The owner of this site is not an investment advisor, financial planner, nor a legal or tax professional. The articles and content on this site are of a general informational nature only and should not be relied upon for individual circumstances. The content and opinions expressed on this site are provided by the authors of this site and are theirs alone. Said minimum connecting time content and opinions are not provided by any third party mentioned on this site and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any such third parties. You may be wondering if you can simply volunteer to risk a tight connection. Understanding the prevailing MCTs at different airports is of paramount importance to airline network planners.
- “On average, 35 minutes is what they consider a legal connection,” said Loulu Lima founder of the Texas-based travel agency Book Here Give Here.
- Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Travel Codex with appropriate and specific directions to the original content.
- In the process of connecting, will you leave one secured area to enter another secured area?
- This is particularly relevant if you’re using a program like Aeroplan, and you’re piecing together a complex itinerary that can’t be booked online.
This impact affects search and booking volumes, connection viability and the smooth running of the ever-increasing code share partnerships across the industry. To find the MCT for Ethiopian Airlines flights I looked under “Travel Tools” in ExpertFlyer. You can often Google an airline’s or airport’s minimum connection times as well, but the results may not be as accurate. To determine how much time you will need to change planes in a particular airport, look up minimum connection times online and factor in extenuating circumstances that might apply to your trip. As the name suggests, this is the minimum amount of time that you need to plan for a connection at an airport, as an airline won’t sell you a shorter connection than that.
What to do if you have booked a connection that does not meet MCT
These minimums are airline-specific so consult your airline’s definition of minimum or legal connection times. Airlines have in their Contract of Carriage (COC) a defined list of minimum connection times at airports, also known as minimum layover times or legal connection times. OAG handles over 157,000 industry-standard MCTs and airline-specific exceptions – these are then used by global distribution systems (GDS) and connection builders. Specific security procedures and airport layouts will also affect the minimum connection time—sometimes greatly. For example, Air Canada’s minimum connection time between some smaller Canadian cities is a breezy 15 minutes, but international flights connecting to the U.S. via Toronto Pearson International Airport need at least one hour and 25 minutes. However, that timeframe would more than double to 85 minutes on the way back from São Paulo because of added security procedures.
Reviewing MCTs regularly will ensure that connections are not affected by changes to the schedule. If you are an existing MCT supplier, using the new features may reduce the amount of MCTs you need to maintain making it easier for you to file with ease and regularity. Airline specific Minimum Connection Times typically have a higher level of detail than those published by the airport operator. In many cases airline MCTs are different between their commercial partners, frequently are specific to only a defined series of flight numbers and can have both ‘effective from and to’ dates published as part of the exception.
What Affects Connection Times?
Plus thats the last flight out to Singapore, if i miss that flight, hotel n food in Zurich will be so expensive and theres 6 of us. Some travelers, particularly those who must pay close attention to their diets, need to eat between flights or need the wider choice of dining options that an airport terminal can provide. If you know you will need to eat between connecting flights, add at least an hour to your layover time. If you have booked travel on two different airlines, you are responsible for deciding how much time to allow between flights.
OAG and MCTs – How We Support the Travel Ecosystem
But if you’re connecting from a domestic flight onto an international flight, or vice versa, you’ll require at least two hours to factor in the journey on the inter-terminal monorail. On the other hand, Tokyo Haneda has separate terminals for domestic and international flights, so Domestic–Domestic connections are very quick at only 30 minutes. Minimum connection times are one of the many factors that you need to consider when planning out a trip. While they may limit your options in some situations, you can also benefit from schedule changes on tight connections. Minimum connection times are initially set by a group of airlines or by an airport operating committee. They pass the recommended minimums along to the International Air Transport Association and the airline reservation systems.
What Is the Minimum Connection Time for a Flight?
They provide guidance as to how tight of a connection you’re allowed to book on a single itinerary. You you can easily look them up using ExpertFlyer the next time you’re planning a trip to check whether your connection is legal. Airlines and airports establish varying connection times based on several factors. MCTs are not fixed and may be subject to adjustments due to airport construction or alterations in airline agreements.
If your last layover before entering the US was in Calgary (YCC), a 50-minute connection would suffice. The minimum connect time at this airport is longer due to its larger size, multiple terminals, and the additional time required for passenger and luggage transfers between flights. Minimum connection times are the shortest amount of time that airlines can offer as a layover between flights. Larger airports require longer connection times, as do international flights where passengers will need to go through passport control/recheck luggage.
By providing technical resource, testing capabilities, and guidance to Airlines, OAG has helped make it easier than ever for airlines and airports to supply the correct MCTs to the industry. Your luggage is less likely to be left behind if you have allowed enough time between connecting flights for your suitcases to be transferred. Remember to pack all essential items, especially medications and valuables, in your carry-on bag. It takes more time to get to your connecting flight’s departure gate at a large airport than at a smaller one.
The itinerary I found with the 20 minute MCT is an international to international connection, so an MCT of 45 minutes (0.45) is required per the “standard” and “online” rules. Connecting in a foreign airport (where you either change planes, or reboard the same plane to another destination), is a very common way to travel. Airlines like Emirates and Icelandair have made successful businesses out of connecting passengers from one region of the globe to the next.
“On average, 35 minutes is what they consider a legal connection,” said Loulu Lima founder of the Texas-based travel agency Book Here Give Here. She explained that “legal” in this case means “in line with the airline’s policies,” but she said that’s often not enough time, especially if your first flight gets delayed or even winds up taking longer to taxi to the gate than expected. In addition, the fact that airlines are such sticklers for the minimum connection time can be used to score some easy change fee waivers as well. MCTs (Minimum Connecting Times) are standardized and agreed data sets that provide the minimum possible connecting time for both a passenger and their luggage to connect between an arriving flight and their departing flight. There’s a load of different factors they use before setting their ‘Minimum Connection Times’ for different types of transfers, at each airport they offer transfers at. If you are traveling with a service animal, you will want to give it a bathroom break and, perhaps, a meal.
Herbst, a wellness expert from Westchester, New York, is one of a growing number of minimum connection time skeptics. Any missed connection for an airline is an unexpected cost, and when operating margins are quite small, avoiding unnecessary costs must be top of the agenda for any airline. In most cases, a traveler missing a connection can be accommodated on the same day, perhaps on the next flight or via an alternate point. Occasionally though that cannot happen, leading to hotel costs and in some cases further revenue displacement as the traveler occupies a seat that could have been sold to another traveler at short notice and perhaps a higher selling fare.
Meeting the minimum connection time is certainly no guarantee that you’ll make your next flight. I have a flight from Berlin to Singapore transit via Zurich, all booked under one airline one ticket, but transit time too short only 50 minutes. They refused to change it to an earlier flight with longer transit time cos it meets the minimum requirement of 40 minutes. With connection in Zurich involving change of terminals, passport clearance, i seriously doubt i could make it.
