Connection Flights
During the summer months Palma airport is the busiest airport in Spain. A number of European airlines have hubs at Palma airport and use the airport as a junction for connecting flights.
How much time do you need for a connection in Palma airport? What happens to your luggage on a connection flight at Palma airport? How do you change planes at Palma airport?
Steps
Your trip is planned from point A to C and your aeroplane lands at point B which happens to be Palma airport.
If your connection flight is through Palma airport you will need to do some of the following things.
Be sure to have the boarding pass for the connecting flight with you, not in luggage.
Try to get advance knowledge of the location of the boarding gate for the connecting flight in Palma airport. Otherwise you will have to ask airline or airport staff immediately upon arriving and could lose valuable time.
There are four modules at Palma airport, A, B, C and D which are separated by quite a distance. These modules all have connections to the main terminal building for checking in and baggage reclaim.
Elderly or those with limited mobility may need to make advance arrangements with their airline to be transported to the boarding gate. There are however many pedestrian conveyer belts which help.
Usually for connection flights the airline will direct your luggage straight onto the next flight. Sometimes you will have to do this yourself, see the two scenarios below.
Luggage forwarded by Airline
When booking a connection flight on an airline’s website, they will in most cases handle the hold baggage for the entire journey. Your checked luggage will change flights as you do.
It is always best though to ask at your starting airport if your luggage is bound for the final destination airport. That is without you having the need to reclaim it and check it in at the connection airport, which is Palma Airport in this case. This is especially so if the second flight is with another airline due to an inter-airline alliance.
You can also quickly check the luggage label/bag tag that the airline staff place on your baggage at the starting airport. This is to see if it has the airport code of the final destination airport included.
Also at the starting airport of your trip you should get the boarding passes for both flights. In this way, as long as your luggage is forwarded for you there will be no need to leave the passenger only zone in the connection airport. Neither will you have to go through security again at the connection airport – Palma airport.
When you land at Palma airport for a connection flight you will need to find your boarding gate. This should be on your boarding pass but may not be. If you don’t have it or the gate changes, quite likely, you will need to check monitors or ask airline or airport staff for assistance.
The boarding gate at Palma will be in one of the four modules A,B,C, or D. Get to the correct module first. Traversing modules can take up to twenty minutes.
Reclaiming luggage Yourself
For a lot of connection flights at Palma airport, airlines especially low cost require passengers to reclaim their luggage and use bag drop a second time. Always ask at your starting airport.
If you have booked the flights separately even with the same airline then you will likely need to reclaim your luggage from baggage reclaim and check it in or use bag drop at Palma airport.
Follow signs for Baggage reclaim, this is still in the passenger only zone.
To check in or drop luggage a second time, you will in most cases need to leave the passenger only zone to be able to do this.
If you haven’t checked in online for your connection flight and don’t have a boarding pass then in virtually all cases you will need to leave the passenger only zone to do this.
Of course if you only have cabin luggage and already have your boarding pass you will only need to find your boarding gate and can remain in the passenger only zone.
Once you have used check in or used bag drop at Palma airport you will have to pass through airport security, this is on floor 4 above the check in area at Palma airport.
Once through security find you boarding gate. First work out which module it is in A,B C, or D, then go there and find the boarding gate.
How long to allow between Connection flights?
If you booked a connection flight directly with the airline then this will be decided for you.
However if not then working out how much time to allow between connection flight s can be a big gamble causing untold stress or a slightly more predictable wait.
How long should you allow a Palma airport? Click here to see our page.
What to do when there is time to kill at Palma airport
You may have 7 hours or more to kill at Palma airport during a connection flight. What can you do to save your sanity? Click here to see our page What to do when there is time to kill at Palma airport
Should you reserve a Hotel
If you have a connection with a really long stop over you may want to sleep at a hotel. There are no hotels at Palma airport but a number of hotels just 5-10 minutes away.