FCO Rome Fiumicino Airport [Merged thread]
 

I'm flying this summer from AMS to ATH via FCO.
The first leg is operated by KL and the second by AZ with a transfer time of 45minutes. What I see on the website of FCO is that both AZ and KL use T1 for their Schengen flights.

Will my transfer be manageable or too tight?

Your help is appreciated.

Absolutely manageable, provided the KL flight is on time. But more than 15-20 min delay and you're in trouble. Why don't you fly non-stop AMS-ATH?

Agreed - but I would still move fast. Fortunately our flight ends in Rome.

Thanks for the assurance.
What is the chance my checked bag will make it?

Because it saved me a few hundred Euros with my return that includes a stay of 8 days in Venice.

No personal experience with that, but this would be very, very, very close. Luggage from planes arriving at FCO usually make it to the belt about 20-30 min. after landing (10-20 min. after de-planing). Now, although your two planes would be using the same terminal, I'm sort of certain that your bag would first go to a "central" place from where it would have to go back to T1, rendering it very unprobable that it will be onboard the flight to ATH. But this just a guess.

Given the real risk of summer delays in European skies, you have a rather high chance of having plenty of time to visit the shops at Terminal T1 and even T3 (including several cups of espresso/cappuccino). I'm actually anything but re-assuring!

I'm flying out of FCO on USAirways. No bags, and I assume I can check in on line.

Where should I go when I get to the airport? Will I be able to go through security from the other terminals, or must I go to T5?

Transiting in FCO today :(
 

I'll arrive on KL1597 from Amsterdam at 0935 (Terminal 1), and my onward flight is AZ808 to Tel Aviv at 1100 (Terminal 3). I will have no check-in luggage.

Do I need to clear immigration (I am leaving Schengen?) and/or customs?

Another problem is that I might not have my FCO-TLV boarding pass yet. The flights are on the same e-ticket, but not the same PNR. :confused:

I'm only Flying Blue Silver, so I don't think status would make much of a difference.

Yes, you'll clear passport control for leaving Schengen. I don't hear of any customs check on departure. I'd expect a transit desk would issue a boarding pass if you don't have it yet.

I'd like an answer to this too. I'm in exactly the same situation with my family. flying on UA, no checkin bags.

I've heard of people who've parked at T5, checked in, then drove to the rental return and cleared security at T3. Based on that, it would seem you could do that, unless the BP needs some kind of security stamp at T5.

IMO, you take a pretty big risk by going straight to T3.

If you have an electronic boarding pass on your phone issued by a US airline, you are assuming that the security staff at T3 will understand/accept these and let you through. If they don't, then you have to go to T5 and lose a lot of time.

In addition, there is random add'l security screening done by the T-5 airlines. This is not done on a passenger by passenger basis, but rather on a day by day basis. If you happen to be traveling on one of these days - and are successful getting through T3 security, you may encounter problems at your actual gate w/your carrier.

It's a pain but the last time I dropped a rental at FCO, I drove to T5 to drop bags, my wife waited while I returned the rental car and then hopped a bus back to T5. It was a pain and the buses are infrequent but it works.

T5 security is significant - while I don't know for a fact, it wouldn't surprise me that they wouldn't exactly make it easy to go airside elsewhere and then do an airside transfer to T5.

If you can clear security at T3, there's no need to get to T5: you would go to the G satellite gates, which I believe the AZ TATL flights use: people on these flights check in at T3 and go to the G gates, which those who check in at T5 also use. So there's just the "big if" of whether T3 security will accept boarding passes from U.S. carriers. When I flew intra-Europe out of T3 last month, the one BP check at security was a scan of the barcode on the printed pass.

I'd say definitely only T5.
Never tried the T3 when direct to US, but if the T5 is specific for flights bound to States and Israel, there's a reason for that.

Exactly. If you leaving on a T-5 assigned carrier, then you need to deal w/T-5 security/check in b/c the carriers who operate out of T-5 have add'l security/screening procedures.

I guess I'll figure it out in the morning, but I'm taking the train to FCO, which drops you near T3. How do I get from the train station to T5?

Thanks in advance.

-David

There's a shuttle bus outside the T3 terminal. The same bus which runs to long term parking. It stops at T5. Just ask the driver, as I'm not sure all these buses do transit for T5 as some are fast service straight to to parkings.

If you follow the signs to T5 the sign pointing to the left at the bottom of the escalator really means to make a U turn. The shuttle bus stop is at the head end of T3. The map showed 1 stop before T5 but it was the first stop.

I took a 6:20 Leonardo Express and I was through security and immigration and on the shuttle bus to G at 7:35. There were not really any long lines at that hour and I had my BP

Thanks,
-David

ROME (FCO) Check In Advice
 

I am traveling FCO - EWR on UA economy.
Departure is scheduled for 9:50AM, advice please on how far in advance I should arrive at airport for check in.

Thank you in advance

We are flying to Rome from Toronto on Thursday - currently flight is at 6:50 p.m.. We plan to check-in on line and hope one of us is not pre-selected for additional screening (it happens a lot and you can't check-in) - and there is noting suspicious about either of us. Can you check-in line?

Even if we are successful in checking in on-line Wed. night we still plan to be at Pearson at least 3 hours before the flight - we will be checking luggage. Toronto does not have a train to the airport and all it would take would be one accident (and then there is the highway construction) - and rush hour. I have seen the horrors of traffic to the airport when on a return flight.

I think you might be in the rush hour predicament for the morning flight as well, depending on how far a trip it is to the airport. In our case, there is only one direct flight a day to Rome and it is pretty full. I do not want either of us to be sent via Montreal because Montreal to Rome has been Rouged.

Some people like to cut it really close - but there are conditions beyond your control. So if you can get there early - then that will be one less worry.

For your return trip, remember to allow extra time for the T5 terminal - plus checking in at the Rome airport can be pretty mind boggling on its own.

I would show up at T5 not before 7AM.
Never had massive lines in front of me and screening were nothing to be shocked about.
Now, with the usual summer terror wave about security tightening, I'd probably give additional 15 min. leeway.

I'd try to be at T-5 no later than 7:30 am.

We flew the FCO IAD flight yesterday, which departed at 1050A. We arrived at T5 around 915A. The first check-in station was empty (you show your passport and collect the plastic bag for your electronics), and second check-in station was pretty quiet (at least the 1K line) - just one group ahead of us.

There is a separate line for Business security, but even the non business lines moved pretty quickly, and from my observation, no electronics were checked, and most of the x-ray observers were not exactly paying attention. The only line up was for passport control, but it moved quickly.

Pre boarding secondary inspection was random, not pre-determined at check-in.

I flew out early July, FCO-JFK for the morning flight. The departing terminal reminded me of a huge warehouse with makeshift check-in counters. Sort of reminded me also of a cruise terminal.

We were able to use the AA priority check-in. It went rather quickly. Next up was security, also had priority line however, the regular line wasn't bad either. Then passport control and onto the shuttle bus. At first I thought, OMG, no shopping? But was happy to get to the main terminal with all the shops/restaurants, etc.

Personally I wasn't impressed at all with the VIP shared lounge.

This is what I was planning on doing, figuring it would be easier to navigate the shuttle from rental car return to T5 without bags. Any other or better suggestions?

Any issues now with driving up to T5 to drop passengers - seems like they may have really changed traffic flow recently to the other terminals and cars can no longer do drop offs (at least from what I read on the airport website but it was difficult to follow).

When I last did it, there were also signs to say no parking but I did long enough to check bags and get my wife settled. I did talk to the security people that were watching and they tolerated my parking but this could be a YMMV thing. If you pack light, you could do the bus from the car rental with luggage but I was packed for a two week trip with my wife so that wasn't my profile.

I wanted to follow up with my experience last week. This is how we did it....

We got to the airport about 2.5 hours early and we went right to terminal 5. There were two rows of parking spots and I may have misread the signs but it seemed legal to park there for a short time. People were coming and going and so shortly a space opened up. After parking we took our bags in, through initial security check and then checked in at the AA counter. Decent line, though better for the priority line by quite a bit. Took us about 10-12 minutes for security screening but would have been more like 30 min or longer in the regular line. Check in had no line (I guess because the line really forms at the security check out front) and so we were checked in and without the bags in about 30 min after pulling into the parking spot.

Free of the bags, my wife sat down with our carry-ons and I headed back to the car - need to be sure to have both your passport and boarding pass to be able to get back through the initial security screen. Took about 10 minutes or so to drive to parking B and up to the 4th level to Europcar's return. Check-in took about 10 minutes because there were two people in front of me and one check in guy.

Next, had to walk through to terminal 3 out on the curb for the shuttle bus to terminal 5. I considered it a decent walk without bags - long walk, hard to estimate but maybe 500 yards or more. The bus was there - somewhat tight bus with people and bags - so it was about 20 between the rental car counter and the bus pulling away. Maybe a 5 minute or so ride to terminal 5. Then back through initial security which was quick.

Next, went through primary security - nice there was a Priority Line. Line wasn't too long and so were through security and passport control in 10 or so minutes. On to the shuttle bus and back over to the other terminals. Arrived at our gate a few minutes after they started to call for boarding which was maybe 45 min before departure time. So even though each part of the process seemed to go smoothly and we arrived at the airport 2.5 hrs early, the plane was boarding as we got to the gate. In the future I would have given it more time - maybe another 20-30 minutes in case lines were longer at each step.

Bottom line is that if we returned the car first it would have been a long and difficult haul (we had two decent size checked bags, a wine carrier checked bag and two carry-ons) to get from the car return to terminal 5 given the length of the walk to the shuttle and the tight bus. I bet getting to terminal 5 would have taken an extra 15-20 minutes or more as we might have had to wait for the next bus and would have been tiring (and it was only about 80 degrees - I could only imagine it is was really hot). Unless I somehow misread the ability to park at terminal 5, parking there and at least leaving your bags, if not fully checking in, pre-rental car return is an absolute must.

Also, particularly if you do not have status or are flying business/first, I think 3hrs or so pre-flight time is a must and maybe even a bit longer.

I just posted the below on a different thread where I had been asking some questions but figured it is worth copying here in the event people are looking later. My answer to how far in advance depends on whether you are returning a rental car. If yes, I would say 3hrs to 3.5hrs (or longer if you want time in the airline club or for shopping) and if not then perhaps around 2.5hrs give or take.
---------

I wanted to follow up with my experience last week. This is how we did it with a rental car return.

We got to the airport about 2.5 hours early and we went right to terminal 5. There were two rows of parking spots and I may have misread the signs but it seemed legal to park there for a short time. People were coming and going and so shortly a space opened up. After parking we took our bags in, through initial security check and then checked in at the AA counter. Decent line, though better for the priority line by quite a bit. Took us about 10-12 minutes for security screening but would have been more like 30 min or longer in the regular line. Check in had no line (I guess because the line really forms at the security check out front) and so we were checked in and without the bags in about 30 min after pulling into the parking spot.

Free of the bags, my wife sat down with our carry-ons and I headed back to the car - need to be sure to have both your passport and boarding pass to be able to get back through the initial security screen. Took about 10 minutes or so to drive to parking B and up to the 4th level to Europcar's return. Check-in took about 10 minutes because there were two people in front of me and one check in guy.

Next, had to walk through to terminal 3 out on the curb for the shuttle bus to terminal 5. I considered it a decent walk without bags - long walk, hard to estimate but maybe 500 yards or more. The bus was there - somewhat tight bus with people and bags - so it was about 20 between the rental car counter and the bus pulling away. Maybe a 5 minute or so ride to terminal 5. Then back through initial security which was quick.

Next, went through primary security - nice there was a Priority Line. Line wasn't too long and so were through security and passport control in 10 or so minutes. On to the shuttle bus and back over to the other terminals. Arrived at our gate a few minutes after they started to call for boarding which was maybe 45 min before departure time. So even though each part of the process seemed to go smoothly and we arrived at the airport 2.5 hrs early, the plane was boarding as we got to the gate. In the future I would have given it more time - maybe another 20-30 minutes in case lines were longer at each step.

Bottom line is that if we returned the car first it would have been a long and difficult haul (we had two decent size checked bags, a wine carrier checked bag and two carry-ons) to get from the car return to terminal 5 given the length of the walk to the shuttle and the tight bus. I bet getting to terminal 5 would have taken an extra 15-20 minutes or more as we might have had to wait for the next bus and would have been tiring (and it was only about 80 degrees - I could only imagine it is was really hot). Unless I somehow misread the ability to park at terminal 5, parking there and at least leaving your bags, if not fully checking in, pre-rental car return is an absolute must.

Also, particularly if you do not have status or are flying business/first, I think 3hrs or so pre-flight time is a must and maybe even a bit longer.

Added Perspective: This was the exact approach I took at FCO. The shuttle bus being there when Family Traveler arrived was good fortune. I (and some other people) waited for 20+ minutes for the shuttle bus to arrive. My wife was sweating it out waiting with our carry-on (she did have a nice conversation with a couple while she was waiting).

For an early flight out of T5, I would probably drop off the day before in the city and just take a taxi to the airport.

Interesting that you waited so long for the next shuttle. They have an electronic sign at the shuttle stop and when my bus pulled away it was showing about 3 minutes until the next bus arrived (and I waited on my bus for about 5 minutes until it pulled away but don't know how long it was there). I guess I got lucky and so another reason to get there with plenty of time in advance.

We weren't staying in Rome the night before (I would not keep a car in Rome) but instead since we were coming down from Florence, we stayed over night just to the north right on the water in Ladispoli, about 25 minutes to get to the airport in the morning. Beautiful property called La Posta Vecchia - pretty pricey but better than overnighting at a crummy airport hotel for the last night of the trip.

Where I waited, I didn't see a sign showing time (this was in 2011). Perhaps it was a different spot or they added the sign. I do recall wondering if I should just walk over (as you know, it isn't a short walk).

We were staying at the Cavalieri Hilton and it was cheaper to drop car (picked up at MXP) at FCO rather than in Rome. You can park for free on the street there and the Cavalieri's outdoor parking is not expensive (probably the only thing reasonably priced there).

A digression but how was the Hilton? I have a lot of Hilton points and noticed that one as perhaps a good use. Just seemed out of the way in Rome which I guess can be good and bad.....

Hilton points now are like Delta miles but that's another story.

I think the Cavalieri is a love it or hate it kind of place. It's not close to downtown (on top of Monte Mario). If you want to walk around, that's not a neighborhood to do so (it's safe, just residential) . They do have a shuttle bus that will take you downtown and bring you back. It has some stunning views (particularly if you get a view room). In the summer, the pool area is a scene. Good art collection and Michelin 3-star restaurant if that interests one. There's a classical Italian sense and a modern one. IMO, the Cavalieri draws more from the modern sense of Italy.

If I was doing a strict Rome visit, I'd be more likely to stay downtown. If I was doing a trip where I was in Rome but also visiting the environs and had a car (for example, going to Ariccia to pig out on porchetta), the Cavalieri would be interesting. I find it good value for a points stay, less so if paying.

This is not a place to stay, except for the business traveler who has already seen Rome. It is a true luxury hotel, but it is about an hour's walk to Rome city center. It's like someone from Rome coming to visit NYC and staying in Staten Island. Sure, it's part of NYC proper, but it's way out of the way.

Of course, you can take a cab or a bus to city center, but walking around the historic center of Rome is the fun part.

Thanks for the comments on the Hilton - what I figured on all accounts. Confirms it is not likely what I would be looking for on a trip to Rome.

Have a question about meeting another incoming passenger at FCO. The first couple will be arriving on a UA flight from DEN. About an hour and a half later we will arrive from LHR on a BA flight. How easy will it be for the first couple to pick up luggage, go through immigration and then come to meet our arriving flight (outside immigration naturally)? Goal is to take the same limo service to the hotel.

TIA

Both UA and BA arrive at T3. Here is a list of T3 landslide restaurants. Perhaps you can choose one as a meeting point.

CIAO Snack Bar-Asian Restaurant T3 07.00-23.00
MC DONALD'S - CHEF EXPRESS Snack Bar-Fast Food T3 05.30-22.00
RUSTICHELLI & MANGIONE Snack Bar-Pizzeria T3 h24
VACANZE ROMANE Snack Bar T3 Arrivals h24
CHEF EXPRESS Snack Bar T3 Arrivals 05.30-22.00

Rustichelli & Mangione has decent focaccia. Vacanze Romane has a nice mozzarella bar.

I'm pretty sure there isn't a non-stop from DEN; a question would be whether they're connecting to a UA flight on the East Coast, or an LH flight in Germany. That would make a difference in what gate area they come to, but they'd go to the same baggage claim as you, and exit to the same T3 arrivals hall. The Chef Express outside that exit, with cafe tables, would be a good place to wait, then meet.

I did make a mistake. They are actually arriving on a LH flight from FRA.

No matter what, it sounds like we will all arrive at the same terminal so it should not be an issue.

Thanks.

Well, one thing is certain you won't be arriving at T5 since it's a departure only terminal.

You are probably both arriving at T3.

-David