Flights Casablanca -> Istanbul (CMN-IST) — USD Fares, Airlines, Frequency
7 scheduled departures a week link Casablanca (CMN) in Morocco with Istanbul (IST) — roughly one a day — flown by 2 catalogued carriers at a scheduled block time near 4.5 hours.
Flight CMN -> IST is operated by Royal Air Maroc, Turkish Airlines (~7 flights per week, ~4.5h block time). This is an intra-Africa + Gulf hub transit corridor. As a rough planning range (an editorial estimate, not an observed fare), economy runs about $500-1,500; the fare observation on this page shows what our weekly snapshot recorded and when. Intra-Africa and Gulf-hub transit fares move week-to-week; 4-8 weeks is the typical sweet spot.
Great-circle distance Casablanca–Istanbul is about 3,305 km, computed from the stored coordinates of CMN (33.37, -7.59) and IST (41.28, 28.75). What the figure fixes is the sector profile — 3,305 km against a scheduled 4.5-hour block time — and the fuel-and-crew economics behind the fare floor. It does not fix a compensation amount. No fixed-tariff compensation scheme reaches CMN–IST. EU261 and UK261 do band by distance, but they only cover flights departing an EU/EEA or UK airport — plus arrivals there on a bloc-licensed carrier — and neither endpoint here is one, whoever operates the flight. The Montreal Convention 1999 is what applies, and it pays provable loss, not a tariff.
Airlines on this route
2 carriers operate CMN–IST: Royal Air Maroc (AT) and Turkish Airlines (TK). Our carrier table records checked-baggage baselines from 23 kg to 30 kg; the group spans Oneworld and Star Alliance. That mix decides three things — the fare floor, whether your bag is through-checked on a connection, and which delay regulation covers you.
| Carrier | Baggage baseline | Alliance |
|---|---|---|
| Royal Air Maroc (AT) | 23 kg | Oneworld |
| Turkish Airlines (TK) | 30 kg | Star Alliance |
The CMN–IST carriers do not share one alliance — Oneworld and Star Alliance are represented — and that has a concrete consequence. Mileage earning and lounge access do not carry across the split, and more importantly a connection built across two of these airlines is only through-checked when the two tickets are issued as one. Two separate confirmations mean you collect the bag, clear immigration where required, and check in again — and a missed second flight is your cost, not the airline’s.
The baggage baselines are not equal. Turkish Airlines records 30 kg in our table against 23 kg on Royal Air Maroc — a 7 kg gap. On a corridor where a second bag is commonly bought at the airport, that gap is often worth more than the fare difference between the two airlines, so compare the all-in number rather than the headline fare.
USD fares — CMN-IST
$348 was the 2026-W25 reading in our weekly fare log for CMN–IST, across 2 readings that range $348 to $350.
As a rough planning range (an editorial estimate, not an observed fare), economy on CMN-IST runs about $500-1,500; the fare observation on this page shows what our weekly snapshot recorded and when. Cached fares from a weekly Travelpayouts snapshot appear in the panel below, with their observation date; fare-month seasonality follows.
Book 4-8 weeks ahead. Fares rise around the December holidays; mid-week departures are usually the cheapest. That window is general guidance rather than a rule for this single pairing; on a corridor with 7 weekly departures, the practical constraint is often seat availability on the days you can actually travel, not the headline fare.
One thing our fare data cannot tell you: whether the quote includes a checked bag. The cache stores a price and a carrier, not a fare family. On CMN–IST that matters most where a low-cost carrier or a basic-economy bucket is in the mix, because the cheapest screen number and the cheapest all-in number are then two different itineraries. Compare after adding the bag you will actually carry.
Visa and entry for 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. That row names the passports it covers; for any other passport, check the linked government portal before booking.
| Entry type | Fee | Maximum 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 | Turkey official source |
Worth knowing before you book: Print a copy of any e-Visa for check-in.
Read the row above against your own passport. It names the nationalities it covers, and an ECOWAS, EAC or Maghreb passport not named there can face a different fee, a different processing route or no eligibility at all for the same destination. Entry rules change without notice, so the linked government portal is the authority, not this table.
How much baggage can you take on CMN–IST?
23–30 kg is the checked-baggage baseline our carrier table records for the 2 airlines on CMN–IST, with a recorded diaspora uplift of up to +25 kg on Turkish Airlines. Baselines are economy figures and fare-family dependent. The allowance printed on your issued ticket overrides any table, this one included.
A baggage baseline is the economy checked allowance an airline advertises as standard. It is not what your ticket necessarily grants. The same airline sells fare families below the baseline — hand-baggage-only and basic-economy buckets are exactly the ones that surface as the cheapest CMN–IST quote in any fare cache, including ours. The allowance printed on your itinerary overrides any table, ours included.
Where our table records a migrant or diaspora uplift — +23 kg on Royal Air Maroc and +25 kg on Turkish Airlines — three exclusions usually bite. The uplift attaches to nominated corridors rather than the whole network; it rarely survives onto a codeshare or interline segment operated and ticketed by a different airline; and the deepest-discount fare buckets are commonly carved out. None of that makes the uplift fictional, but it does mean it has to be confirmed against your booking class, in writing, before you pack to it.
Search live fares
7 weekly departures across 2 carriers mean a live CMN–IST search returns several price points for the same day; our weekly fare log has recorded readings as low as $348 (see the dated history on this page). Scheduled nonstop block time is 4.5 hours, so any result far above that is connecting whatever the screen says.
Search CMN -> IST on Aviasales ->
Three checks make a live CMN–IST result comparable. Fix the passenger count and cabin first, because a per-passenger fare and a party total look identical on a results page. Then read the elapsed time next to the price — a one-stop itinerary and the 4.5-hour nonstop are different products at the same number. Then check whether the fare carries the bag you are actually taking.
Date flexibility beats every other lever on CMN–IST. Month-scanning surfaces the seasonal shape our fare log records; repeated searching on one fixed date mostly surfaces the same fare bucket. When the calendar is not negotiable — pilgrimage, school holidays, a job start — the useful move is to buy sooner, because scarcity, not timing, is what sets the price then.
About Istanbul
3 catalogued corridors in this site’s data reach Istanbul (IST), Istanbul Airport, ICAO LTFM, from 3 catalogued origins and 3 carriers in total. That count is this site’s coverage of Istanbul, not the airport’s published schedule. Each of those corridors has its own guide with carriers, weekly frequency, scheduled block time and whatever the fare cache holds.
Istanbul, Turkey — destination on the intra-Africa + Gulf hub transit corridor. Destination currency: USD (we quote in USD throughout this guide).
Beyond CMN, our catalogue reaches Istanbul from 2 other origins: Cairo (CAI) and Dar es Salaam (DAR). That matters when the CMN–IST fare is unattractive: on a continent where positioning flights are cheap, flying out of a different gateway is a real option, and each of those corridors has its own guide, carriers and cached fare floor on this site.
Istanbul is a based hub for Turkish Airlines. A hub airport behaves differently from an outstation: connecting banks are built around it, spare aircraft and crew sit there, and a disruption is far more likely to be recovered the same day. It also means the hub carrier usually sets the price on routes into IST, and competitors price against it rather than the other way round.
FAQ
Which airlines fly Casablanca to Istanbul? Direct CMN-IST flights are operated by Royal Air Maroc, Turkish Airlines. Compare baggage baseline and alliance in the carrier table above.
How long is the CMN-IST flight and how often does it run? Block time is about 4.5 hours. The CMN-IST route runs roughly 7 flights per week across all carriers.
How much does a CMN-IST flight cost and when is it cheapest? Our rough planning range is $500-1,500 USD (an editorial estimate, not an observed fare); the fare observation on this page shows what our weekly snapshot recorded and when. Intra-Africa and Gulf-hub transit fares move week-to-week; 4-8 weeks is the typical sweet spot.
What is the checked baggage allowance on CMN-IST? It varies by carrier and fare class — see the baggage-baseline column in the carrier table above. Full-service carriers usually include 23-30 kg, while low-cost carriers sell it as an add-on. Confirm on the airline’s site before booking.
What currency is used in Istanbul? Istanbul uses USD. Fares in this guide are quoted in USD; budget on-the-ground spending in USD.
Related routes and reading
- Casablanca airport (CMN) — Mohammed V International, Morocco: 17 catalogued departure corridors and 0 arrival corridors.
- Istanbul airport (IST) — Istanbul Airport, Turkey: 0 catalogued departure corridors and 3 arrival corridors.
The airport guides carry what a corridor page cannot: the full catalogued route list at each end, the based hub carriers, the alliance mix and the compensation regime of the country that airport sits in. On a connecting itinerary the transfer airport’s rules matter as much as the destination’s, which is why CMN–IST links both ends rather than only the arrival.