Istanbul’s Two Airports: What It Costs to Leave Each One

A taxi from Istanbul Airport to Taksim costs about 2,130 lira on the meter. A great many English language guides still say 300 to 500. A traveller who believes those will read a perfectly lawful meter as a scam, and will not recognise the actual scam when it happens. This page gives the current tariffs, checked against Metro Istanbul, the airport operators and the July 2026 city fare decisions, in September 2026.

One warning on currency. The lira moves. Every figure here is a snapshot taken on 10 September 2026.

Two airports, 84 km apart, on different continents

Istanbul Airport, code IST, is on the European side to the northwest. Sabiha Gokcen, code SAW, is on the Asian side to the southeast. Both are sold as Istanbul.

They are about 84 km apart, 60 to 70 minutes by road, with no direct rail link between them. The only single vehicle connection is a Havaist coach that takes about two hours and costs around 400 lira. A taxi between them is about 2,500.

Check the three letter code on your booking, not the city name. A hotel chosen for one airport is badly placed for the other.

What each option costs

The card, and why you want one

City fares rose 10 percent on 17 July 2026.

The gap between the card fare and a single use ticket is 18.80 lira a ride, about 41 percent. The 165 lira card pays for itself in about nine rides on that gap alone, before you count transfer discounts.

Two things that catch people. One card cannot cover two people where transfer discounts matter, so each traveller needs their own. And there is a double fare on night metro services between 00:30 and 05:30.

Contactless bank cards do work on the metro, tram and funicular, including Apple, Google and Samsung Pay. Three caveats. Express mode is not supported, so you must unlock the phone before tapping. There are no transfer discounts on a bank card tap. And Marmaray, the line you need to cross between the European and Asian sides, is consistently reported by travellers not to accept them. We could not confirm that against an official source, but it is reported often enough to plan around.

The M11 from Istanbul Airport

The M11 is run by the state railway company rather than Metro Istanbul, which is why it does not appear on the metro’s own line list and why it charges distance banded fares instead of the flat 46.20.

The line now runs Gayrettepe to the airport to Halkali, 69 km, with the Halkali section opening on 20 June 2026.

The airport to Gayrettepe is six stops. Published fares for that band range from 42 to 55 lira across sources and we could not settle it, so budget 55.

Journey time is also disputed. The ministry said 30 minutes when the Gayrettepe section opened. Other sources say 31, 38 and 44. Trains run about every 15 to 20 minutes. The first is around 06:00 and the last regular service around midnight, with a last departure from Gayrettepe towards the airport at 00:40.

Two things to plan around.

First, Gayrettepe is a business district, not a destination. Everybody changes there onto the M2. It is a long but level interchange, six to eight minutes on foot. Taksim is 50 to 60 minutes in total from the airport. Sultanahmet is two or three changes and 80 to 110 minutes.

Second, the M11 is not on the weekend night metro list. A 2am arrival at Istanbul Airport has no metro at all.

The station is opposite Exit 11, about 300 metres from the terminal past the car park.

The M4 from Sabiha Gokcen

This one is simpler. The M4 runs from Sabiha Gokcen to Kadikoy, 23 stations and 33.5 km, in 52 minutes, on the ordinary flat 46.20 lira fare. Trains come every five minutes at peak and the line runs 06:00 to midnight.

The useful difference is that the M4 is on the weekend night metro list. It runs continuously from Friday 06:00 through to Sunday midnight, at double fare between 00:30 and 05:30. For a late weekend arrival at Sabiha Gokcen that is the single most valuable fact here.

For Sultanahmet, take the M4 to Ayrilik Cesmesi, Marmaray to Sirkeci, then walk or take the T1 tram. Allow 75 to 95 minutes.

The airport coaches

Havaist serves Istanbul Airport and Havabus serves Sabiha Gokcen. Both still run. Neither publishes a fare table on a page we could read, so these figures come from secondary sources and are lower confidence than the metro and taxi tariffs.

Havaist takes card only, no cash, and charges 80 lira for luggage beyond two bags. It runs 24 hours with departures thinning after about 01:00.

There is a direct Havaist service to Sultanahmet on route HVL-11. At least one widely read guide claims there is not. It is wrong, and three separate sources name the route.

From Sabiha Gokcen there is a much cheaper bus. The city’s own E-10 runs to Kadikoy for 92.40 lira with an Istanbulkart, in about an hour, every 15 to 20 minutes in the daytime. That is a third of the Havabus fare.

Taxis, and the numbers that are actually correct

The city raised taxi tariffs by 10 percent on 20 July 2026.

There is no night surcharge. The same tariff applies 24 hours.

The totals in the table at the top of this page are that tariff applied to the road distance. They are arithmetic, not receipts, and they do not include waiting time in traffic. Tolls are added to the meter lawfully at the end, the northern motorway from Istanbul Airport and the Bosphorus crossing from Sabiha Gokcen.

Overcharging is documented, including in Turkish state aligned media. The official position is straightforward.

• The meter is mandatory. Insist on the taksimetre. A driver quoting a flat price in euros or dollars is operating outside the tariff.
• Use only the official rank outside arrivals. Do not accept approaches from people inside the terminal.
• The metered fare plus tolls is almost always lower than a verbally offered fixed price.

To complain, record the plate, date, time and route, and contact the city’s public transport directorate on +90 212 453 78 78 or topluulasim@ibb.gov.tr. The general city line is ALO 153.

Uber is a taxi here

Uber is legal in Istanbul. The 2019 ban was overturned by a court in December 2020 and service resumed in 2021.

What matters is what it dispatches. The categories on Uber’s own Istanbul Airport page are Yellow Taxi, Large Taxi and Black Taxi. It is the same regulated taxi at the same tariff. It is not cheaper.

What you get is a recorded trip, a recorded driver, and no fare negotiation. That is the whole value, and on this particular problem it is worth a lot.

At Istanbul Airport, Uber’s instruction is to go to the Arrivals floor and the taxi line right outside Exit Door 9 or Exit Door 13, then give the driver the six digit PIN from the app. Uber’s page is undated and door numbers change, so treat that as current as published.

We could not find equivalent official instructions for Sabiha Gokcen.

BiTaksi is the Turkish taxi hailing app and hails the same yellow taxis.

Private transfers

Pre booked private cars run about 42 to 56 euros, so roughly 2,400 to 3,200 lira, broadly at or slightly above the metered taxi fare. What you buy is a price locked before departure and a driver meeting the flight.

Traffic, with numbers

Istanbul is among the most congested large cities measured anywhere.

The TomTom traffic index for the 2025 full year puts the average travel time at 22 minutes 54 seconds per 10 km, average congestion at 62 percent and average speed at 23.7 km/h. In the evening rush it is 32 minutes 37 seconds per 10 km at 18.4 km/h. Drivers lose 112 hours a year to rush hour.

Apply the evening rush rate to the 43 km from Istanbul Airport to Taksim and you get well over two hours. The real figure is lower because much of that route is motorway, which is why published estimates cluster at 45 to 90 minutes. But the direction of the risk is verifiable and the evening peak is where it lands.

The two rail figures on this page, 30 to 44 minutes on the M11 and 52 minutes on the M4, are the only ones that do not move with traffic. For a late afternoon departure that is worth more than door to door convenience.

What we could not confirm

The exact M11 fare from the airport to Gayrettepe. Five different figures are published, from 42 to 55 lira. Budget 55.

The M11’s current headway, given variously as 8 to 10, 15 to 20 and 20 minutes. We used 15 to 20.

Transfer fares after the July 2026 rise.

Current Havaist and Havabus tariffs against the operators’ own sites. The January 2026 figures were substantially lower than the mid year ones, and neither operator publishes a readable fare table.

Whether Marmaray really rejects contactless bank cards.

Uber’s pickup arrangements at Sabiha Gokcen.

One note on sourcing. We discarded three widely read pages during this research: one giving airport taxi fares five times below the tariff, one republishing 2023 Havabus prices under a 2026 date, and one denying that a direct Havaist service to Sultanahmet exists. Stale figures are the norm on this route, which is why the tariff dates matter more here than anywhere else on this site.

Sources

• Metro Istanbul, ticket prices
• Metro Istanbul, M4 line detail
• Metro Istanbul, night metro lines
• Istanbulkart, prices and limits
• Istanbul Airport, public transport
• IETT, airport bus routes
• Uber, Istanbul Airport pickup
• TomTom traffic index, Istanbul