Travellers reach Turkey from 3 African airports on 3 catalogued routes, flown by EgyptAir, Turkish Airlines, Royal Air Maroc. This corridor sits in the intra-Africa + Gulf hub transit corridor. The tables below list every catalogued route, the carriers on it, and — where our cache has data — the lowest USD fare seen; all fares are quoted in USD, with on-the-ground spending in TRY.
Routes to Turkey
3 catalogued corridors reach Turkey from 3 African airports, flown by 3 carriers and totalling about 19 weekly departures, with block times from 2.0 h to 8.0 h. 1 of them run fewer than seven times a week, the line where a cancellation starts costing days rather than hours.
| Route | Carriers | Freq/wk | Block (h) | Market low (USD) | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cairo (CAI) → Istanbul (IST) | MS, TK | ~7 | ~2.0 | $175 | guide |
| Casablanca (CMN) → Istanbul (IST) | AT, TK | ~7 | ~4.5 | — | guide |
| Dar es Salaam (DAR) → Istanbul (IST) | TK | ~5 | ~8.0 | — | guide |
1 of these corridors runs fewer than seven times a week, which is the line where disruption stops being an inconvenience. Below daily frequency, a cancellation can mean days rather than hours, and re-accommodation onto another airline requires an interline or codeshare agreement rather than goodwill. If your dates into Turkey are fixed, prefer the higher-frequency gateway even at a higher fare.
Weekly frequency here is our catalogue’s estimate for each corridor as a whole rather than a published timetable for one airline, and it moves with the seasonal schedule change. Block times are scheduled gate-to-gate for the nonstop sector, so a much longer duration on a booking screen means a connection. Both figures are our own estimates, last revised 2026-05-19.
Airlines flying to Turkey
3 carriers fly the corridors into Turkey covered here; for the 3 we hold details on, checked-baggage baselines run from 23 kg to 30 kg, and 3 of them belong to a global alliance. Baselines are economy figures and depend on the fare family you buy.
Carriers operating the catalogued routes to Turkey, with alliance, baggage baseline and any diaspora or pilgrim baggage uplift:
| Airline | Alliance | Checked baggage | Diaspora uplift | Hajj/Umrah charter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EgyptAir (MS) | Star Alliance | 23 kg | +18 kg | Yes |
| Turkish Airlines (TK) | Star Alliance | 30 kg | +25 kg | No |
| Royal Air Maroc (AT) | Oneworld | 23 kg | +23 kg | Yes |
Diaspora and migrant-worker baggage uplift recorded against these carriers: Royal Air Maroc +23 kg, EgyptAir +18 kg and Turkish Airlines +25 kg. Three exclusions normally apply to promotions of this kind: they attach to nominated corridors rather than the whole network, they are rarely honoured on another airline’s codeshare or interline segment, and the deepest-discount fare buckets are usually carved out. Confirm against your own booking class in writing.
Visa & entry — Turkey
Entry rule for Turkey, by passport: Depends on passport. South African passports need a visa — a one-month single-entry e-Visa is available at evisa.gov.tr; Namibian passports can use the e-Visa; Nigerian, Kenyan, Ghanaian and Botswanan passports are listed as visa required. Fee Varies by nationality — shown on evisa.gov.tr; maximum stay One month on the South African single-entry e-Visa. A transit stop can need its own visa even airside. That row names the passports it covers; an ECOWAS, EAC or Maghreb passport not named there can face a different fee or no eligibility at all.
Entry rules by named nationality (verify against the official source before booking):
| Entry type | Fee | Max stay | Official source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depends on passport. South African passports need a visa — a one-month single-entry e-Visa is available at evisa.gov.tr; Namibian passports can use the e-Visa; Nigerian, Kenyan, Ghanaian and Botswanan passports are listed as visa required | Varies by nationality — shown on evisa.gov.tr | One month on the South African single-entry e-Visa | official |
Print a copy of any e-Visa for check-in.
One caveat governs this whole section: nationality. Turkey does not treat every African nationality alike — fees, eligibility and even the application channel differ between ECOWAS, EAC, Maghreb and Southern African passports, so rely only on a rule that names your passport.
When to book
Book 4-8 weeks ahead. Treat that window as general guidance for travel into Turkey rather than a rule for a single pairing; on thin corridors seat availability binds before price does.
Book 4-8 weeks ahead. Fares rise around the December holidays; mid-week departures are usually the cheapest. See each per-route guide for month-by-month fare seasonality.
Treat the window as a function of the schedule rather than a rule. Dense corridors into Turkey keep releasing inventory, so a late booking costs money but still works. Thin ones sell their cheap buckets months ahead and then simply run out, which is a different failure — one that no amount of refreshing a search will fix.
If your dates cannot move, stop optimising and buy. Pilgrimage seasons, school terms and contract start dates concentrate demand into the same days, and on Turkey corridors that concentration is what sets the price. Where dates can move, moving them beats every other tactic: our weekly log shows larger swings between departure months than between booking sites.
Cached fares to Turkey
$175 is the lowest USD quote our cache holds on any corridor into Turkey — on CAI-IST — out of 1 priced corridor of the 3 catalogued. Each is one cached observation on its own corridor, in economy, not a low across the cache.
Lowest USD fares in our weekly Travelpayouts cache on routes to Turkey (market lows across all carriers, each a dated observation; check live prices before booking):
| Corridor | Market low (USD) | Cheapest month seen |
|---|---|---|
| CAI-IST | $175 | $90 in Oct 2026 |
| Corridor | Readings | Cached range (USD) | Cheapest week |
|---|---|---|---|
| DAR-IST | 6 | $751–$829 | 2026-W20 |
| CAI-IST | 4 | $175–$184 | 2026-W23 |
Those rows come from our weekly fare log, which samples the cheapest published quote once a week across 161 corridors. Each reading is a single snapshot rather than an average of everything sold that week, so a one-week dip can be one small fare bucket. What the range does establish is a defensible floor: a live quote far above the top of the range on a Turkey corridor is worth a second search on flexible dates.
Departure airports for Turkey
3 African airports have a catalogued corridor to Turkey on this site: Cairo (CAI), Casablanca (CMN) and Dar es Salaam (DAR). Fares from every one of them are quoted in USD so the origins stay comparable. Separately issued sectors carry no protection if the first runs late.
-
Cairo airport (CAI) — Cairo International, Egypt: 12 catalogued departure corridors and 1 arrival corridor.
-
Casablanca airport (CMN) — Mohammed V International, Morocco: 17 catalogued departure corridors and 0 arrival corridors.
-
Dar es Salaam airport (DAR) — Julius Nyerere International, Tanzania: 11 catalogued departure corridors and 2 arrival corridors.
Gateway choice is a real lever on this continent. Positioning to a larger hub can open a nonstop where your local airport only offers a connection, and the fare difference between two African origins to the same Turkey destination is regularly wider than the cost of the positioning sector. The catch is the ticket: unless both sectors are issued together, a delay on the positioning flight is your problem alone.
FAQ
6 questions below answer what travellers ask most often about this page’s subject, drawn from the same route, carrier, airport and fare data as everything above. Where a figure is missing from our data, the answer says so rather than estimating.
Do I need a visa for Turkey? Depends on passport. South African passports need a visa — a one-month single-entry e-Visa is available at evisa.gov.tr; Namibian passports can use the e-Visa; Nigerian, Kenyan, Ghanaian and Botswanan passports are listed as visa required
What currency is used in Turkey? Turkey uses TRY. Plan on-the-ground spending in TRY and compare airfares in USD.
How many routes go to Turkey from Africa? Our catalogue lists 3 routes to Turkey from 3 African airports — see the table above.
When are flights to Turkey cheapest? Book 4-8 weeks ahead. Fares rise around the December holidays; mid-week departures are usually the cheapest.
Which airlines fly to Turkey? Carriers on routes to Turkey include EgyptAir, Turkish Airlines, Royal Air Maroc. See the per-route airlines in the table above.
How cheap are flights to Turkey? The lowest cached fare to Turkey in our weekly snapshot was about $175 on CAI-IST — a dated observation, not a current price. Fares move with season; the route guides show each fare with the date it was found.
Search live fares
3 catalogued corridors into Turkey means a live search will return several routings for the same dates; the lowest cached floor across them in our weekly snapshot was $175 — a dated observation, not a current price. Dates move the price more than any other variable. Fares across all 3 of those corridors are quoted in USD on this site so origins in different African markets stay comparable on one page.
Search flights to Turkey on Aviasales ->
Three checks make results comparable. Fix passenger count and cabin before comparing, because a per-passenger fare and a total look identical on a results page. Read the elapsed time next to the price — a one-stop routing into Turkey and a nonstop are different products. And check whether the fare includes the checked bag you will actually carry.
Search a whole month rather than a single date where you can. Our weekly fare log shows movement between departure months on these corridors that dwarfs the difference between one booking gate and another, so a flexible-date search does more work than five rigid ones. Where dates cannot move, book earlier instead.