Turkish Airlines has just put its newest route to the United States on sale, as flagged by @IshrionA. This represents the new longest route for this particular airport…
Turkish Airlines adds Istanbul to Denver route
As of June 11, 2024, Turkish Airlines will be launching year-round flights between Istanbul (IST) and Denver (DEN). The flight will initially operate 3x weekly, before being increased to 4x weekly as of July 14, 2024. The flight will operate with the following schedule:
TK201 Istanbul to Denver departing 1:55PM arriving 5:40PM
TK202 Denver to Istanbul departing 7:35PM arriving 4:25PM (+1 day)
The service will initially be offered on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, before being extended to Sundays as well. The flight will cover a distance of 6,129 miles in each direction, and is blocked at 12hr45min westbound and 11hr50min eastbound. Turkish Airlines will use an Airbus A350-900 for the route. Based on looking at the seat map, it would appear that the airline plans to use one of the ex-Aeroflot Airbus A350s, featuring a phenomenal business class product.
Turkish Airlines first hinted at launching this route in August 2021, so it’s nice to see this finally become a reality. Turkish Airlines flies to more countries than any other airline in the world. As far as destinations in the United States go, the airline otherwise flies to Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington. What a network!
My take on Turkish Airlines adding Denver flights
This is a pretty awesome new route for Denver, as it represents the airport’s new longest route. Currently the airport’s longest route is to Tokyo Narita (NRT), which covers a distance of 5,787 miles, so this new service beats that by well over 300 miles.
It’s always fun to see airlines add new routes, especially when we’re talking about an airline as global as Turkish Airlines. Given how many places Turkish Airlines already flies to in the United States, I’d say Denver is logically among the next cities you’d expect from the airline. A few thoughts on Turkish Airlines adding Denver flights:
- Clearly a major motivation here is that Denver is also a Star Alliance hub, so this service will offer lots of connectivity to the region
- Given the number of places Turkish Airlines flies, this will also be useful for people traveling from Denver to the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and beyond
- There really isn’t any competition for a route like this in Denver; none of the Gulf carriers fly to Denver, and there’s not really any service east of Western Europe
There are business class award seats available
This new flight between Istanbul and Denver is already bookable, and I see two business class award seats available on a vast majority of flights. This is a great option for flying to Istanbul, or for traveling with one stop to just about anywhere in the world.
The best program to redeem miles through depends on your final destination, but in general Air Canada Aeroplan and Avianca LifeMiles are going to be your best bets, in terms of the number of transferable points currencies they partner with. Turkish Miles&Smiles can also be useful.
Bottom line
Turkish Airlines will be launching year-round flights to Denver as of June 2024. The airline will operate this route with an Airbus A350, and it represents a new longest route for the airport. It’s impressive to see Turkish’s continued expansion!
What do you make of Turkish Airlines’ new Denver route?
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