Buses from Istanbul New Airport are a cheap way to get from the airport to Istanbul or in the opposite direction, from Istanbul to the New Airport. In this article, I will tell you what types of buses there are, how much a bus ride costs and how to pay for it, where the bus stops are at the airport, how long the trip from the airport to Istanbul will take, how to find out the bus schedule and what unpleasant surprises you should be prepared for.
Contents:
- Types of buses from New Airport to Istanbul
- How you can pay for the buses from the airport
- How to find the bus stop at the airport
- What is important to know about buses from Istanbul New Airport
- All bus routes from New Airport to Istanbul and back
- The most useful airport bus routes for tourists
- How to find out the bus schedule
- The bus can be cancelled, and the stop moved
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The bus is a cheap way to get from the airport to Istanbul. But if you are short on time, want to get to the hotel faster or are traveling with children, I advise you to pay attention to faster and more convenient transport - order a transfer. The metro runs from the airport to Istanbul, but the journey by metro to the center will take 1.5 - 2 hours with a transfer, about 10 escalators and 700 - 800 meter long passages. Read more in the article How to get from Istanbul Airport to the city and a hotel
Types of buses from New Airport to Istanbul
There are two types of buses running from the New Airport to Istanbul and back:
- comfortable expresses Havaist,
- the state-owned company IETT buses.
During the day busses run with intervals from 15 minutes to 3 hours. At night the interval between buses can be 4 - 5 hours. If your flight arrives or departs late at night, it is a great idea to book a transfer.
1 | Havaist express busses
All Havaist routes to / from the Istanbul New Airport are marked with HVİST or HVL (ex: HVİST-10) in the beginning.
The bus cost is from 140 to 350 Turkish lira and depends on the distance.
All passengers in Havaist busses must have a seat. It is forbidden to stand. If you didn’t get a seat in an outgoing bus, you should wait for the next one.
The bus has free Wi-Fi. To use it, you need to register your phone number.
Luggage travels in a special luggage compartment. When boarding the bus, a luggage tag is attached to each suitcase, and the owner of the luggage receives a tear-off stub. At the end of the trip, a transport company employee hands out the luggage to passengers, checking the number on the tag against the tear-off stub.
If you do not plan to travel to the bus final destination, ensure you announce your stop when you board on the bus. The driver stops the bus only at the request of passengers at some stops along the route.
2 | Buses of the state company IETT
The routes of the IETT buses to Istanbul New Airport are marked with the letter H at the beginning (for example: H-2).
The cost for IETT buses ride is 54 Turkish liras.
The IETT bus has about a dozen seats. The rest of the space is for standing passengers and luggage.
IETT buses stop at all stops along the route that can be more than 20.
How you can pay for the buses from the airport
To pay for your travel on IETT buses, you need an Istanbulkart card. This is a special paying card for travel on public transport in Istanbul.
Istanbulkart can be bought from a ticket machine at the bus stop. You can pay by cash in Turkish Lira or by your bank card.
Please find more details in the article How to pay for public transport in Istanbul and save money with Istanbulkart
You can change currency for Turkish lira or withdraw cash from your credit card at an ATM in the arrivals hall. ATMs are located in the far away corner of the arriving hall, under the escalators. Please remember that the exchange rate at the airport is 10-15% less profitable than in the Istanbul center.
For Havaist buses you can pay
- at a bus stop kiosk in the airport by cash or by card,
- when boarding a bus using a contactless bank card (for example, MasterCard Contactless).
- Istanbulkart transport card can be use to pay on some Havaist bus routes: Beylikdüzü, Aksaray, Taksim, Bakırköy, Esenler Bus Station.
I advise you to have a cash lira with you to pay for travel on the Havaist bus, as not all bank cards are accepted by Havaist bus terminals.
How to find the bus stop at the airport
The bus stops are located on the lowest floor of the New Airport. From the arrivals area, you can go there by an elevator or an escalator.
Follow signs for "Bus / Taxi". They will lead you to an elevator that will bring you to the lower floor.
What is important to know about buses from Istanbul New Airport
The drivers speak Turkish only. They do not understand a single word if you speak to them English or any other language except Turkish.
Buses can get stuck in a traffic jam thus your journey will take up to 120 minutes or more, instead of the promised 60 minutes.
There is no toilet in the bus.
You cannot get off the Havaist bus wherever you want. You will get out your luggage from the luggage area at the bus stop only.
It can be very hot and stuffy in the bus. It feels like drivers are saving the air conditioning. Last time I arrived to the airport in one of the bus totally wet and on the verge of heatstroke.
My advice to those who travel with children is to book a transfer, do not torment the child with such a bus ride.
Transfer/taxi Things to do in Istanbul
All bus routes from New Airport to Istanbul and back
Attention: due to high inflation, the fare is often revised. The cost may be higher than indicated in this article, bus routes may be cancelled or a bus number can be changed. It is better to focus on the bus's final destination, not the bus number.
At the time of this article writing, there are 16 routes running from Istanbul New Airport: 6 of them are state-owned IETT and 11 are Havaist express routes. No one knows what will be tomorrow.
Recently, some Havaist bus routes were renamed from HVİST to HVL and the numbering was completely redone. All old schemes and photos are outdated. I had to rewrite half of this article and remove some of the photos that were no longer relevant.
The following routes are available:
| IETT busses | HAVAİST busses |
|---|---|
| H-1 Mahmutbey Metro, H-2 Mecidiyeköy, H-3 Halkalı Marmaray, H-6 Yunus Emre Mah., H-8 Hacıosman / Sarıyer H-9 Cevizlibağ |
Avcılar-Bahçeşehir, Bakırköy, Kadiköy, Beşi̇ktaş meydan, Otogar (esenler), Halkali i̇stasyon, Avcilar cami̇, Beyli̇kdüzü (marmarapark), Sabiha Gökçen Havalimanı, Taksim, Aksaray |
The most useful airport bus routes for tourists
Only 4 bus routes from the airport are useful from the tourists point of view.
On the first two, you can get to popular tourist areas of Istanbul - Taksim squares and Aksaray (it is a closest stop to Sultanahmet square).
Advice: the bus numbers change often, when boarding on a bus, look at the direction where the bus is going but not at the bus number.
Two more are useful because these buses take you from the airport to the bus station and a major transport hub in 1 hour.
| # | To / From | Fare | How often | Travel time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
HVL-1 |
to Aksaray (this is the closest stop to the central square of Sultanahmet, which is about 3 kilometers from the bus stop).
|
275 TL |
30 - 45 minutes |
100 min |
| HVL-9 |
Taxim Square |
275 TL |
15 - 30 minutes |
80 min |
| H-2 |
Metro (underground) stop Şişli / Mecidiyekoy, green metro line |
54 TL |
15 - 60 minutes |
60 min |
| HVL-3 | Bus station and metro (underground) stop Otogar, red metro line | 215 TL |
30 - 60 minutes |
60 min |
How to find out the bus schedule
Airport buses usually leave according to their timetables, but there are times when, due to traffic jams, the bus is 40 minutes or even 1.5 hours late.
- The IETT bus schedule can be found on the IETT official website https://www.iett.istanbul/en (website in English and Turkish).
- Havais Bus Schedule is on https://hava.ist/en/Voyage/VoyageTime.
I can not vouch for the relevance of the information on the official websites. Everything changes too often and quickly due to the restrictions introduced during the epidemic.
The bus can be cancelled, and the stop moved
Personal experience has shown that the bus can be cancelled for several days and not a single word will be written about it anywhere. Transfer from the hotel to the airport is much more reliable, convenient and faster.
You may find useful the article - How to get to the Princes' Islands from Istanbul.
