Advice from a reader

Who recently travelled from Palma to Madrid Airport and on to their destination via terminal 4, having been assured that arriving and departing flights were leaving from the same terminal…. Correct but !! Luckily they had checked their bags straight through. They arrived from Palma at Gate K to discover they were leaving from Gate S. Now T4 is a five-story building serving domestic and international flights, with many escalators to go down. An hour is tight to make sure you don't miss your flight... Madrid airport is huge. Expect lots and lots and lots of walking. Between T4 and T4S there is only a shuttle train - no walking. The train is frequent. The signage is crystal-clear, you just have to know which letter section of the terminal you need. The signs even have estimated travel times between the gates and the times are accurate, provided you keep up a normal walking pace and don't stop for anything. Just keep moving. There are bathrooms and food services (both live sellers and vending machines) all through the gate areas, so there's no need to access these along the way. Transfers from T4 to Satellite T4S are handled by the automatic train, APM. The (APM-Automated People Mover) which is free, needs about 3 minutes to travel between T4 and T4S. When you arrive at T4S you have to go up the 5 levels you came down, to get to the gate areas.

All formalities are in T4 (that's why T4S is called a “satellite” of T4, instead of calling it T5, even though it is as large as T4).

So the advice is leave plenty of time and if you are not very mobile get assistance as it is exhausting.