SlimpyJones

Hi...

A couple of years ago I posted about doing an International->Domestic connection at Bucharest. Now I'm doing the opposite! I am due to fly CLJ-OTP-TLV in May. Booked under one ticket with Tarom.

Due to various cancellations & reschedulings, my layover has gone from two hours down to just 55 minutes. Guidance on the Tarom website suggests the minimum connection time is 45 minutes.

Having been in the domestic area of OTP it is very small and barebones. What I am wondering is if it is possible to simply deplane from Cluj (likely at a remote stand as it's currently listed as a turboprop), walk through passport control and then find my gate in the international area? Or is it a case of leaving the terminal, passing through security again, and so on?

Any guidance or stories greatly appreciated. :-)

Romanianflyer

Exactly this.

You won't even enter the domestic (departure) terminal proper, but rather dropped off by bus at domestic arrivals - which is at a totally different part of the airport.

Make sure that on the airport (mostly old buses used for domestic flights - with doors on the right hand side only), you use the foremost door of the bus to beat the other pax on your flight and be the first off the bus. When exiting the baggage reclaim area, you are at domestic arrivals. Go up a floor to the international arrival hall. Then follow the signs to the (separate) departures terminal - which is about 5 minutes or so away through a long corridor. At the international terminal, you will again go a floor down to the main check-in area where the security lines are.

Luckily, the TLV flight is an evening one I believe (correct me if I'm wrong - because this would make a huge difference!), which means that queues at security/passport control should be light or non-existent as queues at OTP are generally mostly in the morning only. You'll probably make it, but there is not much room for error.

SlimpyJones

Thanks very much for this - you've been a huge help!

I suppose I should clarify since you mentioned, we are actually on the early morning flight to TLV. Here's my itinerary:

05:40 CLJ - OTP 06:50
07:45 OTP - TLV 10:20

We were originally on an evening flight, but that got cancelled. It sounds like we'll be hitting the peak morning rush for security and passport lines then, how fun...! At least we won't have to drop our bags (I hope?). Historically CLJ-OTP seems to only take around 45-50 minutes on ATRs so perhaps their estimate of 1h10 is a little high.
Having a cursory glance at other flights, there seems to be an El Al service at 10:45. Would it be wishful thinking to assume Tarom would rebook us to that flight should we misconnect...? I suppose this is all speculation and conjecture of course, but it would be nice to know some backups.

Thank you once again!

Romanianflyer

Ai. You will definitely hit what is OTP rush hour (the end of it, but nonetheless still rush hour). Bags should be checked through so that is at least one worry less. It can also work in your favour perhaps as the airline might be reluctant to offload bags/hold them.

Basically, you are in the hands of the airline gods although something still tells me that TAROM would not sell these tickets if people would never make it onto their connecting flight as it'd cost the company a lot of money to rebook you/pay EC261 compensation etc. - they might very well hold the plane for a few minutes. That said, I cannot guarantee it, have zero such experiences at OTP when it comes to connections this close, and don't know what the airline would do in case you'd miss the flight if they are willing to rebook on El Al.

One extra tip: there are basically two security check points at OTP which you can take. One in the old part of the departures terminal, one is just a few feet away in a more modern annex where some additional check-in desks are located. Coming from the arrivals terminal you would first arrive in the old part of the departures terminal. If the security line here is immensely busy, you could always walk a bit further to the second point to see if the queues are lighter there. Sometimes the differences in waiting time between the two can be staggering.

Although in your case, I'd most likely myself just stick to the first security point no matter how big the queue is and politely try to make your way forward by apologising to the crowd/saying you are on a tight connection.

In any case, please let us know how it went! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that you'll make it if I'd have to put a wager down I would still say you are more likely to make it than not - although I do hope that whatever business you have in TLV is not too urgent and could live with the risk of being delayed.

SlimpyJones

Thank you once again! I didn't expect anyone to know about such a niche experience :-D

Thankfully our travels are not until May (plenty more time for some schedule changes, eh?) but I will be sure to let you know. Thankfully it is just a holiday for my girlfriend and I so a delay will not impact us too negatively other than some lost time.

:-)