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I have a Schengen single-entry business visa. I have a meeting with my German supplier in Frankfurt and then I have to attend an exhibition in Madrid. Today I wanted to book a flight from Frankfurt to Madrid l, but I noticed a note from Latam Airlines when I was about to buy the ticket. The note that made a big confusion in my mind is as below:

The flight between Madrid and Frankfurt is considered an international flight (not Schengen); you must therefore go through Immigration. Make sure you have the necessary documentation: European Union ID, passport or multiple-entry visa, depending on your nationality.

What is this?

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    I took this flight last year in the opposite direction and definitely didn't pass immigration control in Madrid, however this review, which is quite recent, indeed mentions passport control in both Frankfurt and Madrid. I would advise to contact LATAM about the specific requirements of this flight, but it seems that you should not take this flight with a single entry visa. – Mophotla Aug 26 '18 at 17:44
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    Since you already got the visa, book a different flight than this one. For that specific flight you'd need a multi-entry visa. That's due to the flight, not due to Schengen. – Mast Aug 27 '18 at 5:54
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LATAM (or specifically, LATAM Chile) is a Chile based airline.

This particular flight is what's known as a "tag" flight - an additional leg that's added onto an international flight to allow them to pickup passengers in two separate locations before a long-haul flight. Some airlines will also carry passengers between those two pick-up points, as is occurring here.

Specifically for this situation, LATAM flight 705 flies FRA-MAD-SCL (Santiago, Chile).

As this is fundamentally an international (non-Schengen) flight, it will depart from the international terminal in Frankfurt and Madrid, and thus departing passengers from Frankfurt (regardless of their destination) will need to pass through immigration in Frankfurt. For passengers only going as far as Madrid, they will thus need to re-enter the Schengen region in Madrid - which will require a multi-entry visa.

This is NOT the same for all airlines - it is specific to this flight. If you book this same trip on an airline such as Lufthansa, Iberia or Air Europa then it will be considered a Schengen "domestic" flight, and you will not require a multi-entry visa.

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  • The same thing happens with Air India within India quite a bit, where some domestic flights leave from the "international" section of the airport for this same reason. – gparyani Aug 27 '18 at 3:40
  • @gparyani Air India like their tag flights. I flew one from Hong Kong to Osaka with them a few weeks ago :) (Full route was DEL-HKG-KIX, but I just caught the last leg) – Doc Aug 27 '18 at 6:35
  • @Doc They really do. Air India also runs AMD-LHR-EWR, which is a particularly long transatlantic tag. I caught the LHR-EWR bit earlier this year; it was priced quite attractively. – Zach Lipton Aug 29 '18 at 21:41

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