American Airlines indicates our flight from Charlotte arrives at Terminal 5 at FCO in Rome. But I have read elsewhere that ALL international arrivals come to Terminal 3. And the car service we are using also indicates that they pick up Terminal 5 arrivals at Terminal 3. I am confused!
My guess is that Terminal 5 arrivals clear customs at Terminal 3. Are arriving passengers transferred to Terminal 3 by bus on the air side?
That is a good question. I am wondering if you misread or misunderstood something. Our experience is that Terminal 5 does not have any gate for either arrival or departure. It is simply a processing departure area for flights returning directly to the US and elsewhere. However, we have not been through Rome since the fire so maybe there has been some changes that I am unaware of. But I would assume you would arrive at 3 as is normal. Might make another call to AA to see if someone else is more knowing.
What Frank said is correct. T5 (a former hangar/warehouse) is only a check-in/security processing area for US based and Israeli based airlines. Once the check in and security procedures are completed, passengers are shuttled (on the sterile airside area) back to T3 by bus. T3 is where the airplanes actually dock.
The separation of US based airlines (and El Al) was created following the deadly terrorist attack of December 1985 (which was simultaneous with the attack at Vienna airport), when Palestinian terrorists targeted passengers in line at the check in of TWA, Pan-Am and El Al with assault rifles and grenades. Following that attack, initially those airlines' check in areas were placed in a separate, heavily guarded area within T3, then several years ago, they decided to move them to this newly created T5 area altogether.
The arrival of passengers is still at T3 for all airlines. The fire has not changed that. The only change caused by the fire is that now some Asian airlines' check-in is temporarily moved to T5 as well.
http://www.adr.it/en/web/aeroporti-di-roma-en-/pax-fco-airport-map
Thank you, Roberto! Now that you have pointed it out, I can see from the Google earth view that there are no jet bridges at Terminal 5, and the bus route is clearly visible.
One wonders why American indicates that 5 is the ARRIVAL terminal for a flight from the US. Perhaps their computers can't handle a flight arriving at one terminal and "departing" from another. I have contacted American and suggested that they correct it. It adds a lot of confusion to making plans for transfers into the city! Presumably the locals know where to go to pick up their friends arriving from America.
Since you have to go through immigration and then customs, the locals know which door you are going to come out. There is only one set of doors.
Departure info: After our tour we traveled back to the states with a direct flight from Terminal 5. Getting to that terminal was confusing, we told the taxi driver that we were leaving from t. 5 but we were dropped off at terminal 3. The wait for the shuttle bus was very long, so long we thought we were waiting in the wrong area. Finally a bus with an Employee Transport banner picked us up. Leave lots of time!
Bus from T5 to T3. I did this yesterday in reverse.
I also did the T5 T3 bus on my last trip returning from Rome. It went very smoothly and the bus was crowded but they had several going. Taxi driver had no issue with dropping me at T5 as requested. The level of security there is much more than I am used to seeing at airport terminals.
Unfortunately, I have not arrived in Rome so I don't know how that goes.
