines, Juneyao Airlines and Shanghai Airlines.

Regional rankings put Asia firmly ahead, with the top five busiest new routes shared between China and Thailand.

International Route Operations

Just over half (56%) of the 2,500+ new routes are international, primarily intra-European. Leading this chart is the new route between Moscow Domodedovo in the Russian Federation and Vienna in Austria, with 64 new
flights per week operated by Austrian Airlines, Krasnoyarsk Airlines, NIKI and Transaero.

Airport & City Rankings

Of the top 10 airports with the most new or reinstated routes compared with September 2006, nine are in Europe. Manchester International Airport in the UK has 36 of the new or reinstated routes, followed by London Gatwick and Moscow Domodedovo Airports both with 33, London Stansted with 31, Madrid Barajas with 27, Vienna and Gerona both with 26, Dublin with 25 and Hamburg and Las Vegas McCarran each with 23.

When we look at cities with multiple airports, London tops the global rankings by a large margin with 91 of the new or reinstated routes among its five airports, followed by Moscow with 52 new routes among three airports; and Paris with 42 new routes among four airports.

Commented Nick Salter, Sales Director OAG BACK Aviation Solutions: Our statistics demonstrate a continuing healthy expansion of route networks. Compared to this time last year there are more than 22,000 new
flight services operating on over 2,500 brand new or reinstated routes. Asia is leading the way with the top 5 busiest new routes, reflecting the economic growth across the region.

Most of the top 20 busiest new international routes are intra-European. Only 3 in the top 20 are between regions, with the New York JFK to London Gatwick transatlantic route the highest ranking in 4th place with 38 flights per week. The other two intercontinental routes are Bahrain to Kuala Lumpur and Mumbai to New York JFK, both with 28 flights per week.

Salter added, European airports dominate the rankings for having the highest number of new route operations, undoubtedly reflecting the growth in intra-European international routes over the past 12 months.

The three tables below show:
1) the busiest new routes overall, ranked by schedule frequencies per week
2) the busiest new international routes, ranked by schedule frequencies per week
3) the top 10 airports ranked by number of new or reinstated routes at that airport

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