Even less time to change planes in Lisbon: Am I already screwed?

At the end of May, I'm flying from Boston to Brussels on TAP, changing planes in Lisbon. My itinerary had a fairly tight connection time (one hour ten minutes) to begin with-- but now, a subsequent schedule change has cut that to 55 minutes. (And while we're on the topic, doesn't it always seem to go this way? That is, flight time changes that always make your connection WORSE rather than better-- making a tight connection even shorter, or turning a three-hour layover into a four-hour one! But I digress...:rolleyes:) At this point, I just have to pray the flight gets into Lisbon on time. At least the airport is small, unlike CDG in Paris, which is a transfer nightmare on grounds of sheer enormity!

Has anyone out there got enough familiarity with this process to tell me what to expect? Will there be some time-consuming Portugese or EU customs delay to get through between the flights, or does that stuff wait until I get to my destination city (Brussels) and retrieve my checked-in luggage?

TAP are usually very good at handling tight connections at Lisbon. First of all, you should let the flight crew know you have a tight connection. I have seen them on several occasions allowing such folks priority disembarkation.

Once you get off the plane, you do have to go through immigration and the lines can be long but TAP usually have ground staff there to get people on tight connections through faster.

Since both Portugal and Belgium are Schengen countries there will not normally be any further formalities but bear in mind that any Schengen country can temporarily "close" their borders (for example, this happened here in Portugal last year when the Pope visited), so it's not 100% guaranteed.

Lisbon Airport is very small for a capital city airport but you will still need to hurry along. Again, there are likely to be TAP ground staff shepherding you along the way.

So, yes, it's tight but it's not hopeless and if you do miss your onward flight there's a bunch of flight from Lisbon to Brussels most days, so you will likely be on your way before long.

Hope this helps. :)

Too late to edit my original post but where I said immigration I meant to say immigration AND security, but as I said before TAP ground staff are usually on hand doing their best to whisk passengers with tight connections to the front of the lines.

Many thanks for your advice! I will reach out for an assist from staff on the ground if the lines are long when I arrive, and hope for the best! :cool: