Madrid Airport Transit Bus

How to Transfer between Terminals

Madrid Airport has a regular free shuttle bus service linking terminal T1, T2 and T3 with T4.

The buses are easily identifiable by their bright blue and green paintwork, but be aware that the Spanish Airport Authority (Aena) also run identical buses for their employees which do not stop at the terminal building but at car parks P5 and P10. The good news is that we have first hand knowledge about this as we got on the wrong bus when we were recently at Madrid Airport, and the driver was very helpful and made sure we could get back to the terminal buildings again!

So before you get on the bus check that it has T1/T2 & T4 on the front of it (not P5 or P10 or the words "traslados empleados" (shipment of employees)!

We were also a bit alarmed when we got on the bus to transfer from Terminal 4 to Terminal 1 that we seemed to be leaving the airport and heading towards Madrid! Don't panic as you are going the right way - it is just that terminal 4 is quite a way from the other three terminals (7-10 minutes) and you have to go on the motorway to almost circle round it before you get to the other building.

Terminals 2 and 3 are in one building and terminal 1 seems further away, but it is joined to the other two terminals and it only seems to be separate as the bus has to access it from the other side.

Also all the taped messages at Madrid Airport seem to be broadcast in English and Spanish at Madrid Airport except on the buses, so if you want to get off at Terminal 1 it is Terminal uno: 2 is Terminal dos, three is Terminal tres and 4 is Terminal quatro (pronounced cat-ro). Listen out for the Spanish female voice telling you where you are when the bus stops as you cannot always see the terminal number from the transit bus.

Below are more details of the timetables and where the bus transit centres are located.

Shuttle Bus Timetable

It takes the bus between 7-10 minutes to make the single journey from the new Terminal T4 to T1, T2 & T3. It operates on a 24 hour timetable as follows:

06:30-23.30	5 minute intervals
23:30-01.50	20 minute intervals
01.50-06.30	40 minute intervals

 

Connection Times for Passengers in Transit

If you are a passenger in transit arriving in Madrid on an Iberia flight and are due to depart and continue your journey on another flight with that airline the minimum transfer time to allow for connections is as follows:

Passengers that arrive and depart from T4	55 minutes
Passengers that arrive and depart from T4S	55 minutes
Passengers that arrive at T4 and depart from T4S	65 minutes
Passengers that arrive at T4S and depart from T4	65 minutes

 

Train to Satellite T4S

There is an underground train running between T4 and T4S with a journey time of about three minutes.

 

By Linda Craik Google+