Spain » Getting to Madrid

 An approximate flight time to Madrid from London is 2 hours 15 minutes.

By Air

Madrid is served by Barajas International Airport. Barajas serves as the main hub of Iberia Airlines and other airlines. It consequently serves as the main gateway to the Iberian Peninsula from Europe, America and the rest of the world. Current passenger volumes range upwards of 40 million passengers per year, putting it in the top 20 busiest airports in the world. Given annual increases of 10%, a new fourth terminal has been constructed. The new Terminal 4 is the biggest European airport terminal. It has significantly reduced delays and doubled the capacity of the airport to more than 70 Million passengers per year.

By Train

Spain's railway system, the Red Nacional de Ferrocarriles Espanoles (Renfe) operates the vast majority of Spain's railways. In Madrid, the main rail terminals are Atocha and Chamarti­n.

The crown jewel of Spain's next decade of infrastructure construction is the Spanish high speed rail network, Alta Velocidad Espanola AVE. Currently, an ambitious plan includes the construction of a 7,000 km network, centered on Madrid. The overall goal is to have all important provincial cities be no more than 4 hours away from Madrid, and no more than 6 hours away from Barcelona. As of 2005, AVE high-speed trains link Atocha station to Seville and Toledo in the south and to Zaragoza and Lleida in the east.

Serving the five million population, the Madrid Metro is one of the most extensive and fastest-growing metro networks in the world. With the addition of a loop serving suburbs to Madrid's south-west "Metrosur", it is now the second largest metro system in Western Europe, second only to London's Underground. The province of Madrid is also served by an extensive commuter rail network called Cercani­as.