---
title: "Flights to Istanbul: how far it is, and from where · Orbit"
description: "Great circle distances and estimated flying times to Istanbul, Turkey, from 12 cities — 424 km at the nearest, 8,980 km at the furthest. Distance and geography, not fares."
url: https://orbitflights.app/flights-to/istanbul
---

Turkey · Europe

# Flights to Istanbul: how far it is, and from where

Istanbul sits at 41.3°N, 28.7°E, served by İstanbul (IST). Below are 12 routes into it, with the great circle distance and an estimated flying time for each.

This page is about distance and geography — there are no fares or schedules on it. For tickets, use a booking site; for how far it actually is and what you fly over to get there, you’re in the right place.

**Routes here**
12
in the catalogue

**Nearest**
424 km
from Bucharest

**Furthest**
8,980 km
from Tokyo

**Airports**
1
IST

## How far Istanbul is from everywhere else

Great circle distance between the airports, and an estimate of the time in the air. Every row links to the route in full.

| From                                                       |     | Distance | Estimated | Direction                        |
| ---------------------------------------------------------- | --- | -------- | --------- | -------------------------------- |
| [Bucharest](https://orbitflights.app/routes/otp-to-ist)    | OTP | 424 km   | 1h 02m    | barely any time shift            |
| [Athens](https://orbitflights.app/routes/ath-to-ist)       | ATH | 553 km   | 1h 11m    | barely any time shift            |
| [Cairo](https://orbitflights.app/routes/ist-to-cai)        | CAI | 1,264 km | 2h 04m    | barely any time shift            |
| [Frankfurt](https://orbitflights.app/routes/fra-to-ist)    | FRA | 1,837 km | 2h 47m    | eastbound — the harder direction |
| [Paris](https://orbitflights.app/routes/cdg-to-ist)        | CDG | 2,212 km | 3h 15m    | eastbound — the harder direction |
| [London](https://orbitflights.app/routes/lhr-to-ist)       | LHR | 2,487 km | 3h 35m    | eastbound — the harder direction |
| [Dubai](https://orbitflights.app/routes/ist-to-dxb)        | DXB | 3,030 km | 4h 16m    | westbound — the easier direction |
| [Johannesburg](https://orbitflights.app/routes/ist-to-jnb) | JNB | 7,496 km | 9h 49m    | barely any time shift            |
| [Bangkok](https://orbitflights.app/routes/ist-to-bkk)      | BKK | 7,514 km | 9h 50m    | westbound — the easier direction |
| [New York](https://orbitflights.app/routes/ist-to-jfk)     | JFK | 8,026 km | 10h 28m   | eastbound — the harder direction |
| [Singapore](https://orbitflights.app/routes/ist-to-sin)    | SIN | 8,681 km | 11h 17m   | westbound — the easier direction |
| [Tokyo](https://orbitflights.app/routes/ist-to-nrt)        | NRT | 8,980 km | 11h 40m   | westbound — the easier direction |

## What Istanbul adds to a map

Istanbul puts a pin in Turkey, and Europe is one of the seven continents — the coarsest and most useful measure of how much of the world a flight map actually covers. The furthest route here, from Tokyo, is 8,980 km: 22.4% of one lap of the Earth in a single flight.

[What actually counts as a country visited →](https://orbitflights.app/blog/counting-countries)

## Been to Istanbul?

Put it on a globe with everywhere else you’ve flown. Free for your first 15 flights, and it works offline.

[Download now](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.qwertybit.orbit)

---
Markdown copy of https://orbitflights.app/flights-to/istanbul for language models and agents. Site index: https://orbitflights.app/llms.txt