Arriving in Madrid airport from the US. Would two hours be enough time to go through customs and then catch a plane (either Iberia Air or TAP (TapPortugal)? Arriving at 8:35 a.m. and want to catch a flight at 10:40 a.m. to Lisbon?
Any suggestions appreciated as well as which European airlines to avoid.
Thank you.
You probably mean immigration (passport control), not customs. Two hours will be loads of time. The last time I landed in Madrid (May 2012), the longest part of the whole thing was waiting on my checked bag, which only took a few minutes. You get your passport stamped, then you are out of the airport. Customs is just a walk through the "nothing to declare" door.
All of the carriers are fine.
You'll. have time for breakfast.
If your plane arrives on time, there will be no problem. Passport control is efficient in Madrid, Customs, there are two doors, One marked "to declare" and the other marked "Nothing to declare." In my many trips I have never seen anyone who used the "to declare" door...Walk out the other door into the general lobby area, get your directions, and be on your way.
We landed in Madrid last November, after a transfer in London. We arrived via British Airways at terminal 4 at Barrajas Airport, which was kind of a bizzarre experience. It was late afternoon on a Saturday, but it was also the Fiesta de Almudena, a Madrid holiday. There was basically no one in the terminal except us passengers, and we had a looooooooooong lonely walk, routed thru the immense gift shop (which had 2 bored employees), until we arrived at passport control. Whether the ghost-town atmosphere was due to the holiday, or it being mid-November, or what, we don't know. Our passports were checked and we were done in about 15 seconds, but the long walk thru the terminal took some time. Two hours should be adequate time for you, and if you're flying direct from the USA you may not land at Terminal 4, but if you do, you may get a bit of a Twilight Zone experience and the walk will take much longer than the passport control/customs.
