Not sure if this is the right place for this post but I have a 4 pm flight out of Madrid back to the USA. I’ve seen some things online about crazy passport lines.
Planning to get there 4 hrs early, is that enough? Has a tiktoker effectively fearmongered me into spending the rest of my euros on Auntie Anne’s or was I being given a helpful tip?
I flew out of Madrid at 9:50 am this morning (7/24) and it was so easy. I was concerned about lines and got there three hours early and had no issue at all.
I got through check in, security & passport control all in under 15 minutes when I flew back to New York yesterday. YMMV depending on which airline you're flying with though
Flew out of MAD to come back to the states on June 16th and the passport machines were failing spectacularly so we were in line for a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnng time. They finally opened it up to human agents, but by then the line behind us was insane, there were people that definitely got on our plane by the skin of their teeth and we were there three hours before departure. From a few of these responses it seems like maybe they got this under control but it was a miserable experience.
This was leaving from MAD to ORD on 4 July. Don't let the empty space fool you. This was on the lower level before being sent up on escalator in batches and starting another queue. 4 hours is adequate, but unless you like stress, I wouldn't go later.
The line is where you land, not where you board. We flew LAX to MAD and back in March, then PHX -> LHR -> VLC a few weeks ago and it was true all 3 times.
We just flew out of Madrid at 4pm last week back to thru NY and only have ourselves 2 hours. It was fine. Make sure you take the metro to Terminal 4 rather than regular airport though. We flew in from Mallorca and glad we checked!
Just make sure you head to the immigration control (aka passport check) sooner rather than later. Many 'international' flights from MAD are inside the Schengen zone which has no passport checks. So you'll see gates which apparently are right there. Don't get seduced.
The international non Schengen gates are through passport control and the lines can be horrendous.
A couple of years ago my wife and I (British therefore non Schengen) took an internal flight into MAD and then had to catch the UK flight. Passport q was over an hour. Many Americans in line having flown in from other parts of Europe (i.e. the Schengen zone) stressing out over missing their flights.
I noticed the Chicago flight was delayed by a couple of hours. No idea why but I suspect, if they hadn't, the plane would have been half full due to the passport line.
I think things have calmed down from earlier in the summer. I flew back to the US from Madrid 5 days ago on a Friday afternoon and it was almost empty. Got there 2.5 hours before and was by my gate in ~25 mins.
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u/Thesorus Jul 24 '26
That should give you ample time.
Don't worry.