Colombo (CMB) to Istanbul (IST): 3,912 miles (6,296 km) great-circle, about 8h 20m nonstop by our estimate. Cheapest fare observed: $492 round-trip on Gulf Air, with 1 stop, departing June 3, 2026.
$492 round-trip, Gulf Air GF145, departing 2026-06-03 at 17:20, returning 2026-06-10. The recorded itinerary left on a Wednesday, returning on a Wednesday 7 nights later; the fare was observed 39 days before departure. "Book this flight" opens Kiwi.com with the same airline and dates.
At $492, it ranked 15th of the 30 round-trip fares we recorded from CMB (median $495). That is 12.6 cents per great-circle mile (round-trip price over one-way distance), below the CMB median of 22.4 cents across 30 round-trip routes.
Routes from CMB of similar length: Kazan (3,742 mi) at $862 and Moscow (4,086 mi) at $742.
CMB to IST is the only one of 30 CMB routes where Gulf Air priced cheapest. It is the 5th longest of the 30 routes we track from CMB.
Of 117 departure airports with a fare to Istanbul, Colombo (CMB) ranked 51st at $492. Lowest: $60 from Antalya (AYT); highest: $1639 from Wellington (WLG); 29 nonstop. Cheapest-fare airlines (routes): Pegasus Airlines (13), Qatar (7), WestJet (6), Wizz Air (6), Gulf Air (5) and Turkish (5), plus 51 more.
Travelpayouts fares (cheapest per route, observed April 25, 2026); OurAirports coordinates and elevations; IANA zones Asia/Colombo, Europe/Istanbul; flight time is our estimate.