Route brief · SEL → IST
Seoul → Istanbul
$417
−27% vs typical
seasonal median $570 · difference $153
Oct 28 – Nov 11 · 14 nights
Air China1 stop
- Usual monthly lows
- $526–$629
- Board rank
- Stronger than 73%
- Route sample
- 9 observed months
Cached fare — the booking search re-prices live before you pay.
Destination briefISTIstanbulTwo continents, one skyline of minarets. Turkish Airlines’ mega-hub means constant fare battles.Best windowApr–May · Sep–OctAirportsIstanbul (IST) · Sabiha Gökçen (SAW)All routes into IstanbulWhen this route gets cheap.
Cached-fare history: across 9 months, Oct is the cheapest for SEL → IST. Best time to be there: Apr–May · Sep–Oct.
Fares bottom out in October around $417 and peak in July near $782 — a $365 spread across the 9 months we track. The cheapest itinerary we are tracking makes one stop and takes about 13.5 hours outbound, on a 14-night trip — ticketed under Air China, which on a connecting fare need not operate every leg. At $417 for 7,954 km each way, that works out to about $26 per 1,000 km flown. That is well under the $44 that long-haul fares on this board typically run. Across the 16 departure cities we track at a similar distance from Istanbul, this fare ranks 3rd — 11% above the $376 from New York. It is also the cheapest of the 38 routes of similar length we watch out of Seoul.
Cheapest day in the next 3 months: Oct 28 · $417 (30% below median)
Tap any day → live search
The median cached fare across this calendar is 20% higher than when tracking began on Aug 8 — $581 then versus $696 now, across 8 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 $399, on Oct 26.
September 2026
Cheapest in Oct · around $417
27% below the $570 typical fare
Cheapest round-trip fare found per month · Seoul → Istanbul · cached-price history
Route facts
- Airports
- Incheon (ICN) · Gimpo (GMP) ↔ Istanbul (IST) · Sabiha Gökçen (SAW)
- Flight time
- ~13.5 hours outbound
- Distance
- ~7,954 km each way
- Typical price
- $570 round-trip (seasonal median)
- Airlines on the board
- Air China
- Itineraries
- Connections on current fares
- Best months to visit
- Apr–May · Sep–Oct
SEL → IST, answered.
Is $417 a good price for Seoul to Istanbul?
Yes — the seasonal median for this route is around $570 round-trip. At $417 you're 27% below that, saving about $153, which we rate good for this route.
What is the cheapest month to fly from Seoul to Istanbul?
Across 9 months of cached-fare history, Oct comes out cheapest on this route. The best months to actually be in Istanbul are Apr–May · Sep–Oct — when those overlap, that's your window.
How far in advance should I book SEL → Istanbul?
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 9 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 Seoul to Istanbul?
The current cheapest fares involve a connection, ticketed under Air China. Nonstop options exist on many dates at higher prices — check the live search for your exact dates.
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 Istanbul?
Lock the flight first — then compare stays for Oct 28 – Nov 11 · 14 nights.
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Missed it?
Cached fares expire. This route has a feed of its own — follow it and the next SEL → IST drop reaches you as soon as we find it.
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