At last, Denver’s first nonstop flight to Rome has arrived, just in time for the papal conclave on May 7.

The route operated by United between Denver International Airport and Fiumicino Airport began service Thursday and will run daily until Sept. 24 for peak summer travel.

“Whether you are flying to Rome to watch the crowning of a pope or whether you are flying to Rome to Denver to watch the crowning of the NBA MVP,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said at the inaugural flight ceremony, “you might be going in both directions.”

It will fly on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.

“We are growing our operation here and this is just the icing on the cake for us,” said Jonna McGrath, vice president of United’s Denver hub.

She said Rome has been a “hot destination” all over the U.S. and there’s been many connections from Denver to other hubs like Chicago and Newark, N.J., to get to Rome.

Seats for the flight have nearly sold out for the first week, said United spokesperson Russell Carlton, and bookings overall are performing like United’s other existing routes to Rome.

Denver almost got a direct connection to Rome several years ago from Norwegian Air. It was supposed to launch in March 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic grounded the travel industry.

By 2021, Norwegian was struggling with debt and the pandemic’s effects, The Associated Press reported. It pulled out of longer flights to the U.S. to focus on its operations within Europe.

United is the only U.S-based airline out of DIA to offer nonstop flights to Europe, Asia and Hawaii. It offers 22 international flights out of Denver, including nonstop to London, Frankfurt, Germany and Munich with a partnership with Lufthansa.

United’s added route from DIA will come just as Italy expects to see a surge of tourists in 2025, due to the Vatican hosting the Jubilee 2025, a yearlong celebration held every 25 years to invite Catholics around the world to visit Vatican City and Rome’s holiest sites.

An estimated 35 million pilgrims are expected to visit Rome for the Jubilee, according to early projections from ENIT, the Italian tourism board.

And those are figures before Pope Francis’ funeral and the papal conclave set to elect the next pope have drawn more crowds.

DIA debuted a slate of new international flights that has heavily contributed to the airport’s recent growth and continued-standing as the third-busiest airport in North America, including Aer Lingus to Dublin and Turkish Airlines to Istanbul.

International travel surged by 15% in 2024.

DIA CEO Phil Washington said the flight to Rome represents one of the pillars for the airport’s vision to get to 100 million annual passengers.

“This is a global connection,” he said.