Route brief · IST → OTP
Istanbul → Bucharest
$96
−20% vs typical
seasonal median $120 · difference $24
Sep 23 – Sep 26 · 3 nights
TaromNonstop
- Usual monthly lows
- $120–$130
- Board rank
- Stronger than 55%
- Route sample
- 5 observed months
Cached fare — the booking search re-prices live before you pay.
Destination briefOTPBucharestBelle-époque villas next to communist concrete, and the cheapest capital in the European Union.Best windowMay–Jun · Sep–OctAirportsHenri Coandă (OTP)All routes into BucharestWhen this route gets cheap.
Cached-fare history: across 5 months, Sep is the cheapest for IST → OTP. Best time to be there: May–Jun · Sep–Oct.
Fares bottom out in September around $96 and peak in July near $136 — a $40 spread across the 5 months we track. The cheapest itinerary we are tracking flies Tarom nonstop and takes about 2 hours outbound, on a 3-night trip.
Cheapest day in the next 3 months: Sep 23 · $96 (36% below median)
Tap any day → live search
The median cached fare across this calendar is 1% lower than when tracking began on Aug 8 — $146 then versus $144 now, across 6 recorded snapshots. This is a calendar-level trend, so an individual deal above can be lower. The lowest single day we have seen here is $96, on Sep 23.
September 2026
Cheapest in Sep · around $96
20% below the $120 typical fare
Cheapest round-trip fare found per month · Istanbul → Bucharest · cached-price history
Route facts
- Airports
- Istanbul (IST) · Sabiha Gökçen (SAW) ↔ Henri Coandă (OTP)
- Flight time
- ~2 hours outbound
- Distance
- ~461 km each way
- Typical price
- $120 round-trip (seasonal median)
- Airlines on the board
- Tarom
- Itineraries
- Nonstop available
- Best months to visit
- May–Jun · Sep–Oct
IST → OTP, answered.
Is $96 a good price for Istanbul to Bucharest?
Yes — the seasonal median for this route is around $120 round-trip. At $96 you're 20% below that, saving about $24, which we rate good for this route.
What is the cheapest month to fly from Istanbul to Bucharest?
Across 5 months of cached-fare history, Sep comes out cheapest on this route. The best months to actually be in Bucharest are May–Jun · Sep–Oct — when those overlap, that's your window.
How far in advance should I book IST → Bucharest?
We do not publish a number for this, because we cannot measure it yet. Answering it honestly means watching the same departure date on this route over many weeks as it approaches, and that archive is still filling up — so any "book N days ahead" figure here would be borrowed from somewhere else rather than measured. What we can measure is which month is cheap: across 5 months of cached fares, Sep comes out lowest on this route. See /guides/what-moves-a-flight-price/ for what does move a fare.
Are there nonstop flights from Istanbul to Bucharest?
Yes — the current board includes nonstop fares (Tarom). The outbound leg runs around 2 hours.
Are these prices guaranteed?
No — these are cached fares found on real searches (this one on September 1). Airlines reprice constantly, so the booking search re-checks the live price before you pay. Fresher finds are far more likely to still be available.
Next step
Sleeping in Bucharest?
Lock the flight first — then compare stays for Sep 23 – Sep 26 · 3 nights.
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Missed it?
Cached fares expire. This route has a feed of its own — follow it and the next IST → OTP drop reaches you as soon as we find it.
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