Hi,

I am a US citizen who will be travelling from high speed rail from Leon, Spain to Madrid-Chamartin train station on a Wednesday in early March. The train arrives at 2:41 pm and I am on an easyJet flight from MAD to MXP at 4:20 pm. I anticipate I can reach MAD by 3:10 pm so would be 1 hour 10 min before my flight. I will have one bag to check-in.

Is this sufficient time to catch my flight? In the US it would be at any major airport on domestic flight and I think this is the equivalent of a domestic flight since there will be no passport control.

I am travelling with a group that will have some Indian citizens (they have a Schengen visa though and would have already gone through passport control on an earlier flight to Spain).

If I don't take this flight the next one is 2h 10 min later.

Thank in advance!

Best,

Saurabh

I sure wouldn't book the early flight. But just how big is the 'group'? Unless you mean just 2 or 3 people -- you may be herding cats a bit. Plus easyJet closes the boarding gates 15 to 30 minutes prior to the flight time so you would all have to be at the gate by 4PM. at the latest.

Security, toilet breaks, mobility issues, etc -- if you talking about a group of more than 3 or 4 people -- book the later flight for sure.

It is 7 people total. I checked that easyJet closes the boarding gate 25 min before departure so we would have to be at the gate latest 3:55 pm, which would leave only 45 min to for checking bags and getting through security assuming 30 min from train arrival at Chamartin to being at the airport. I decided that this is living a bit too dangerously for me on a business trip (and being embarrassed if we miss our flight), so I have booked the flight at 6:45pm instead. We will take a train that gets into Chamartin at 4pm, leaving a more generous 2h 45 min to flight departure.

no kidding, a little dangerously.

It isn't true that in the US, arriving 1:10 before a domestic flight at any airport when you have luggage to check would always be just fine. I know DCA where I live has had some long security checks at times, and so have others. Having gone through passport control earlier in the country for foreign citizens doesn't mean that much, they aren't on a connecting flight, after all. So what difference does that make, they are arriving at the airport anew same as anyone. The point is they can't get to the gate without having their passport looked at, they don't allow just anyone to walk into the airport and get to the gate no matter what, even if it is a domestic flight. I fly within the US all the time and still have to show official ID to get to the gate and you do even for flights within the Schengen area, also. Within the US, that can be a driver's license instead of a passport, but for foreigners, it would be a passport.

How do you plan do go from Chamartin to Barajas in a few minutes?
Certainly not via Nuevos ministerios, I suppose.