melbarb

Can anyone tell me how much time is needed to clear customs & imigration at the airport in Madrid and Barcelona? We are USA citizens.I have been told from 30 minutes to 1 hr so we can plan for connections of flights.

amer_can

If you have nothing to declare you do not go through customs and passport control depends on how many people are in front of you. Took me about 5 minutes in Madrid coming from LHR in April. Where are you coming from? If you are going to both BCN and MAD then it will be one place or the other, whereever you go first on a direct flight from USA. EU countries are only one passport control..

november_moon

Just like anywhere else, it depends on how many flights come in at the same time and how quickly you walk to the immigration line compared with everyone else on your flight.

nytraveler

It's Immigration that can take time:

1) how many international flights land at the same time
2) where you sit on the plane - row 5 will get there a lot sooner than row 30
3) how fast you walk - as soon as they are off the plane many people start to jog or walk bery briskly to get their sooner

I have had it take 10 minutes to 30.

Then you have to pick up your luggage (unless you can get the airine to check it through) and head for the new flight check-in, security line etc.

If you're asking what flight I would take I would want 3 hours minimum to switch - since thre is no guarantee the flight will land on time.

melbarb

Thanks for the help we are coming in from Venice,Italy to the Madrid airport at 15:00 then looking to take a connecting flight to Barcelona.Since we are Us citizens and not the EU I didn't know if it would be much longer.

melbarb

I also forgot to mention we are coming in on Easy Jet then looking to fly out of Madrid on Vueling.

Robert2533

The I would allow a couple of hours since you'll need to check in at the Vueling counter to pick up your boarding passes.

J62

You will go through neither immigration nor customs at Madrid since your flight from Venice is an intra Schengen-zone flight and is considered basically a "domestic" flight within that immigratino treaty zone.

You'll just need to wait for Easy Jet baggage claim.

J62

Any chance you can change your flights and just go Venice to Barcelona non-stop on Vueling?

melbarb

No as we already purchased the ticket except the Barcelona portion our thought was to take the AVE train however I was concerned about geting from the airport to a train station on time ect.The flight is about the same&cost and we get there about the same time.
We normally never check our baggage because we only have two carry on bags each however with the airlines requirements they only allow 1 carry on.
The info about Venice was very helpful.Thankyou

J62

I realize you've already purchased your Venice - Madrid flights. My question is why not just throw those away and book Venice to Barcelona on Vueling? When you add in the cost of checking a bag on EasyJet, and the risk of connecting it may be worth some extra cost just to get the non-stop.