Spain/Portugal/Gibraltar - immigration wait time at madrid barajas

I am flying from Atlanta to Madrid, on Delta 108 arriving at 7:25am. I need to purchase a separate connecting flight to Malaga and have found a cheap Vueling flight departing Madrid at 9:20am. What is the average time to get through immigration in Madrid? Will I have time to get through Immigration, pick up my luggage and Check-in with Vueling Airlines? Any advice appreciated!

Just last week, I flew from AA Miami-Madrid with about a two-hour layover before flying EasyJet on to Lisbon.

I found Immigration to be a surprisingly fast, although a very long walk from the arrival gate.

Two issues which will add to your time.....

1. You'll need to take an airport subway tram to get to baggage claim.

2. Watch your Terminals. If your flying out of Terminal 1, (where most of the budget airlines are located), you will need to take a long shuttle bus ride to get there.

Bottom line, you should be ok with a two-hour layover, but move quickly.

1. You'll need to take an airport subway tram to get to baggage claim.

2. Watch your Terminals. If your flying out of Terminal 1, (where most of the budget airlines are located), you will need to take a long shuttle bus ride to get there.


1. This is true if you arrive with AA, but not the case with Delta.

2. Delta flies into T1, but in this case this is not such a good thing because Vueling (unlike easyJet or Ryanair) operates from Terminal 4 (so you would have to take the shuttle bus T1>T4).

Terminal 4 has a Satellite (T4S) which is connected to T4 by an airport subway (jaymar landed at T4S). Check-in, baggage claim will always happen at T4 and from there you can access the gates at T4S (which is used mostly for non-Schengen flights). Your Vueling flight probably doesn't depart from T4S, but I don't know if there's a way to tell for sure.

I also think it's doable if there isn't a serious delay, but you should definitely hurry just in case. Have a good trip.

Went through immigration at T1 this morning. Flew in on AerLingus/United from IAD. We arrived early due to strong tail winds around 06:45. I was at immigration at 06:51 together with a DL flight (not sure from where).

I would imagine from the back of the line it would take 20 mins tops to pass through passport control.

So let's assume T+25 from landing time to get thru immigration, as you have to walk about 5 mins from the gates (up and down a number of stairs).

Not sure how long bags take to show up. You'll then have to take the shuttle bus to T4 and go through the mess that T4 is. I would say that if we consider a 60 min bag cut-off, this is cutting it quite close.

I would say that if we consider a 60 min bag cut-off, this is cutting it quite close.

Bag cut-off is 40 min, but it's still close. Just in case, the connection bus to T4 (every 5 min) leaves from outside the Departures area in T1, so after coming out of Arrivals you should go one floor up and then take the bus.

Thanks for all the great advice everyone!! This is really helpful!