Route brief · IST → BUD
Istanbul → Budapest
$81
−26% vs typical
seasonal median $110 · difference $29
Oct 6 – Oct 13 · 7 nights
Wizz AirNonstop
- Usual monthly lows
- $90–$118
- Board rank
- Stronger than 71%
- Route sample
- 12 observed months
Cached fare — the booking search re-prices live before you pay.
Destination briefBUDBudapestThermal baths, ruin bars and a river splitting two cities — still the best value capital in Europe.Best windowApr–Jun · Sep–OctAirportsFerenc Liszt (BUD)All routes into BudapestWhen this route gets cheap.
Cached-fare history: across 12 months, Oct is the cheapest for IST → BUD. Best time to be there: Apr–Jun · Sep–Oct.
Fares bottom out in October around $81 and peak in August near $136 — a $55 spread across the 12 months we track. The cheapest itinerary we are tracking flies Wizz Air nonstop and takes about 2 hours outbound, on a 7-night trip. At $81 for 1,069 km each way, that works out to about $38 per 1,000 km flown. That is below the $41 typical of short-haul fares here. Across the 9 departure cities we track at a similar distance from Budapest, this fare ranks 7th — 1.8× the $44 we hold from Brussels.
Cheapest day in the next 3 months: Oct 6 · $81 (34% below median)
Tap any day → live search
The median cached fare across this calendar is 2% lower than when tracking began on Aug 8 — $119 then versus $117 now, across 7 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 $79, on Oct 8.
September 2026
October 2026
Cheapest in Oct · around $81
26% below the $110 typical fare
Cheapest round-trip fare found per month · Istanbul → Budapest · cached-price history
Route facts
- Airports
- Istanbul (IST) · Sabiha Gökçen (SAW) ↔ Ferenc Liszt (BUD)
- Flight time
- ~2 hours outbound
- Distance
- ~1,069 km each way
- Typical price
- $110 round-trip (seasonal median)
- Airlines on the board
- Wizz Air
- Itineraries
- Nonstop available
- Best months to visit
- Apr–Jun · Sep–Oct
IST → BUD, answered.
Is $81 a good price for Istanbul to Budapest?
Yes — the seasonal median for this route is around $110 round-trip. At $81 you're 26% below that, saving about $29, which we rate good for this route.
What is the cheapest month to fly from Istanbul to Budapest?
Across 12 months of cached-fare history, Oct comes out cheapest on this route. The best months to actually be in Budapest are Apr–Jun · Sep–Oct — when those overlap, that's your window.
How far in advance should I book IST → Budapest?
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 12 months of cached fares, Oct 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 Budapest?
Yes — the current board includes nonstop fares (Wizz Air). 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 Budapest?
Lock the flight first — then compare stays for Oct 6 – Oct 13 · 7 nights.
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Missed it?
Cached fares expire. This route has a feed of its own — follow it and the next IST → BUD drop reaches you as soon as we find it.
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