THE AIR CORRIDOR between Dublin and London is the second-busiest international route in the world, new statistics published by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) show.

The route carried 3.6 million passengers last year, behind Chinese Taipei – Hong Kong, which ferried 4.9 million people.

The 2013 numbers are a 6.9% increase on the previous year, and put the route ahead of Jakarta-Singapore, which saw 3.4 million trips in 2012.

The figures are contained in the IATA’s World Air Transport Statistics yearbook, published today.

IATA said that the real price of air travel fell by 7.4% last year, with the global economic impact of aviation pegged at $2.4 trillion (€1.8 trillion).

The skies over the UK and Ireland this afternoon. Flightradar24.com Flightradar24.com

Airlines carried over 3.1 billion passengers on scheduled services last year, with carriers in the Asia-Pacific ferrying the largest number in any one region at 1.012 billion, an increase of almost 10% on the previous year.

Europe was the second most densely trafficked region with 925.9 million, followed by North America with 818.9 million.

Fuel consumption represented only around 2% of all fossil fuels burned worldwide for all purposes, and 12% of that used for transportation.

Almost 48 million tonnes of cargo was transported by air last year.

There are almost 100,000 flights worldwide every day.

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