Minimum connection time at Madrid?
 

Looking for some advice from regulars connecting through Madrid. I'm looking at a 45-minute connection between an arriving American Airlines flight and a connection on Iberia Express/Air Nostrum. I wouldn't have any checked luggage. I fear that's too short , but the next connection is 5 hours later ... so I wanted to confirm before committing to that. Any advice?

If hand baggage only, and the flight is on time, you should be able to make it. That said, you'll need to keep moving quickly and have almost no contingency for delays. You have to clear immigration in T4S, transfer to T4 via a people mover, and then potentially have a long walk in T4 to reach your outbound gate, particularly if departing on a Nostrum regional jet. Gates for the latter are located at the very end of the T4 terminal, via apron walkway, not airbridge.

From Iberia:
[...] the entire process requires a time of between 20 and 30 minutes, so we recommend you don’t linger in the transit area. [...]

http://www.iberia.com/us/fly-with-ib...d/?language=en

What's your appetite for risk, and what's your back-up plan if your inbound is late?

Apparently they changed MCT to make that a technically legal connection, it's still very risky.

One thing I would say is that after arriving the AA flight, move very quickly (run if you have to) to passport control. Then take the lift down to the transit rather than the escalators. 30 seconds slower can be the difference of waiting an extra 5 minutes or so for the next transit to T4 Main.

All of that said a slight delay will make any effort you make meaningless.

In my experience with similar connections, boarding for AirNostrum in Madrid starts usually later than mainline flights (relative to departure time) - even if they still manage to depart mostly on-time. The bad part is that the gates that AirNostrum uses are at the edge of T4, so it takes quite a while to get there compared to normal Iberia flights departing from gates in the middle of T4.

I have ran many times from T4S to T4 K98 with that kind of short connection, and most of the times I have had to wait several minutes for the boarding to start.

If the flights are on the same ticket, then you'd be protected in the event of a mis-connect. So by all means aim for the short connection.

If you are planning on separate tickets, I would suggest that the risk is too high. Of course a short connection can be done, but if you miss it, you will probably have to buy another ticket onwards.

Seems too short, even without luggage. If you are arriving on a International flight, you could be looking at a 20 minutes walk to the Air Nostrum gate.
Check with Iberia to confirm but last time I had a flight possibility through MAD of 1H15 layover they wouldn't let me do it.

The minimum connection time is officially 45-55mins. They sell many connections of that length, with varying success of making them.

Hi all,

I also have an option of a 55 minute connection, Iberia from JFK to MAD, to Air Nostrum MAD to TLS. It would be on a single ticket, no luggage.

Has anyone done this in the last 18 months, or have any advice to one who might?

Thanks!

Joe

Ooops - I see another thread on the same topic, below.

Should be fine, arrivals immigration isn't too bad and there are plenty of flights to TLS should you miss yours.

I'll just jump on this thread rather than create a new one..

I'm Flying LHR-MAD-OPO and return in June. I've just noticed that the flight times have changed and the booking page is asking me to review/accept the new times. O/B trip is as follows:

IB3175 LHR-MAD arr. 14:05
IB3094 MAD-OPO dep. 15:40

As you can see I have 95 minutes. I THINK both flights are T4, I don't see T4S mentioned. Is this doable? It's all on one booking but I just wanted to make sure.

Definitely doable - by a huge margin. Yes, both flights should be in T4 (there's a chance you could arrive into / depart from T4S, but it's quite small and you have more than enough time for that anyway).

T4-T4 would involve a quick immigration control roughly as you enter the terminal, and a walk along to your next gate. That's it.

Marvellous. Thank you kindly!

First of all, I want to say hello and thanks to all the info here. I'm an occasional poster on BA flyer talk but don't think I've ever posted here on Iberia.

I have a flight from Madrid to Munich that is due to land at 2155 tonight. I would love to be able to get the 2230 from MAD to ALC but it was not available to purchase as a single ticket.

My question is this: If the plane lands on time, is there anything to stop me buying an avios flight as we're taxiing to the gate (if they are still available) and hopping on to the Alicante flight? Currently there is avios availability.

I mean, would there be any issue with conformance, or something similar? Or if I buy the ticket, check in and download the pass to my phone in time to get to the gate 20 minutes before the flight, would I be good to go.

I know there are a lot of ifs in there :)

Well, It would be quite a walk from MUC to MAD so you might have some issues there :D

I'll take it you mean from Munich to Madrid, though. And I do think the big issue would be if there is a technical problem with the IB app which is more than a fleeting possibility. Though I honestly don't know if they'd sell a flight past minimum check-in time.