Hi All,

I’ll be travelling to Warsaw from the USA (but on an EU passport) with a layover at Krakow airport, and am trying to find out an up-to-date “minimum connection time” at Krakow.

The airport website mentions this:

*’At Kraków Airport, transfer between* [*flights*](https://www.tripadvisor.com/CheapFlightsHome) *is only possible for passengers arriving from the Schengen area and the European Economic Area, who have a boarding pass and are travelling with hand baggage only (or with registered baggage checked to the final destination), transferring to any* [*flight*](https://www.tripadvisor.com/CheapFlightsHome)*.’*

So, I’ll be coming from the USA, not within the Schengen zone, I’ll have hand baggage and one checked bag. I assume this means I’ll go through passport control and customs at Krakow, thankfully through the EU line. Then I’ll have to turn around and go back through security to catch the connecting flight? How about the checked bag? Do I pick that up at Krakow and bring it through customs, or does it go on its way to Warsaw without intervention?

Scheduled arrival at KRK is 10:25 AM, scheduled departure to Warsaw is at Noon. But there’s another connecting flight to Warsaw at 3 PM. That’s probably the safer bet, but knowing me, with a 4.5 hour layover I’d be tempted to catch a train into the city center, get distracted, and miss the later flight, cancelling the whole reservation in the process! I do plan to travel back through Krakow later.

The airline is LOT, if that matters. I’m not sure what their policy is if you miss a connection due to passport control and security.

Thanks!

3 comments

  1. Don’t take domestic flights in Europe. It just doesn’t make sense. Just take the train.

  2. Personally I would take the later flight. Airport security is pretty slow at the moment. Prepandemic you would be fine making that connection but nowadays it’s a crap shoot. My last trip some flights were less than 5 minutes for security others were coming close to two hours.

  3. You SHOULD be fine with earlier flight, worst case scenario they will rebook you to later. queue for EU passports is always moving quicker than the one for “all passports”.

    As for check-in, when I traveled across the pond, my bags were always cleared to destination. But as usual, YMMV

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