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Route · Europe

ATH Athens ⇄ IST Istanbul

Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (Greece) and İstanbul Airport (Turkey): great-circle distance, estimated scheduled flight time each way, time difference and jet lag.

Distance553 km344 mi299 nautical miles
ATH → IST1 h 40 minestimated block time
IST → ATH1 h 45 minestimated block time
Clock change+1 hIstanbul vs Athens, today
Great-circle route from Athens (ATH) to Istanbul (IST)ATHAthensISTIstanbul
The shortest path over the Earth’s surface (great circle), drawn on a Natural Earth projection. Real flight paths bend around weather, winds and closed airspace.

Flight time each way

ATH → IST

1 h 40 min

Estimated gate-to-gate scheduled time. Initial heading 46° (NE).

Leave Athens Sat 7 Nov, 10:00 local → arrive Istanbul Sat 7 Nov, 12:40 local.

IST → ATH

1 h 45 min

Estimated gate-to-gate scheduled time. Initial heading 229° (SW).

Leave Istanbul Sat 7 Nov, 10:00 local → arrive Athens Sat 7 Nov, 10:45 local.

The two directions differ by 6 minutes in our estimate: this route is short, so the wind has little effect on the total. How we estimate it.

Distance

Great-circle distance553 km · 344 mi · 299 nmi
Initial heading46° (NE) from ATH; 229° (SW) from IST
Farthest from the equator41.3°N
Crossesneither the equator nor the 180th meridian
Share of the longest possible trip3% of the 20,015 km to the far side of the Earth

Time zones and jet lag

ATHEurope/Athens — UTC+2 now; UTC+2 standard time, UTC+3 during daylight saving time
ISTEurope/Istanbul — UTC+3 now; UTC+3 all year (no daylight saving time)
DifferenceIstanbul is 1 hour ahead of Athens today; +1 h in January and ±0 h in July because daylight saving time starts and ends on different dates (or not at all).

Jet lag, flying ATH → IST. Your body clock has to move 1 hour earlier, like an eastward trip. A shift this small rarely causes much jet lag; most people feel normal within a day or so. Flying the other way, the shift is reversed.

General information, not medical advice.

The two airports

ATH Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International AirportAthens, Greece · longest runway 13,123 ft4,000 m IST İstanbul AirportIstanbul, Turkey · longest runway 13,451 ft4,100 m

More routes from ATH and IST

ATHJMK Athens – Mykonos 136 km84 mi · 1 h 10 min ATHJTR Athens – Santorini 218 km136 mi · 1 h 15 min FCOATH Rome – Athens 1,085 km674 mi · 2 h 10 min CDGATH Paris – Athens 2,108 km1,310 mi · 3 h 15 min LHRATH London – Athens 2,427 km1,508 mi · 3 h 35 min JFKATH New York – Athens 7,933 km4,929 mi · 9 h 20 min ISTADB Istanbul – Izmir 358 km222 mi · 1 h 30 min CAIIST Cairo – Istanbul 1,264 km786 mi · 2 h 30 min CDGIST Paris – Istanbul 2,212 km1,374 mi · 3 h 20 min ISTDEL Istanbul – Delhi 4,567 km2,838 mi · 5 h 45 min JFKIST New York – Istanbul 8,026 km4,987 mi · 9 h 30 min LAXIST Los Angeles – Istanbul 11,002 km6,836 mi · 13 h 05 min

Routes of a similar length

LHRGLA London – Glasgow 555 km345 mi · 1 h 40 min MADPMI Madrid – Palma de Mallorca 547 km340 mi · 1 h 35 min CPHARN Copenhagen – Stockholm 547 km340 mi · 1 h 40 min LAXSFO Los Angeles – San Francisco 543 km338 mi · 1 h 45 min

Need a different pair? The flight-time calculator works for any two of 3,245 airports. Not covered: which airlines fly this route, schedules, fares and live status — that data is proprietary and we don’t guess it.

Photos on airport pages are credited there. Estimates are rounded to 5 minutes; typical error about 13 minutes (validation).