Turkish Airlines is already a massive airline, flying to more countries than any other airline in the world. However, the company is just getting started, and has plans to roughly double in size over the next decade. Along those lines, we’ve just learned the details of the carrier’s next planned destination in the United States.
In this post:
Turkish Airlines plans Minneapolis flights as of spring 2025
Turkish Airlines’ Chairman has revealed that the airline intends to launch a new route between Istanbul (IST) and Minneapolis (MSP) as of the spring of 2025, with flights likely to launch as of April or May. Those are all the details we have as of now, as we don’t yet know the frequency with which flights will operate, or what plane will be used.
However, the airline has long revealed the next routes on its radar prior to putting flights on sale, so I’d trust that this will happen. Once it launches, this 5,502-mile flight will be the carrier’s 15th destination in the United States.
Turkish Airlines’ current destinations in the United States include Atlanta (ATL), Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD), Dallas (DFW), Denver (DEN), Detroit (DTW), Houston (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), New York (JFK), Newark (EWR), San Francisco (SFO), Seattle (SEA), and Washington (IAD).
In June 2024, Turkish Airlines announced that its next four destinations in the United States would include Charlotte (CLT), Minneapolis (MSP), Orlando (MCO), and Philadelphia (PHL). So it’s interesting to see that the Minneapolis flight is likely going to be the first of those to be launched. It’s interesting how three of the four routes being added are to major hubs of American and Delta.
It’s fun to see competition at a Delta fortress hub!
Turkish Airlines adding flights to Minneapolis might seem a bit random on the surface, since it’s not exactly the world’s biggest or most international market. However, I’m sure Turkish Airlines will have no issues making this flight work.
For one, Turkish Airlines has managed to scale its network in a way that few airlines have. The airline can make routes work even if there’s not that much demand between that city and Istanbul, thanks to the fact that the airline offers easy one-stop service to so many destinations. So whether you’re going to Belgrade, Benghazi, Damascus, Durban, Mahe, or Mogadishu, the airline has you covered.
It’s especially fun to see Turkish Airlines “attacking” a Delta fortress hub, like Minneapolis. Historically, Delta loves to immediately respond when airlines add flights to the company’s hubs. For example, as soon as Aer Lingus announced it would add Minneapolis flights, Delta matched, and added the same route.
One thing is for sure — there’s no way Delta will match Turkish Airlines on this route. Delta simply can’t compete with Turkish Airlines’ cost structure, and without connectivity beyond Istanbul, the route just wouldn’t make sense.
Bottom line
Turkish Airlines plans to make Minneapolis its next destination in the United States, with flights expected to launch in April or May of 2025. I imagine flights will be on sale soon, and that locals in Minnesota will appreciate some added competition. I’ll be sure to provide an update once the flight is on sale.
What do you make of Turkish Airlines adding Minneapolis flights?
@Ben Durbin appears to be a US Senator; I assume you mean Durban in your article.
Looking great to see. What aircraft will Turkish Airlines use for the new istanbul to Minneapolis route.
Good job Ben picking up on the newly (re)introduced Damascus route!
Why do you write: It’s fun to see competition at a Delta fortress hub!
Seems anti Delta unless you write the same thing when Turkish flies to hubs of other airlines?
Journalism 101
@ John Tanzella -- I would/will write exactly the same when the airline launches Charlotte and Philadelphia flights (American hubs).
It’s called being pro-competition. Competition is good for the consumers — no less so for those of with vested and other personal interests in the MSP area.
MSP and Minnesota as a whole has the highest population of Somali immigrants outside of East Africa. Many of them have become somewhat affluent and can now afford to travel back to see relatives in their homeland. There is a growing market for serice to East Africa from MSP, and this is probably just the start of a bigger push to serve it...
Does that claim still hold up? The world has changed quite a bit in the last 20 years. Either way, Somalis will definitely not be a rare sight on the long-haul flights out of MSP. Diasporas have relatives in various places.
I see lots of Somalis all across Sweden, the UAE and the UK, and their populations have risen at a greater rate in the last 20 years in those countries than seems to have...
Does that claim still hold up? The world has changed quite a bit in the last 20 years. Either way, Somalis will definitely not be a rare sight on the long-haul flights out of MSP. Diasporas have relatives in various places.
I see lots of Somalis all across Sweden, the UAE and the UK, and their populations have risen at a greater rate in the last 20 years in those countries than seems to have been the case in Minnesota in the last 10-15 years.
The MSP area and St Cloud have large populations of Somalis, but so do parts of Sweden, the UAE and the UK.
How about writing an article about the halo effect of TK flying to most countries? I think it is a smart strategy on their part. It seems to me that, while MSP is a middle of the pack market for international flights currently, maybe TK makes many international markets convenient with a one stop in IST. That may result in MSP area residents getting more creative with their vacation plans and being inclined to travel more internationally.
I get what you are saying but I disagree. Turkish entrance into MSP market will not make it more convent with a one stop connection because MSP area residents already have one stop options. They can fly United one stop to ORD and connect to major cities throughout Europe, they can fly United one stop to SFO and connect with major cites throughout Asia and the Pacific. They can fly Delta to AMS or CDG...
I get what you are saying but I disagree. Turkish entrance into MSP market will not make it more convent with a one stop connection because MSP area residents already have one stop options. They can fly United one stop to ORD and connect to major cities throughout Europe, they can fly United one stop to SFO and connect with major cites throughout Asia and the Pacific. They can fly Delta to AMS or CDG and connect one stop to anywhere in Europe or Africa, they can fly Delta. One stop options already exist for MSP area residents.
What Turkish can offer residents in MSP is a more convent way to access the African Continent, I believe Turkish now serves 52 destinations on the African Continent and more are in the works for 2025 neither United or Delta can match that with a one stopper so in that regard Turkish will have an edge but to Europe and Asia/South Pacific United and then Delta would still have the edge.
Turkish doesn't have a Halo effect because they fly to the most countries.
Turkish are one of the world's most profitable airlines and as a part of that they serve many destinations.
MSP resident here and I disagree with your statement. I personally (and mainly everyone I know that fly to Europe) prefer to fly from MSP to Europe and connect from there. Why? First, if my flight to Europe is cancelled for whatever reason, I drive 15 minutes back home. Second, once I land in Europe, I have way more options to get to my final destination (including trains) than getting stuck at ORD. Last, I...
MSP resident here and I disagree with your statement. I personally (and mainly everyone I know that fly to Europe) prefer to fly from MSP to Europe and connect from there. Why? First, if my flight to Europe is cancelled for whatever reason, I drive 15 minutes back home. Second, once I land in Europe, I have way more options to get to my final destination (including trains) than getting stuck at ORD. Last, I would rather land back from Europe at MSP than at ORD and have to connect. Customs and immigration at MSP are probably the easiest in the country and from the time the plane gets to the gate to the time I am on my car is no more than 15 minutes. Thus, having mire direct flights to Europe from MSP is a must for people living here. As for Asia, I agree with you that options at MSP are very limited (Tokyo) so flying to SFO makes more sense but I would rather connect on an Asian airline than on United.
Delta also flies to Seoul every day from MSP and there are for more connections there than at Haneda.
Boring, repetitive loser
Delta can as Air France and KLM have the largest African network. Have you checked how many destinations they fly to on the continent?
This 100% why Lufthansa left.
Wasn't LH just replaced by Discover?
It will be indeed. And Discover is owned by LH.
@Ben: What it takes for a new airline to get to an airport like MSP which is dominated by Delta? I mean, Delta basically owns the place so who makes the decision to allow a new airline to access the airport? MSP has enough people that would love to connect in other European airports other than the ones offered by Delta.
all federally included US airports must have space for new competitors - and that isn't just to DL hubs.
As I noted below, TK benefits over the ME3 because of shorter flights for connections beyond the gateway and the ability to serve some markets in SW Europe which Middle East airlines cannot do.
...federally funded...
You mean SE Europe. Americas-IST-SW Europe is not as in demand as Americas-IST-E/SE Europe. Going from the Americas to IST to get to Spain or Portugal is not a popular way to get from the Americas to the Iberian peninsula.
Living in the MSP area and with travels back and forth to Africa. I think this will be a great option to more routes especially as Turkish covers many routes to Africa. The cost might drop a bit as well to the European Hubs.
It will be interesting when Ethipian comes to MSP.
The airlines decide as long as the airport has enough slots at the times desired by the airline. MAC/MSP has been very open to Icelandair, Condor, Aer Lingus, Lufthansa and now Turkish giving Delta/AF/KL some competition. They received no serious pushback from the airport commission — actually the commission has been gung-ho on bringing more airlines in for long-haul service in particular.
I wonder why other international airlines don’t explore MSP. For example, MSP-LHR has a daily Delta flight that is always full. Just picked a random date in March and Delta One is $12,872. Why wouldn’t BA want to compete here? Delta launched MSP-FCO in the summer. Prices are crazy? Why wouldn’t ITA compete at least with a few flights per week?
The answer is that MSP does not have particularly high demand to nor from London, especially for a market its size. What demand that exists and is willing to pay a premium for a nonstop, is well-addressed by Delta, to the point where BA doesn't see it as worth fighting over.
Same for Detroit, whom BA served for more than 50 years, but hasn't bothered to return...
The answer is that MSP does not have particularly high demand to nor from London, especially for a market its size. What demand that exists and is willing to pay a premium for a nonstop, is well-addressed by Delta, to the point where BA doesn't see it as worth fighting over.
Same for Detroit, whom BA served for more than 50 years, but hasn't bothered to return to. They could definitely make both markets work, and perhaps someday will, but there's more lucrative fish for them to chase with their limited fleet and slots.
I don’t have the data but wonder why London would not have more demand from Minneapolis but Dublin has two flights, Paris has two. I would imagine London would attract a lot of passengers as it is also the closest EU destination to MSP (with direct flights) so it would make sense to connect with BA to other European destinations.
London is not in the EU, so London can’t be the closest EU destination to MSP. The closest Schengen destination to MSP is Iceland, but Iceland isn’t in the EU. Ireland is in the EU and is closer to MSP than LHR is to MSP.
MSP-London traffic gets served by DL/AF/KL — directly or via AMS or CDG — and via Iceland or Ireland if going outside SkyTeam.
You understood what I said. London is in Europe.
Have you seen what limited SkyTeam connectivity there is non-stop from LHR? That caps demand on MSP-LHR in a way that isn’t applicable to MSP-AMS/CDG. MSP-DUB has double service for the same reason DL has had MSP-KEF: to be pressure on any competition.
The real reason is that DL has the advantage on the MSP end, VS and DL can get the UK sales demand as good as BA can, and DL can and does send connections over MSP to LHR from all over the western US (and more) while BA would have to rely on its hub at LHR - which happens to compete with AF and KL's hubs at CDG and AMS which are both well-connected to MSP.
MSP and DTW and SLC just like CLT and PHL are precisely why medium sized markets great hubs.
Huh? DL and VS are nowhere comparable to BA on the UK POS - even in DL hubs like SEA, LAX, JFK, and BOS, BA is able to get far higher LFs and pricing advantage vs DL and VS where they play. VS is way behind BA in the UK - they underperform BA in every single US market they both compete in pricing and LFs by a decent margin. Look how BA cleaned VS's...
Huh? DL and VS are nowhere comparable to BA on the UK POS - even in DL hubs like SEA, LAX, JFK, and BOS, BA is able to get far higher LFs and pricing advantage vs DL and VS where they play. VS is way behind BA in the UK - they underperform BA in every single US market they both compete in pricing and LFs by a decent margin. Look how BA cleaned VS's clock in Austin.
Where you have a valid point is demand to Detroit and MSP is primarily from that local POS vs the UK side where DL is be the market leader (unlike SEA, LAX, JFK, and BOS) - given they won't have AA feed in those geographies, the juice is likely not the squeeze.
LFs on a segment has nothing to do with the ability to compete for LOCAL traffic. And we are talking about MSP-LHR, not SEA.
If BA could successfully compete in the SEA-LHR market, they would. It is notable that they do not given the number of US cities they serve.
It actually says volumes about BA's lack of ability to compete in DL markets regarding the number of DL hubs that BA does...
LFs on a segment has nothing to do with the ability to compete for LOCAL traffic. And we are talking about MSP-LHR, not SEA.
If BA could successfully compete in the SEA-LHR market, they would. It is notable that they do not given the number of US cities they serve.
It actually says volumes about BA's lack of ability to compete in DL markets regarding the number of DL hubs that BA does not serve. Feel free to do the math but I believe DL has more hubs that BA does not serve than AA (obvious due to the JV) and UA.
Huh? BA competes just fine on SEA-LHR both locally and for transfer, and has for decades.
Wish TK J availability hadn't dried up so much
It’s especially fun to see Turkish Airlines “attacking” ...
"Fun"? Really? It's got nothing to do with fun. Why do you Americans continually use the word in these contexts? How about a more appropriate word like "interesting "?
Fun means something that provides enjoyment or amusement, no? I think Lucky is tickled pink by such airline wars and so it's fun for him.
It’s fun for me too
Ben,
Maybe consider a post on why none of the ME3 fly to DTW. TK provides service.
Bill
It basically comes down to not enough South Asians and not enough business and cargo demand to make MSP-DOH/DXB/AUH a priority. TK gets to hit MENA and the rest of Africa and a substantial chunk of of Europe (beside Central and South Asia) in a way that is less practical for the GCC3 due to mainly to geography and flows of people and/or goods.
TK is really on a roll here. MSP area has a sizable population from Africa, the Middle East, and the Subcontinent.
AA and DL are big into routing as much as they can via their major European alliance partner airline hubs, and that just doesn’t fly so well when people want to fly to Asian and African destinations served by TK but not by BA or AF/KL/VS.
In the last year or so, MSP has seen an increase in new airlines coming to MSP with transatlantic service. I am very much looking forward to flying MSP-IST since IST has flights to a lot of places not served by AF-KL, Delta and Virgin. TK greatly expands the number of single connection options available from MSP.
Ben is clearly looking at a big 3 fan snowball fight but the only reason that TK is adding AA and DL hubs is because they already fly to UA hubs.
And the real surprise is that UA doesn't even serve IST even though TK is part of the Star Alliance.
TK benefits from the weak Lira and low labor costs and being almost 2000 miles closer to the US than the Middle East hubs.
...Ben is clearly looking at a big 3 fan snowball fight but the only reason that TK is adding AA and DL hubs is because they already fly to UA hubs.
And the real surprise is that UA doesn't even serve IST even though TK is part of the Star Alliance.
TK benefits from the weak Lira and low labor costs and being almost 2000 miles closer to the US than the Middle East hubs.
and, no, DL won't start MSP-IST but the fact that UA doesn't fly there even though UA and TK aren't in a JV says that TK can do whatever it wants and ALL the US carriers can't or won't do anything.
Why do you hate UA so much. We get it man. DL is amazing. Maybe one day UA can actually become a rival to DL. It just comes off as condescending….. we know that DL is better than UA.
By all accounts, there's another Star Alliance carrier intending to announce MSP flights this year so quite a bit of movement in that market coming up.
@ Sean M. -- What's the other one? I might have missed something...
Wouldn't surprise me if it is Ethiopian as there is a huge African Diaspora in Minneapolis.
@Ben - No secret that Ethiopian wanted to launch MSP in 2024 but were constrained because of delayed deliveries and multiple 787s AOG for most of the year with RR engine issues.
DELTA is more premium than TK.
Bro??
fraud?
just start blocking IP addresses on top of user names and email addresses, Ben,
@ Tim Dunn -- FYI, this account has now been blocked from commenting. I tried to give people the chance to voluntarily follow commenting rules, but that didn't work here. So I'm leaving this post up, but it'll be the last one from this account.
you go, Ben.
Don't hesitate to publicly flog the guilty in the town square.
"this account has now been blocked from commenting"
Thank you, we appreciate the commitment to following through on this! Truly.
MSP-AMS/CDG/LHR-____ doesn’t cover all the single connection routes that TK opens up for travelers to and from MSP. So this new route is great news for MSP flyers. Even my MSP-based DL Diamond and 360 friends and family are looking forward to this TK option.
To the contrary, I think it says a lot about how international the market at MSP really is, and how underserved it has been, that this was chosen as the first route of the batch. DL has long restricted supply to boost prices at its hubs.
Not really.
Granted, I don't have access to numbers newer than 2023, but in terms of PDEW, it's very middle-of-the-pack for a market its size, especially one with such a large concentration of Fortune500/1000s.
Even traditionally-considered "leisure" markets like MCO and LAS put it to absolute shame in terms of not only international demand,...
Not really.
Granted, I don't have access to numbers newer than 2023, but in terms of PDEW, it's very middle-of-the-pack for a market its size, especially one with such a large concentration of Fortune500/1000s.
Even traditionally-considered "leisure" markets like MCO and LAS put it to absolute shame in terms of not only international demand, but in many instances, fares for such.
That's not to say that without DL, MSP would be some manner of wasteland. It could definitely support a few longhaul carriers flowing traffic over their non-stateside gateways.
But suffice to say: the whole "Delta is holding Minneapolis back" mentality, couldn't possibly be more inaccurate... that network hub is the only reason MSP has anywhere near the amount of international service that it already does.
Should note though that without the hub, prices would likely be down for locals, though that wouldn't help the prospects of additional longhaul though.
A decade-plus ago, DL flew to Istanbul from JFK. I agree that if they can't/won't resurrect that (or *maybe* from BOS), they're certainly not going to add an 11-hour long-haul from the midwest.
"Can you get me 2 seats on TK from JFK-MSP? It's ok if it's via IST."
Those were the days when Lifemiles would allow just that kind of thing for the price of a domestic US award ticket (plus taxes). But the greatest deals meet their end too soon for me.
Agent: "Oh, is it you again Mr. Mayor Adams? Yes, absolutely. Let me check some super-duper discount J fare for you."