Airfares are up 26% nationally but Denver is the number one city in America for cheap flights

Airfare across the country has gone absolutely haywire. Prices are up 26% from last year, they’ve climbed for eight straight months, and Thanksgiving fares are already tracking 19% higher than 2025. But if you live in Denver, you’re holding the best hand at the table.

A new report from travel app Going, highlighted by the New York Post, analyzed flight deals sent to consumers over the past year across more than 200 U.S. airports and 500 destinations, and Denver International Airport took the No. 1 spot in the country for the best domestic flight deals. Out of every airport in America, DIA consistently offered the cheapest fares, beating out New Orleans (No. 2) and Orlando (No. 3) as the only three cities where travelers are reliably finding savings in an otherwise brutal airfare market.

The reason? Old-fashioned airline warfare. Three major carriers, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Denver-born Frontier Airlines, are all competing aggressively for passengers at DIA, and that competition is driving prices down even as they soar everywhere else. It’s the same dynamic that makes gas cheaper when two stations sit across the street from each other.

The national picture is grim. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, airline fares jumped 2.2% in just the last month alone. Rising fuel costs from the war with Iran, record-high travel demand, and the shutdown of Spirit Airlines in May have all combined to create the most expensive flying environment in years. “Higher costs, more people chasing fewer seats with less competition — and you get exactly the fares we’re seeing right now,” Going analyst Anna Brown told the Post.

So the next time someone asks why you moved to Denver, you can add another reason to the list: the mountains, the sunshine, the Broncos, and apparently the cheapest flights in America.