What Are Minimum Connection Times?

When piecing together a custom itinerary, it’s sometimes the case that you’ve found the perfect flights, only for an agent to let you know that it’s not a valid itinerary.

One of the reasons why that may be so is that your flights didn’t respect the minimum connection time (MCT) for one or more of the airports in your itinerary.

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.

Let’s take a look at minimum connection times, why they’re important, how to find out what a minimum connection time is, and how you can stand to benefit from schedule changes.

What Are Minimum Connection Times?

Every airport around the world has a set of rules for how much time is needed to transit through that airport on the same ticket. It’s basically a measure of how easily navigable the airport is for connecting passengers.

If it’s a tiny facility with just a few gates, the minimum connection time will be very low. On the other hand, more expansive airport facilities around the world with multiple terminals and concourses will have minimum connection times verging on two hours or more.

Airlines must follow these MCTs when issuing a ticket, and they’re usually pretty strict about these rules. Airlines can face penalties if passengers end up missing a flight because a connection was booked under the minimum time.

Whenever you search for flights, be it a cash booking or one with points, all the one-stop, two-stop, or three-stop itineraries that are presented to you will have already factored in the minimum connection time, and you won’t see any options that run afoul of this rule.

It’s only when you’re piecing together an award itinerary that’s more complex than what the search engine spits out that you’ll need to be mindful of the minimum connection time at the airport you’re planning to transit through.

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.

Here are a few examples of minimum connection times at some airports around the world that you might find yourself looking at:

• Toronto (YYZ): 40 minutes (Domestic–Domestic), 1 hour (Domestic–International and…