We are are arriving at 07:10 AM at MXP end of March 2025. How long does it take to clear immigration and customs? We have to catch the train from Milano to Venice via Milano Central Station and figure what time to book the train tickets.
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San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16489 posts
Generally not too long, however MXP is big enough and there might be a long walk depending on which gate the plane docks. However the biggest “unknown” is not passport control or customs (which is just a walk through the “nothing to declare” line therefore no time at all), but rather whether your plane may be delayed for other reasons, like weather related reasons at the time of departure or arrival. If you are going to catch a train upon landing the best policy is to buy the ticket at the airport train station when you arrive. At that time there will be no discounts available but trains are frequent and seats don’t sell out. If you buy discounted tickets in advance and your plane arrives late (or even worse the flight is cancelled from the US and you arrive a day late), your entire purchase is lost as discounted tickets are not refundable.
If you decide to take the risk of purchasing a discounted Super Economy ticket (a saving of about 26€ per ticket) give yourself a good time buffer. There is a train departing from Centrale at 11:45, which gets you to Venice shortly after 2pm. That is several hours after landing, and should be safe in most circumstances. Consider it takes about one hour from the airport to Centrale with the Malpensa Express. If discounted tickets are no longer available for your date of departure then forget about it, just purchase the full fare upon arrival. Full (Base) fare doesn’t increase from what it is today.