Hi everyone. I am scheduled to fly out of Madrid midweek in January at 7:40am. I typically try to get to the airport 3 hours early, but does that make sense for a flight so early? Will I even be able to go through security and to my gate at that time?
Is there a best way to get from my hotel to the airport so early in the morning? I'm staying at the Met Madrid at Calle Castenilla de Santiago.
Thank you!
Might want to add your airline, getting there does depend whether you fly out of Terminal 1/2/3 or Terminal 4.
From where you will be staying, the cheapest would be to walk up to Puerta de Sol, then Metro to the airport, changing at Nuevos Ministerios. The fare does require a supplement to the normal fare.
As for time, normally for an early morning flight (which I find myself avoiding more and more) I trim down the 3 hour suggestion, but not less than two. Adding to that, when I have flown out of Terminal 1/2/3, the Metro station is a decent walk from terminal, and once in the terminal it seems like you walk for miles.
That early in the morning, I might opt for a taxi.
I agree with Paul above.
I would take a taxi and I would check with your specific airline to see what they indicate as the recommended arrival time before departure for your flight. Your airline's website may also indicate at what time their check-in counters open if you need check-in at airport.
Barajas is large, can involve a transfer to terminal for departure (4 to 4S), gets very crowded.
With a flight that early the metro won’t work since it doesn’t open until 6:00am and it takes about 45 minutes to get there from the Puerta del Sol station. A taxi may be your only option that time of day.
The check in gate will open about 3 hours before departure, in October, our flight did leave later, but it took about 30 minutes just to get printed boarding passes and have the airline check our passports since their printers were not working properly. We were about 5th in line. The line to security and passport control was busy, but moving.
On this trip we departed from terminal 4S and only had carryon bags. We always arrive at the terminal 3 hours early because one needs to anticipate things not going according to plan, but you could get by with 2.5 hours.
Thanks for the helpful input. I’m flying TAP, which according to a google search, uses either terminal 1 or 2, so I’ll definitely have to keep an eye on that as time gets closer.
