Madrid-Barcelona is world's busiest flight route

A recent study by the OAG has found that the Madrid to Barcelona flight route is the busiest in the world, with 971 flights per week between the two cities.

Why is this route so popular? Well, not only are they the two biggest cities in Spain and two of the most popular tourist destinations, they are also the two financial capitals of Spain - which means there are large numbers of businessmen taking this route each week.

And another thing worth mentioning - transport by land in Spain is far from the quickest way of traveling, so flying is most people's only choice (unless they want to waste a whole day flying). While the journey takes little over an hour by plane, a bus from Madrid to Barcelona takes about eight hours. The train is a little better, but the express AVE train network is still being rolled out across the country and has not reached Barcelona yet. At present the journey takes four-and-a-half hours, but when the AVE reaches there, the journey should be about half that.

So for the moment, I'd sat that flying is the best way to get between Madrid and Barcelona - and clearly, there are 971 planes a week full of people who would agree! Read about internal flights to Spain to find which airlines fly from Madrid to Barcelona.