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Hah! I have to laugh when
I think that the airline industry is
very much like Istanbul's Grand
Bazaar: How much does it
cost to fly to Turkey? As
much as the airlines can get you to
pay!
Honestly, there may be several
dozen different fares for
the same flight. Unfortunately, no
one agency or
website always gives the lowest fare. You've
got to shop around.
Generally speaking, airfares to Turkey
are lowest in December and January
and highest in June and July; May,
August and September are a bit lower,
April and October lower still. Here
are general fare guidelines from Kayak in
US$ for round-trip flights, Boston
MA (USA) to Istanbul, taxes and fees
included:
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
$511 |
$511-
$528 |
$511-
$688 |
$797-
$828 |
$828-
$960 |
$1057-
$1214 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
$1181-
$1218 |
$960 |
$919-
$963 |
$872 |
$511-
$688 |
$511-
$528 |
BOOKMARK THIS PAGE so
you can come back and use the links
for later shopping. In fact, the websites
listed below are good to check
for any airfare, whether to
Turkey or elsewhere.
KAYAK
This "meta-search engine" searches
more than 100 travel websites—airline,
hotel, car rental, etc—for the
lowest prices all at once. The search
takes only a few seconds, and the results
are presented in a clear, useful
format, with all taxes and
fees included. It's the first
place I go to look for airfares. Use
the search box in the right column
below the photo. More...
A leading US consumer products testing
organization found that
, an airline reservation service operated
by a consortium of nine airlines, gave
the lowest fares more frequently than
any other major reservations service.
(But...you must be a UK resident to
buy.) Use the box at the top of the
right-hand column to try it. —> More...
AIRFARE.com 
A leading seller of "consolidator" (ie,
discounted) airfares on major airlines
("14 million unpublished fares!"),
they also sell regular published fares.
Good, easy-to-use website. For many
years I've found they have
the lowest fares, and I
always seem to buy my USA-to-Turkey
tickets from them. More...
From Europe
Besides the Turkish
airlines of AtlasJet, Onur
Air, and Sun
Express, several smaller low-cost
European airlines operate
cheap flights to Turkey.
Most fly to Istanbul's Sabiha
Gökçen Airport (SAW)
on the Asian shore of
the Bosphorus,
not to Istanbul's
main Atatürk
International Airport, 23 km
west of the city center on the
European side of the Bosphorus.
Sabiha
Gökçen Airport is
much farther from the center of historic
Istanbul, and not as convenient
for ground transport as Atatürk
Airport, but the airfares are
certainly lower.
Corendon
Based in the Netherlands,
Corendon flies from Eindhoven and Brussels
to Istanbul (SAW).
easyJet
easyJet now flies from the UK to Turkey.
Germanwings
This German carrier operates flights
from Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne-Bonn
and Stuttgart to Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir.
Pegasus
Air
This Turkish domestic airline flies
from Istanbul (SAW)
to Ankara,
thence tothe far eastern
Turkey cities of Trabzon and Van.
Here's their website.
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