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OTP → IST

Bucharest to Istanbul: distance, flight time and the route it really takes

Bucharest Henri Coandă to İstanbul is 424 km of great circle — 264 mi — and an estimated 1h 02m in the air. Both ends are in Europe.

Great circle
424 km
264 mi
Estimated in the air
1h 02m
block time
Furthest from equator
44.6°N
at 0% along
One lap of Earth
1.1%
of 40,075 km

Of the 292 routes catalogued here, this is the 286th longest.

The Bucharest to Istanbul route drawn as a great circle arc on a globe

What the aircraft actually flies over

From Bucharest the path crosses Romania, then Bulgaria, then 151 km of open water.

The furthest the great circle gets from the equator is 44.6°N, 0% of the way along.

Holding a single compass bearing the whole way would cover almost exactly the same ground, so on this route the flat map and the globe agree.

The heading barely moves: south-east out of Bucharest, south-east into Istanbul. Over this distance the curve has too little room to bend the compass.

From

OTP

Bucharest Henri Coandă

Bucharest, Romania · Europe

44.6°N, 26.1°E

To

IST

İstanbul

Istanbul, Turkey · Europe

41.3°N, 28.7°E

Bucharest to Istanbul, asked and answered

How far is Bucharest to Istanbul?
Bucharest to Istanbul (OTP to IST) is 424 km, or 264 mi, measured as great circle distance between the two airports.
How long is the flight from Bucharest to Istanbul?
About 1h 02m in the air. That is an estimate from the distance at a typical airliner block speed, plus half an hour for taxi, climb and descent; published schedules vary with winds and routing.
What route does a Bucharest to Istanbul flight take?
The great circle passes over Romania, then Bulgaria, then 151 km of open water. It reaches 44.6°N at its furthest from the equator.

Where these numbers come from

Distances are computed from the two airports’ own coordinates, not looked up from published routes. Times are estimates, not schedules.

Why the shortest path is a curve →

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