There are all kinds of strategies you can use to earn airline points/miles, and that’s true whether you’re a frequent flier or not. You can earn airline rewards by using an airline credit card or a flexible travel credit card for all of your spending, by shopping through airline rewards portals or by joining an airline’s dining club.

You can also buy airline points or miles outright if you want to rack up a stash quickly or you just need to top off your account. But just because you can buy airline rewards doesn’t mean you should. There are only a few situations where buying airline rewards makes any sense at all, meaning you’ll be better off earning rewards in other ways the vast majority of the time.

When you should buy airline points or miles

So, when does it make sense to purchase airline points or miles? Here’s a rundown of the main situations where you might want to consider it, as well as the steps you should take to find out if it makes sense in your situation.

1. When you can use miles for a flight with a high cash price right away

First off, you may want to consider buying miles if you’re planning to book a pricey fare with cash and the cost of purchased miles works out to less than you would pay. This scenario usually makes the most sense when you’re about to buy an expensive international fare in a premium cabin. However, you’ll need to make sure to buy the miles and lock in the award before it disappears, as they often do since award availability can change by the day (and even by the hour).

For example, you can typically buy American AAdvantage miles for a cost of 3.76 cents per mile. While that definitely seems like a lot, it could pay off when you need to book a pricey flight. For instance, maybe you need to fly from Indianapolis, Indiana, to Rome, Italy, this fall and you desperately want to fly in business class with a lie-flat seat. In that case, it may be possible to find business class fares for as low as 57,500 miles plus $23 in airline taxes and fees.

In the meantime, the cash price for this one-way flight works out to $4,585.

So, how do you know this is a good deal? In this scenario, you would subtract the $23 in airline taxes and fees from the cash price to get $4,562. At that point, you would divide the remaining cash amount by 57,500 miles to get a per-mile price.

When you do, you’ll find that this per-mile price works out to 7.9 cents each ($4,562/ 57,500 miles = 0.079). Since you could buy miles for less than 4 cents each, you would get a better value with this strategy than you would if you paid for the flight with cash instead.

2. When you’re short a few thousand miles for an award you want

Another scenario where it might make sense to buy miles is when you’re only a few thousand miles short for a reward redemption you want to make. In this situation, you can still get a good deal on purchased miles whether they’re expensive or not. After all, not buying miles could mean missing out on the award flight you want altogether.

Fortunately, most frequent-flier programs that let you buy miles offer them in fairly small increments so you can easily top off your account. For example, American AAdvantage, Air France/KLM Flying Blue and Delta SkyMiles all let you buy as little as 2,000 miles at a time.

3. The airline is offering a bonus for purchased miles

From time to time, many frequent-flier programs offer a “bonus” for purchasing miles, which typically translates to a discount off the regular rates. Buying during one of these promotional periods is obviously better than buying when a bonus isn’t offered, but that doesn’t mean you should buy miles just for the fun of it.

Unless you have a specific redemption you want to make, you should really only buy miles if you have a goal for them. In any other scenario, you should only buy miles if they’re offered at a price that’s less than what they’re normally worth.

At the moment, the Air France (Flying Blue) program is offering up to a 40% discount on purchased miles (at the time of writing this article). This means that 20,000 miles that would normally set you back $610 are currently on sale for $396.50.

If you need to make an Air France booking anyway and you’re short on miles, the fact a discount is being offered makes this option a pretty good deal.

Then again, the value just isn’t there to make the purchase unless you have a concrete reason. For example, our internal points and miles valuations show that Flying Blue miles are typically worth 1.5 cents each on average, yet the program is asking members to pay $1,830 for 100,000 miles. This translates to more than 1.8 cents per mile, which is more than this type of point is worth.

4. When you need to “reset the clock” so your award miles don’t expire

Buying miles is also a strategy you can use to “reset the clock” when your airline rewards are about to expire. This move can work well when you only have a few days or weeks to show some activity in your account before the expiration date, so you need to make something happen quickly.

However, since there are several free ways to earn more miles — including through co-branded credit card spending, airline shopping portals and frequent-flier dining clubs — you should only use this option as a last resort.

When you shouldn’t buy airline points or miles

For the most part, there are two main scenarios when you should not purchase airline points or miles:

—You don’t need them right now.

—The points/miles cost more than they’re actually worth.

In either case, you’re better off focusing your energy on all the free ways you can rack up airline points and miles. For example, you can look into earning a credit card sign-up bonus from one of the best airline credit cards, or you could explore some of the best flexible credit card rewards programs that let you transfer rewards to your favorite airlines and hotels. You can also look into airline shopping portals and dining clubs, which make it possible to earn points/miles for online shopping and dining out.

Which credit card should you use to buy airline points or miles?

The best credit card for buying airline points or miles will depend on the method you can use to purchase them.

Some frequent-flier programs don’t sell points/miles directly, but you can buy them through a third-party site called Points.com, which features over 60 airline, travel and financial partners. In this scenario, the points/miles you purchased with a credit card would not code as a travel purchase, so you wouldn’t have the opportunity to maximize your purchase with bonus points/miles on travel.

That said, several frequent-flier programs let you purchase points/miles directly on their websites. Some of these programs include Air France/KLM Flying Blue, American AAdvantage, Avianca LifeMiles, British Airways Executive Club, Delta SkyMiles, Southwest Rapid Rewards, United MileagePlus and more.

In these scenarios, you could opt for a flexible travel credit card that lets you earn bonus rewards on all purchases made directly with airlines. Some solid flexible travel credit cards to consider are the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve® and American Express® Gold Card, to name a few.

However, if you want frequent-flier perks like free checked bags or priority boarding, you could opt for an airline credit card that offers bonus rewards on airline purchases. Just be sure to tailor your card selection to the program you use the most and want to buy points/miles with.

If you’re more interested in the American AAdvantage program, for example, consider signing up for the Citi®/ AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®* or the Citi®/AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®. If you’re a Delta flier, on the other hand, you may want to look into cards like the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card or the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card.

The bottom line

At this point, you may have a few lingering questions. For example, is buying airline miles a good deal? Or, is it worth it to buy airline miles at all? Unfortunately, the answer to both of those questions is usually no. Buying airline miles only makes sense in a few situations, and you’ll probably still need to do some simple math before you decide. When you do run the numbers, you’ll almost always find the math isn’t in favor of buying points or miles.

Finally, remember all the ways you can earn airline rewards without paying for them, including signing up for a co-branded airline credit card (where you can earn a sign-up bonus and ongoing rewards on bonus category spending). With some research and planning, you can get all the miles you need (plus some) without paying for the privilege.

Note: The information about the Citi®/AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® has been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.

©2024 Bankrate.com. Visit Bankrate online at bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The airline said Thursday that it has been studying seating options and is making the changes because passenger preferences have shifted. The moves could also generate revenue and boost financial performance.

Southwest made the announcement on the same day that both it and American Airlines reported a steep drop in second-quarter profit despite higher revenue.

Airlines are struggling with higher costs and reduced pricing power, especially on flights within the United States, as the industry adds flights faster than the growth in travel demand.

Southwest, based in Dallas, said its second-quarter profit fell 46% from a year earlier, to $367 million, as higher costs for labor, fuel and other expenses outstripped an increase in revenue. The results met Wall Street expectations.

American Airlines also reported a 46% drop in profit, to $717 million, and said it would break even in the third quarter — well below Wall Street expectations of 48 cents per share profit in the July-through-September period.

American “did not perform to our initial expectations” because of a since-abandoned sales strategy and an oversupply of domestic flights, CEO Robert Isom said. He said the airline was responding with a strategy that boosts profits and “makes it easy for customers to do business with American.”

Southwest’s unusual boarding process started decades ago as a way for the airline to save money by reducing the amount of time it took for a plane to land, load new passengers, and take off again — turn time, as it is called in the business.

Most airlines assign each passenger to a seat when they buy a ticket. Southwest requires customers to check in exactly 24 hours before departure unless they pay extra to guarantee a better place in the boarding line. Those who hate it call it a “cattle call” but many Southwest loyalists love it.

However, as flights have become more full it has gotten harder to score a window or aisle seat without paying extra. Also, some passengers appear to game the system: They use a wheelchair to get to the gate, where they are given priority in boarding, then miraculously walk off the plane without assistance after the flight.

The airline said in surveys 80% of its customers — and 86% of “potential” customers — want an assigned seat. It said open seating is the top reason that travelers stop flying Southwest and choose another airline.

Southwest also said it will offer redeye flights for the first time.

Southwest said that its first overnight, redeye flights will land on Feb. 14, 2025, on nonstop routes including Las Vegas to Baltimore and Orlando; Los Angeles to Baltimore and Nashville; and Phoenix to Baltimore. It plans to add more redeyes over time.

The changes in seating policy and redeye flights come as Southwest is under pressure from Elliott Investment Management. The hedge fund argues that the airline lags rivals in financial performance and has failed to change with the times. It wants to replace CEO Robert Jordan and Chairman Gary Kelly.

The airline said it will provide more details about its upcoming changes at an investor day in September.

Shares of all major airlines dipped before the opening bell Thursday. Southwest Airlines Co. fell 6% and American Airlines Group Inc. fell 7%. Delta, JetBlue and United slipped more than 1%.

There were 458 flight delays at DIA and 41 nixed flights overall as of 6 p.m., according to data from flight tracking website FlightAware. Southwest Airlines took the crown in delays Monday, with 179.

The Federal Aviation Administration reported some destination-specific delays for departing flights because of thunderstorms, including Newark International Airport, John F Kennedy International Airport, George Bush Intercontinental/Houston Airport and Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain Airport.

Monday’s early slowdown follows several days of operational tumult at the airport. More than 600 flights were canceled or delayed Sunday while more than 800 flights were delayed or scrapped the day before at DIA.

The worst day was Friday, when more than 1,200 flights were affected by the technology meltdown, which impacted airports, banks and hospitals around the world. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said the issue believed to be behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack — and that a fix was on the way.

The company said the problem occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows.

As of 6 p.m. Monday, there were more than 9,000 delays within, into or out of the United States, and 1,425 flight cancellations. Southwest was the leader in delays with more than 1,600.

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Visit Denver, the city’s tourism sales and marketing agency, said last year’s visitor total of 37.4 million was a 3% bump over 2022. And the $10.3 billion in Denver’s tourism revenue last year outpaced the $9.4 billion collected the prior year by nearly 10%.

“Tourism is vital to the Denver economy and we are pleased to see our momentum continue in 2023, especially after the dramatic growth we saw in 2022,” Richard Scharf, Visit Denver’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “Denver’s tourism businesses, most of which are small and locally owned, rely on these visitors to fuel their success, which allows them to continue to hire employees – almost 66,000 across the metro area in 2023 – and to generate millions in state and local taxes.”

Overnight visitors totaled 20.5 million last year, a 3% rise from the previous year, generating $8.8 billion in spending in the Mile High City. Overnight leisure visits were top in growth last year, rising by 5% over 2022 to a new high of 17.5 million.

Longwoods International provided the Denver visitor data through its annual visitor profile study, which it has conducted for Denver for 30 years. The company’s president and CEO, Amir Eylon, said tourism in Denver in 2023 returned “to levels more in line with 2019,” the year before the coronavirus pandemic struck the state.

And Denver is doing comparably well nationally, Eylon said, “offering visitors both sought-after urban experiences and easy access to outdoor activities.”

The study revealed that visitors come to Denver consistently year-round, with a “modest surge” of visitors in the warmer months. And Denver International Airport plays a crucial role in moving those visitors in and out, with 40% of overnight Denver visitors arriving by plane in 2023.

The average overnight Denver visitor spent $427 per trip. In total, nearly $3 billion was spent on transportation, $2.5 billion on lodging and nearly $1.5 billion on drinks and food in 2023. Recreation, sightseeing and entertainment garnered the city $749 million last year, a 9.3% bump over 2022.

California, Texas, Kansas and Florida were the top four states, outside Colorado itself, in sending visitors to the Mile High City in 2023. And the top five cities sending overnight visitors to the city were Los Angeles, Albuquerque/Santa Fe, New York City, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Houston.

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The uproar over the July 10 post on X, which described the Palestinian pins as “Hamas badges,” led Delta to ban its employees from wearing pins representing any country or nationality besides the U.S. The rule will take effect Monday.

“We are proud of our diverse base of employees and customers and the foundation of our brand, which is to connect the world and provide a premium experience,” the Atlanta-based airline said in a statement “We are taking this step to help ensure a safe, comfortable and welcoming environment for all.”

Delta’s policy shift reflects the ongoing tensions surrounding the Israel-Hamas war, which has triggered high-profile protests that, among other things, have roiled college campuses.

Both attendants pictured wearing the pins were in compliance with Delta’s previous policy giving employees more flexibility with uniform accessories.

Before Delta announced its new policy, one of its employees escalated the situation by posting a reply on X asserting the attendants wearing the Palestinian pins were violating company rules and sympathizing with passengers who might be “terrified” by it. That post has since been deleted but was captured in a screenshot shared by the American Muslim rights group CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Delta apologized in a post and said the employee responsible for the reply had been removed from handling its social media communications.

“What happened with Delta is just the latest example of anti-Palestinian racism,” Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the national deputy executive director of CAIR, told The Washington Post. He said the group welcomed Delta’s apology. “And my hope is that this incident will begin to slowly, slowly move the needle in a different direction.”

Boeing previously owned Spirit, and the purchase would reverse a longtime Boeing strategy of outsourcing key work on its passenger planes. That approach has been criticized as problems at Spirit disrupted production and delivery of popular Boeing jetliners, including 737s and 787s.

“We believe this deal is in the best interest of the flying public, our airline customers, the employees of Spirit and Boeing, our shareholders and the country more broadly,” Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun said in a statement late Sunday.

Concerns about safety came to a head after the Jan. 5 blowout of a panel on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 at 16,000 feet (4,876 meters) over Oregon. The Federal Aviation Administration soon after announced increased oversight of Boeing and Spirit, which supplied the fuselage for the plane.

No one was seriously injured in the Alaska Airlines door incident, which terrified passengers, but Boeing is under pressure from the U.S. Justice Department to plead guilty to criminal fraud in connection with two deadly plane crashes involving its 737 Max jetliners more than five years ago.

Boeing has until the end of the week to accept or reject the offer, which includes the giant aerospace company agreeing to an independent monitor who would oversee its compliance with anti-fraud laws, according to several people who heard federal prosecutors detail a proposed offer Sunday.

The Justice Department said in a May court filing that Boeing violated terms of a 2021 settlement allowing the company to avoid prosecution for actions leading up to the crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia, which killed 346 people.

Those crashes were blamed on a faulty sensor in a flight-control system and the investigation is separate from the probe of the more recent Alaska Airlines blowout, which involved Spirit.

Boeing spun off Spirit, which is based in Wichita, Kansas, and not related to Spirit Airlines, in 2005. In recent years, quality problems have mounted, including fuselage panels that didn’t fit together precisely enough and holes that were improperly drilled.

Spirit removed its CEO in October and replaced him with Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive who served as acting defense secretary in the Trump administration.

Things seemed to be going more smoothly until the Alaska Airlines incident. Investigators said a panel used in place of an extra emergency door had been removed at a Boeing factory to let Spirit workers fix damaged rivets, and bolts that help hold the panel in place were missing after the repair job. It is not clear who removed the bolts and failed to put them back.

Spirit said in May that it was laying off about 450 workers at its Wichita plant because of a production slowdown since the January incident. Its total workforce was just over 13,000 people.

“Bringing Spirit and Boeing together will enable greater integration of both companies’ manufacturing and engineering capabilities, including safety and quality systems,” Shanahan said.

The acquisition’s equity value of $4.7 billion is $37.25 per share, while the total value of the deal is around $8.3 billion, which includes Spirit’s last reported net debt, the aerospace company said.

Boeing common stock will be exchanged for Spirit shares according to a variable formula that depends on a weighted average of the share price over a 15-trading-day period ending on the second day before the deal closes, Boeing said.

The companies also announced an agreement with Airbus to negotiate the purchase of Spirit assets involved with programs operated by the European aerospace firm. The Airbus agreement is set to commence when Boeing’s acquisition of Spirit is completed, the two U.S. companies said.

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“We want to thank our customers for their loyalty as we celebrate our 30th birthday this year, and what better way to do so than by offering amazing fares to so many incredible destinations,” said Tyri Squyres, vice president of marketing, Frontier Airlines, in a news release.

The promotional fares will be available through 9:59 p.m. Mountain time on Thursday, June 27 for travel through Nov. 13 on a page Frontier has set up for the promotion. Blackout dates, including the July Fourth and Labor Day holidays, apply. The best days to travel to obtain the discounted fares are Monday through Thursday and Saturdays.

The cities with discounted airfares out of Denver include Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Mo., Chicago Midway, Milwaukee, Missoula, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, and Santa Ana, Calif.

Frontier Airlines will need to celebrate another 10 birthdays to match the longevity of the original Frontier, which launched in 1946 under the name Monarch Airlines. The original Frontier lasted until 1986 when it succumbed to intense competition from larger carriers United and Continental at Stapleton International Airport.

People Express Airline acquired Frontier and flew it under its original name, but the original Frontier sought bankruptcy protection in September 1986.

In the years that followed, Continental Airlines began cutting back its service in Denver. Rick Brown, a former United Airlines pilot, his wife Janice, Bob Schulman and former Frontier executives M. C. “Hank” Lund and Sam Adams saw an opportunity for a low-cost carrier to come into the market.

The new Frontier began flying again on July 5, 1994, and it has had its ups and downs.

The airline gained a following with its discounted fares, but struggled after Southwest Airlines entered the Denver market and it filed for bankruptcy in 2006. It restructured a second time in 2008 after First Data, its credit card processor, decided to withhold the proceeds from all credit card sales.

Republic Airways purchased the carrier out of bankruptcy for $109 million and rebuilt it as an ultra-low-cost category. The airline’s holding company was spun off as a public company in 2021.

Frontier operates 134 A320 aircraft, one of the most fuel-efficient fleets in the U.S., and has another 210 Airbus planes on order, a sign that it expects more growth going forward.

It is the third largest airline operating at Denver International Airport behind United Airlines and Southwest and the largest carrier based in Colorado.

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Now that Turkish Airlines has launched a nonstop flight between Denver and Istanbul three times a week, with plans to go up to four times a week next month, what might be in store for Colorado travelers?

For starters, Turkish Airlines will provide discounted “launch” fares starting at $787 on roundtrip tickets purchased by July 3 for travel through July 20. Going forward, the company’s route network will provide Colorado flyers with an unrivaled ability to connect more easily to previously hard-to-reach places.

If the experience of what Icelandair did for Iceland tourism repeats, the route should open Turkey to more visits from the region and vice versa.

Turkish Airline’s route network reaches 293 international destinations in 130 countries, plus another 53 domestically. United Airlines, the largest carrier out of Denver’s airport, reaches 134 international destinations in 67 countries.

“We have a very extensive reach in Africa and the Middle East,” said Ahmet Bolat, chairman of Turkish Airlines, during an interview June 11 after he arrived with a delegation on the inaugural flight from Istanbul. The airline also has numerous routes into Europe and Asia.

“We have a very nice threshold of value,” Bolat said. But that doesn’t mean compromising on service, and the airline is known for some of the best food available in the air, according to the Points Guy.

Most layovers at the Istanbul Airport are under 2.5 hours, making it rare to find people napping in chairs or camping out on the ground, Bolat said. When connections take longer than 12 hours, the airline provides a free one-night hotel stay. For layovers of six to 12 hours, passengers are offered free tours via Tourinstanbul to keep them occupied.

After experiencing the city, which has been continuously inhabited for at least 2,500 years, the hope is that connecting passengers will want to return and make Turkey a primary destination in the future, Bolat said.

The airline also offers something that others don’t. With a highly-rated health care system that can provide comparable services at 30% to 60% less than what is charged in the U.S., Turkey is promoting medical tourism.

For $5,000, Turkish Airlines provides a package to U.S. travelers with a roundtrip flight, a week’s stay in a four-star hotel, city tours and a head-to-toe medical exam, including a full-body MRI and endoscopy.

By comparison, the Mayo Clinic’s Executive Health Program runs from $5,000 to $11,000 just for the exam, not including travel expenses.

The new flight is the longest out of Denver International Airport at 6,130 miles, nearly 400 miles beyond the flight between Denver and Tokyo’s Narita International Airport. It will make reaching the country much easier for expatriates and business travelers.

“We have been waiting for this flight for a long time,” said Nilgul Karslioglu, a Fort Collins resident originally from Turkey who travels back to Ankara at least once a year.

She said a nonstop flight out of Denver eliminates the added hours spent connecting through an East Coast gateway or Frankfurt or Munich. She might boost her annual visits to twice a year.

But Karslioglu, president of the Turkish American Cultural Society of Colorado, also acknowledges that the state’s Turkish community, which numbers around 2,000 people, isn’t large enough to support the route by itself.

Officials with Turkish Airlines and in Colorado are working out plans to boost traffic on both sides, not unlike what Icelandair did 12 years ago with its tourism packages.

“Tourism fills the plane first,” said Richard Scharf, president and CEO of Visit Denver.

Scharf said the route should pull in travelers from Salt Lake City and Albuquerque already used to departing through Denver for international trips. And it could become popular with university and college students from the Middle East and central Asia attending universities in the state.

Expect some tourism packages from Turkish Airlines, as well. Bolat brainstormed in real time with his team about whether to try to lure Colorado residents to escape the summer heat or winter cold, asking about how hot temperatures reached in Denver during the summer.

Maybe winter escapes would be better. Either way, Turkey’s Mediterranean climate should appeal, regardless of the season, he said.

Boeing and Airbus said Friday that planes containing the parts are safe to fly, but Boeing said it was removing affected parts from planes that haven’t been delivered yet to airline customers.

It will be up to regulators including the Federal Aviation Administration to decide whether any work needs to be done to planes that are already carrying passengers.

The FAA said it is “investigating the scope and impact of the issue.” The agency said Boeing reported the problem covering material from a distributor “who may have falsified or provided incorrect records.” The FAA did not name the distributor.

Boeing and Airbus declined to say how many planes were flying with parts made from the undocumented titanium.

Spirit AeroSystems, which makes fuselages for Boeing planes and wings for Airbus jets, reported the falsified documents.

“This is about titanium that has entered the supply system via documents that have been counterfeited,” Spirit spokesperson Joe Buccino said. “When this was identified, all suspect parts were quarantined and removed from Spirit production.”

Buccino said more than 1,000 tests have been conducted on the material “to ensure continued airworthiness.”

The New York Times first reported the FAA investigation. The newspaper said a parts supplier found small holes in the material from corrosion.

Titanium alloys have been used for decades in aircraft production because of their light weight, strength and resistance to corrosion and high temperatures. They are used in airframes, landing gear and other parts.

Boeing said tests indicate that the parts were made from the correct titanium alloy, which raised questions about why the documentation was falsified. The company, based in Arlington, Virginia, said it buys most of the titanium it uses directly from other sources, and that supply is not affected by the documentation issue.

Boeing said it was removing affected parts on planes before delivering them to airlines. “Our analysis shows the in-service fleet can continue to fly safely,” the company said. It did not say which of its aircraft models were affected.

Airbus said the parts wound up on one of its models, the A220, a relatively small airliner that is used on shorter routes.

“Numerous tests have been performed on parts coming from the same source of supply,” said Airbus, which has its main offices and assembly plant in France. “They show that the A220’s airworthiness remains intact.”

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The new Turkish Airlines flight will carry Colorado travelers 6,130 miles to Istanbul, marking the longest flight in DIA history, airport officials announced in April. The flight will take about 13 hours, longer than the 12-hour, 5,788 mile direct flight between Denver and Tokyo.

“This new partnership is expected to produce over $54 million in annual economic impact for Colorado and approximately 350 new jobs,” airport officials said.

The first flight is scheduled to take off from Denver at 6:05 p.m. Tuesday, according to Turkish Airlines’ booking website.

Nonstop flights between Denver and Istanbul — a service unique to Turkish Airlines — will depart DIA every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, according to the airline’s booking records. A fourth weekly flight, taking off on Sundays, will join the rotation on July 9.

Turkish Airlines is the 26th airline to operate at Denver’s airport and Denver will be the 14th U.S. city offering direct flights to Turkey.

DIA is the largest airport in the United States by size, covering 53 square miles of land. It also ranks among the busiest airports in the world — a record 77 million passengers went through DIA in 2023, up from 69 million in 2019.

The airport offers flights to 217 destinations, predominantly domestic. International air travel has grown steadily in recent years, accounting for more than 4 million travelers in 2023 — a 21% increase from 2022.

DIA now offers nonstop international flights to 31 airports in 17 countries.

Last year, airport officials announced new nonstop flights from DIA to Dublin, Ireland on Aer Lingus, starting on May 17. Colorado travelers can also reach London, Paris, Zurich, Reykjavik, Iceland, Munich, Frankfurt, Tokyo and a dozen cities in Mexico and Central America on nonstop flights.

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