Home › Distances › Dhaka to Istanbul

The dashed line joins the two city centres; the true shortest path on the globe is a great-circle arc, and real flight paths also bend around restricted airspace and follow airways.

Across half a continent

This is a long flight. On the map, the direct line from Dhaka runs west across the plains of northern India close to the Himalayan foothills, over northern Pakistan and Afghanistan, through Turkmenistan and across the southern Caspian Sea and the Caucasus before following Turkey’s Black Sea coast to Istanbul. Real routes vary with airspace restrictions, which have changed repeatedly because of conflicts in the region. Nonstop flights link Hazrat Shahjalal International (DAC) with Istanbul Airport (IST). Istanbul’s second airport, Sabiha Gökçen (SAW), is on the Asian side of the Bosphorus.

A gateway westwards

For Bangladeshi travellers Istanbul is mainly a transfer point. Its hub connects to a very large number of cities in Europe, Africa and North America, and many passengers on this route continue to London, Western Europe or the United States, home to sizeable Bangladeshi communities. Turkey and Bangladesh also share links as Muslim-majority countries: Turkish aid groups have been active in the Rohingya refugee camps around Cox’s Bazar, and trade, especially in textiles and garments, has grown.