When to leave for Lisbon airport?

Are you catching an international flight out of Lisbon? The hotel might be suggesting leaving from the hotel 2.5 hours before an intra Schengen flight.

I didn't think Lisbon airport was any nuttier than other Europe airports. In fact, we breezed thru both when we arrived and departed. Now, the Paris airport, that's nutty!

I do not advise it, but thanks to waiting an hour in Lisbon for an Uber that was 1/2 mile away and "on the way", we got to the airport with about 1 hour and 45 minutes. I do think there was some luck involved, but we had no problem. I told the Delta staff that we were late and concerned, and she said, we were fine and gave us explicit instructions to security and then to the gate. When we arrived at the gate, we still had a good 20 minutes before boarding.

That said, arrival 2 hours before the flight, is likely enough, but its not allowing for any unforeseen issues on the way to the airport and in the airport terminal.

I flew out of Lisbon in October. It was my first time at the Lisbon airport.

I got there too early like at 7 a.m.. I flew Delta and found out that the very tiny Delta window was not open until 8 a.m. The Delta table reminded me of a lemonade stand. It was a one person window that was very easy to miss.

I found the airport very confusing. If there was any signage when I first walked in, I did not notice it. There was no information booth and no one around to ask questions of.

But I was able to find the Delta one person window by asking at other windows. I had plenty of time and when it opened, I went over to ask what to do. The man at the window told me to walk straight, take a left and find F. I I knew this airport better, I would have just done this. I would not have waited for the Delta window to open.

Finding F was more confusion and for me the confusion continued.

You have to go through two separate. lines. One is security and the next one is passport control / immigration. I got mixed up and won't go in to details. But after security, make certain that you are directed to passport control.

The lines were out the door because the passport control staff had decided to go on strike but security noticed I was old (who could miss it) and that I had mobility issues and took me out of ilne and into a priority line. That is probably the fast pass line and it was very fast.

I had lots of walking before I found my gate and all that I remember is very long lines of people watiing to board and lots and lots of people running for their planes.

Since this was my first time at Lisbon airport, I do not know if many persons were running because of passport control staff going on strike or if this is normal.

Lisbon has outgrown its airport

I am certain that if I used Lisbon airport again, it would be simpler. I find first tines at any airport always confusing.

I know that you hate missing breakfast but I think that you should get there three hours early minimum and even four just to be safe, better safe than sorry. But that is me.

My hotel gave me a boxed breakfast which was satisfactory. See if your hotel can box you a breakfast and or buy some non disposable foods the day before.

I've had mixed experiences with Lisbon airport. Most of the time, 2.5 hours would be fine. But once we arrived 4 hours early due to a strike occurring. The airline had notified us in advance to build in the 4 hour window. Perhaps wait and decide a week in advance to see if anything is happening.

Thanks all. @BostonPhil, very helpful. They did indeed offer a boxed breakfast, which we probably won't be big fans of, but I am even less a fan of stress at the airport. The main issue is that we have a too-short stop in Dublin, so we won't be able to stop for food there either.

Where is your hotel? This might help us give some idea about timing you need etc.

Also, I didn't find the Lisbon Airport confusing at all. That said, if you are taking a flight from Lisbon to outside of Schengen area, I think this is what would happen in order of procedure:

1. Check in at the airport, unless you have already checked in online and have no baggage to check
2. Go through security like normal
3. You'll be at a spot where there are lots of shops after security. But you're NOT done going through all checked barriers yet and you wouldn't know there is one more controlled barrier until you walk quite a bit further down.
4. After these shops is passport control where they stamp an exit stamp on your passport. After this passport control, there are no more controlled barriers, but also the shops after passport control pale in comparison to the ones before passport control.

I post the above list because it's a little unusual, in my experience. Generally, it's very clear when there are more controlled barriers to go through and they usually occur before any shops. In this case, it isn't. I felt fooled by the shops in step #3 and I really would have taken my grand ole time and could have missed my flight or barely catch it if I didn't much earlier realize there was another barrier to go through before I'm "home free".