Madrid MAD back to back
Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport
I've had some PMs recently on doing back to backs at MAD - there were some good fares to South Africa which prompted this. Some of the earlier posts made by me and others are now out of date and should be disregarded. They were correct at the time, but MAD T4S was being rebuilt, and though this finished some time ago, the online material is misleading. So this post is going to contradict many earlier posts. I'm also downgrading the Wiki down from Excellent to Very Good (which if you are on the mobile, has a fairly comprehensive listing). MAD is still an almost foolproof location, about the same as BCN (which should involved less walking), PMI is the best Spanish location for back to back.
MAD Terminals:
There are two terminals of relevance here at Barajas: T4 which serves mainly Iberia Schengen services, plus UK and Ireland Iberia, plus BA CityFlyer to LCY. T4S (Satellite) serves BA LHR and Iberia longhaul. LGW services are actually IB Express and use T4. When Iberia run longhaul aircraft to LHR then they use T4S. Very confusing! When using MAD, the Zone Code is quite important for navigation, these are colour coded and are used extensively in signs. The three zones in the T4S satellite building are R, S and U. U is mainly Iberia's long haul, it would be unlikely to be used by BA. R and S are both used however. Connecting the two buildings is a transit railway in the basement. It is possible (just) to make a 45 minute connection between T4 and T4S.
Both terminals are extremely long: 1.2 kms for T4 and 1.0 km for T4. The transit and connection sections are in the middle, so a back to back can involve 0.5 km to connections, and 0.5 km back to the gate.
T4S Building layout
Arriving into Barajas T4S involves generally airbridge. Bus gates are more used by Iberia Express and Air Nostrum service. On arrival you go up a series of quite stiff slopes to get to the upper floor of the building (floor 2), departures is he below you on floor 1. In the centre of the arrival floor is a security checkpoint which allows you to drop down to floor 1. There are some gates on floor 0, the M gates. The main passport control for Schengen is on -1, and -2 for the transit.
How to do a back to back:
15 minutes should cover it even from a bad gate and on a busy day (I timed it off a 767, not first off, not going quickly and with a bit of a queue in security).
1) Leave the aircraft up the slope. Look out of the windows and make an note of the aircraft's zone and gate (eg. R12) - if you can't see it clearly a nearby gate will suffice. The reason for this is that the arrivals floor isn't over-endowed with information screens.
2) On the arrivals floor, follow the signs to the centre of the building, using the moving walkways.
3) At the centre point on the arrivals floor - and this is the crucial bit - look for the sign for R, S and U transfers. This is what you are looking for:
The problem will be that most passengers will be going rightwards to the main building and exit, don't follow them, you want to go left for R, S and U. There is a security checkpoint there, but no passport check, you stay ex Schengen here.
4) After that you go down to the escalator down to the main departures floor, through the compulsory Duty Free shop (short cut via the Elizabeth Arden section) and then follow the sign back to the gate you came from. If going to S, note the short cut through the restaurant.
Lounge:
If you arrive early then maybe you have time to visit Iberia's big and much admired Velázquez lounge, shown in this map by S40. It gets busy in the mornings when IB's longhauls leave for the Americas but there after it's very pleasant. The lounge is right in the middle of the duty free shop. You need to allow a good 10 minutes to get to the gates, since it could be 500 metres away, noting that 767 services often start boarding early.
Back to back at T4 main building
T4 main building is used for LGW's flights on Iberia Express, IB shorthaul services to and from London, and LCY services with CityFlyer. T4 has a special end section of T4 which is for non Schengen services, with a passport control point, so these services must end up here, though they may use buses if short of space, and IB's longhaul aircraft for MAD-LHR will go from T4S. Only the BA CityFlyer services from/to LCY can be used as back to back with confidence, since the IB aircraft are at their base airport and could be sent elsewhere. But with those provisos in mind, the main building is excellent for back to backs, no passports, no security and otherwise foolproof.