Loads Down To Just 74%: Turkish Airlines' 14 US Routes Explored

Turkish Airlines is the seventh-largest operator between Europe and the US by traffic. (Its Istanbul Airport hub is on the European side of the Bosphorus.) According to the US Department of Transportation data for August 2024-July 2025, Turkish carried 4.1 million round-trip passengers—11,000 daily.

Compared to the prior 12 months, the Star Alliance member’s US traffic volume rose by a considerable 12%. That was four times more than for the Europe-US market as a whole. In recent years, it has overtaken Aer Lingus, KLM, and Virgin Atlantic in the rankings.

Turkish’s Monthly Load Factors Varied From 78% To 88%

Credit: US DOT

All airlines face seasonality in demand, and Turkish Airlines is no exception. Between August 2024 and July 2025, the carrier’s monthly round-trip US passengers varied from just 235,000 in February 2025 to 408,000 in July 2025. For most airlines, February is usually the worst-performing month. Lufthansa is no different.

In the 12 months examined, the US DOT shows that Turkish filled 83% of its available US seats. Of the carriers operating between Europe and the US with one or more million passengers, Turkish only had the ninth-highest load. Of course, this should not be considered in isolation from other factors. Air France, KLM, Iberia, Delta, TAP, BA, Icelandair, and American had higher loads. Icelandair just started its new longest US route.

Turkish’s load factors varied from just 77% in February 2025 to a high of 87% in July 2025. February’s result was despite a significant decrease in capacity. For example, seats for sale fell by almost a quarter compared to January. Despite this reduction, passenger volume decreased by 29%. The traffic reduction meant it still had too much capacity relative to the demand at the given prices, times, etc.

How Did Its 14 US Routes Perform By Traffic & Loads?

Credit: GCMap

From August 2024 to July 2025, Turkish had 14 US routes with between 15 and 27 daily departures (each way). Obviously, New York JFK was comfortably Turkish’s leading US market. That route had up to four daily flights during the summer. They included its seasonal daily daytime journey from the Big Apple back to Istanbul. TK112 left JFK at 06:45/06:55 and returned at 23:25/23:40.

Turkish carried 651,000 JFK passengers. Booking data suggests that about two-thirds of people transferred to another service in Istanbul. The capital of Georgia, Tbilisi, was the top origin and destination. The rest of the top 15 cities were Samarkand (!), Moscow, Tirana, Jeddah, Athens, Tashkent, Priština, Dhaka, Baku, Medinah, Ankara, Almaty, Lahore, and Podgorica. If Air Astana does indeed fly to JFK, Turkish will be one of the key airlines with which it competes.

Denver Had Turkish’s Lowest Seat Load Factor

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The Star carrier only began Istanbul-Denver flights in June 2024. As such, it is a bit early—and perhaps unfair—to analyze its initial performance too closely. It can take time to develop new routes, particularly long-haul and especially if they’re more unusual. The impact of financial incentives and any risk-sharing agreements must also be considered.

The route is Denver’s longest link. Turkish has primarily deployed the two-class, 329-seat A350-900. However, the 300-seat 787-9 appeared during February to help improve the capacity-demand balance in that most challenging of months. This was to assist with loads and yields.

US DOT data shows that loads on its Denver route varied from 65% in November 2024 to 82% in May 2025. The peak summer months were not higher as Turkish’s frequencies jumped to a record five weekly. It may reduce frequencies or downgauge aircraft to help with the balance.

The latest data shows that almost three in four of the airline’s Denver passengers connected to another flight in Istanbul. Athens was the top city, followed by Cairo, Delhi, Nairobi, Mumbai, Addis Ababa, Kuwait, Dubai, Ercan, and Rome. They were quite different markets from many of Turkish’s other US routes.