De 10 mest lukrative rutene i verden som gir mest avkastning - Curt Lewis

The $1 Billion Prize: The World's 10 Most Lucrative Airline Routes

Profits may be pressured across the aviation industry this year, but some routes are always reliable money spinners that can bring in hundreds of millions of dollars a year in ticket sales and, in one case, more than $1 billion.

"For every airline there are a small selection of lucrative routes where either competitive advantage, market circumstances or limited competition make for very attractive revenues," says John Grant of industry analysts OAG, which has compiled a list of the 10 highest-grossing services around the world.

Between them the 10 routes brought in revenues of more than $6 billion in the 12 months from April 2018 to March 2019. That is an average of $608 million each, ranging from the $541m pocketed by Air Canada on its Vancouver to Toronto service, to the $1.16bn in ticket sales by British Airways on its trans-Atlantic service between London and New York.

Strong revenues don't always translate directly into profits, though, and operating costs on some of these routes will also be high. Nonetheless, Grant says, "It is equally likely that, for each of these airlines, operating profits are amongst the highest on their respective networks."

There are a number of common features among the 10 highest-grossing routes.

Five of them operate from London's main airport, Heathrow, serving New York, Dubai, Singapore, Doha and Hong Kong. That is in part due to the limited availability of slots at Heathrow, which means airlines flying in and out of the airport need to make the most of the opportunity.

The value of services to a popular hub airport is also clear from OAG's analysis of the ten most lucrative routes in North America, with five of the 10 services landing at JFK (a further two land at nearby Newark).

However, there has also been a noticeable drop in revenues on many of the high-revenue routes. Nine of the top 10 services globally saw revenues fall in 2018/19, compared to the year before. That suggests that competition from other airlines is getting stronger, both in terms of direct services and indirect routes, which often prove to be cheaper for passengers who are prepared to spend a longer time traveling.

Airlines from the Middle East and Asia also feature strongly, with Dubai-based Emirates, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific accounting for half of the top 10 routes between them (Singapore features twice).

Half of the 10 routes are operated by members of the Oneworld airline alliance, followed by four from the Star Alliance, but no SkyTeam alliance member makes the list (one of the routes is operated by Emirates, which is not a member of any alliance).

Here are the top 10 most lucrative routes, in descending order.

1.     London Heathrow - New York JFK

The most lucrative route of all is the London Heathrow to New York JFK service operated by British Airways, which brings in annual revenues of $1.16bn for the UK carrier. More than 30% of seats on the trans-Atlantic route are in the First or Business Class cabins, helping to take the revenue figure per hour of flight on the service to $27,159.

2.     Melbourne - Sydney

The service between Australia's two biggest cities earned Qantas Airways some $861m last year, with an average revenue per hour of $23,773. It is one of four domestic routes that make up the top ten, and the only one outside North America. It was the only one of the ten most lucrative services to post higher revenue in 2018/19, although there was only a modest 1.4% rise from $849m the year before.

3.     Dubai - London Heathrow

The most important route for Dubai-based Emirates Airline, which relies entirely on international services due to the small size of its home country. With a modern fleet of aircraft and high levels of service, particularly on its fleet of Airbus A380 jets, the airline has built a strong reputation. Last year, this route brought in revenues of $796m.

4.     Singapore - London Heathrow

Singapore Airlines - often seen as one of the best airlines in the world - sold $736m worth of tickets to passengers flying from its hub to Heathrow, or an average of $18,771 for every one of the 39,189 hours of flying time between the cities.

5.     San Francisco-Newark

The highest grossing domestic service in North America is this cross-country haul from the west to the east coast operated by United Airlines. Last year it brought in $689m in revenue for the airline.

6.     LAX - New York JFK

Not far behind is another coast-to-coast service, this one operated by American Airlines. In 2018/19 it earned the carrier some $662m. The strength of demand on this city-pair is clear from the fact that Delta Airlines' service on the same route earned it $465m last year - not enough to make the ten most lucrative routes globally, but among the top ten for North America.

7.     Doha - London Heathrow

Another London-Gulf service comes in at seventh place. Qatar Airways, recently voted the world's best airline, has been struggling to deal with a boycott by neighbouring countries since June 2017, which has blocked it from the airspace of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt. That has not presented too many problems for the airline's key service to London though, which last year earned it $639m in ticket sales.

8.     Hong Kong - London Heathrow

At the time of writing, Cathay Pacific was being forced to suspend services from its hub due to political protests which had overwhelmed the airport. In more normal circumstances last year, the airline's route to London earned $605m. However, that was down substantially from the year before, when it brought in revenues of $782m on the route.

9.     Singapore - Sydney

The second entry by Singapore Airlines in the top ten is this service to Australia's commercial capital Sydney. Last year, some $550m worth of tickets were sold on this route.

10. Vancouver - Toronto

The final entry on the top ten is another domestic service, a four-and-a-half-hour flight between two Canadian cities. Last year, Air Canada earned revenues of $541m on this route, down substantially from $620m the year before.