Hi,
Have just joined am busy reading lots of interesting information. I wondered can anyone advise please the time taken to clear security/customs at Malpensa.

We will be arriving (in September)around midday on an Emirates flight from Dubai and then plan to catch a flight to Venice (Alitalia) just after 2pm - Ive been hearing that it isnt enough time to check bags in etc, although travel agent assured me it was. The next flight is 6 or more hours later so very inconvenient.

Can someone please provide some info so my fiance can stop stressing (this will be our honeymoon).

Thanks.

I would expect that you would not need to pick up your bags at Malpensa. Emirates should be able to tag them through to Venice. Assuming you have the onward ticket purchased (even if it is on a separate itinerary), there should not be a problem with baggage being checked through.

I had an arrival in MXP from the US (on Continental Airlines) with an onward connection on Alitalia within the European Schengen zone. I walked off the CO plane, walked through a quick passport check, and went to the gate for my onward flight. There was a separate security (put the carryon through the machine) check, but that only took a few minutes.

Thanks I shall ask Emirates - although I have been reading up on all the lost bags - would we be better off just getting our bags and checking them in ourselves -or the lost bag situation isnt as bad as I have read?

Haha... Well....

My return flight was Alitalia connecting to Continental through MXP. The CO flight was seriously delayed, so I had more than three hours at the airport. I did get my bags until several days after I returned home.

Only one point of data... and I don't even know if the problem was AZ or CO (allegedly partners). I was traveling with a business colleague and his bags made it just fine. (We checked in together.)

Yeah, the issue of bags certainly seems to be a concern with AZ. To be honest, I don't know that checking them again in MXP would make it any better - who knows where they go missing???

You wont have a choice transferring from an International flight to a Schengen area flight you will have to recheck your bags at MXP. Sort of like transferring from International to domestic.

really concerned with our itinerary. we booked international flight to rome connecting in mxp. after booking it online (cancellation/changes out of question), i realized we only have 45 minutes in between flights. first time flying to milan, i have no idea how big MXP is. read that i have to go from T1A - T1B where domestic flights are? Do we have to pick up our luggage and recheck it back for the domestic flight? if we miss our connection, what are my options? really not familiar with how this works, so i am really concern about this..Dont want to ruin everyone else's vacation !! Thanks in advance!

I never have. I often flown TLV-FCo-MXP and did no see my bags until I got to Milan. The same was true when I flew MIA-CDG-MXP.

When you arrive at your final stop, Customs knows if you checked in domestically or internationally by the color of your baggage tags. If you began your itinerary internationally, you are subject to a check.

Really I thought you would have to check and reclaim. You do have to clear immigration before transferring to Schengen flights iirc

You are absolutely right about clearing immigration, but that is different than Customs.

Indeed, if you flew into France and then had a connecting flight to Switzerland (which is a Schengen country but not a EU country), if you had to clear Customs upon entering France you would have to clear it a second time when getting to your final destination.

This way there is one Immigration check (after arriving in Schengen) and one Customs check (at your final destination).

In reality, if you connect from a domestic flight (say, FCO-Linate) to an airport which does not usually take international flights, the odds are good that you will never see a Customs official.

A 45-minute connection in MXP is possible if everything is operating ontime. You say you are arriving from an international flight, so I will assume it is from outside the Schengen region. In this case, you will need to go through the passport check and a security screening. You will not have to pick up your bags (as Dovster said above). If you are flying on the same airline (Alitalia all the way through), you should have your boarding pass already - if not, you may have to visit a transfer desk. If all of your flights are on a single ticket and you miss your onward flight to FCO due to the late arrival of the inbound plane, then the airline (I assume Alitalia) will try to get you on the next departure to Rome that has seats available.

Thats what I thought which is why I assumed you would have to clear customs and recheck bags.

MXP is a very large airport. However, if you miss your connection, there are LOTS of flights between Rome and Milan and - in the event you booked the itinerary all on one ticket then the airline believes you have enough time to make the connection. In the event you don't, its up to them to place you on the next flight.

thanks bdemaria and gary_nj! really appreciate your input.

If your inbound is on time you shouldn't have any problem. I've made 20 minute connections and my bags made it.

If you do miss the 2:35 flight to VCE AZ has another at 8:35 that evening.

Have a connection on two different tickets:
incoming on LX
outgoing on LH

Am I right in assuming, that if I only have hand luguage and have used online check in I can go straight from the arriving lounge (without exiting) to the departure lounge - without doing the security check again ?