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Arrival at FCO

Posted by (California) on

I am flying into FCO via Air Canada in October. I will be joined by a relative who will be flying in from a different country and arriving in Terminal 3 of FCO. Her flight will be arriving an hour before mine. We plan to meet up at FCO and then take a taxi together to Rome. I am doing a little planning to hopefully make the process a little smoother and cause less anxiety.

I read plenty of bad reviews on FCO, does it still take a long time to get through immigration and custom? In general about how long should I expect to get out of the airport for morning arrival? I am trying to set reasonable expectation for my relative so she doesn't freak out over long wait.

Also, is there free wifi at FCO?

Thanks in advance for your insights.

Posted by
23671 posts

It kind of a yes, no or perhaps. I have sailed through immigration in less than hour and have taken close to three. There is no way to know for sure until you are there. Totally dependent on the number of planes arriving at the same time and the number of officers. A year ago May it took close to three hours. Three or four planes around 10 am and only two officers on duty. One thing that added to the delay was people with short connects being pulled to the front of the line by another officer. And they were checking tickets so you cannot lie. It was a mess. Other times there have been four or five officers on duty. Do you have anyway to send a text message to your friend?

Posted by
15799 posts

Be sure you both have each other's flight information, so you can check flight status, in case of any delays.

Posted by
8703 posts

I'd have a plan B to meet at the hotel if the meet doesn't occur or if there are major delays.

Note. be sure the immigration agent stamps your passport. Rome airport agents are lazy and often just wave people through. Then you have no proof when you entered Schengen. We got held up over an hour in Amsterdam on suspicion over overstaying the Schengen 90 day limit and couldn't go till we could prove through airline tickets and such our date of entry. The guy pulled with us was not able to prove his entry and missed the plane.

Posted by
32405 posts

In my experience, one can never accurately predict how long it will take to get through FCO. I've experienced very quick trips through Passport control and getting to the rail station, and also a complete mess where no one even knew which carousel my checked luggage was on and in that case it took me much longer to get to the rail station.

As I recall, Terminal 3 is where the fire occurred a few months ago, so not sure if things are back to normal there or not?

Are you flying direct with Air Canada, or transferring to a regional flight in Frankfurt or another hub?

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