Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ) – Passport Control and Bus Connection Timing Question

I've only been through Bologna late once but the airport was a ghost town except for the people getting off the plane. Even the stores in the airport were generally closed. So the bad news is that if you were hoping to use airport services you're probably out of luck but if you're first to the counter while others wait for luggage immigration will probably be pretty quick unless there are flights that land at the same time.

As I recall the signage in Bologna is not super clear - or maybe that's having been up for 24+ hours. But it made a difference because the right line was fast and the other lines were for people who apparently needed to argue their case with Italian immigration. Last time I went through it was still walking up and talking to someone with no automated scanners or checkpoints.

And the airport is small so once you're through immigration and walk through the "nothing to declare" doorway you're essentially on the curb in a couple of minutes.

Obviously you can't control anything about your flight and the time but I think you've got a decent shot at making it without running. But it never hurts to have a back-up plan for transportation in Italy.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

Where is your flight arriving from? If from another Schengen location, there is no passport control and customs is just walk out the "Nothing to Declare" door.

based on my experiences at that airport arriving from Gatwick I expect that you will be sitting around (when I arrived the ceiling was being redone and there were no seats, hope you find one) for an hour.

Where are you flying from?

I don't see any flights arriving at BLQ from outside the Schengen zone at that time (at least not currently). If the arriving flight is originating from a country part of the Schengen Area, there is no passport control to go through, so the only unknown is whether the flight lands on time.

I live nearby and have had guests visit flying from US (last week also) at least 6 times. All have made it from the airport to Bologna Centrale by the tram in less than an hour after getting off the plane. Planes came from Amsterdam, Munich, Frankfurt and Madrid. These were flights from 8:30 am - noon which can be busy.

There you go. Everyone coming from the US first landed at another Schengen Zone airport, where they went through Schengen passport control, thus no passport control for them in Bologna. Exception would be if you are connecting in the UK or Ireland, which are not in the Schengen Zone.

My flight is from Skopje, so it's not Shengen zone so I'll have to go through the passport control and customs.
An hour wait should be fine as long as I'll have 5-10 minutes left at the end of the passport control and customs I'm safe.

All of the countries you said those flights came from were from Shengen zone so their wait time is significantly less than mine would be, though through what I'm reading here and what I've researched it's usually fast to go through checks.

Will just have to keep my fingers crossed that the wait won't be long for the passport control and customs and that my flight won't be delayed a bit, that would throw me off course.

What I will be doing without actually buying additional things since it's a just in case option, I can look up other means of transportation for Bologna to Florence (probably just a bus or tram or whatever to central station then a bus from there to one of the central Florence stations) just in case things go south.

Thanks for everyone's input and help, much appreciated!