Ninety minutes, not sixty
Every experience on LayStop assumes you are back at the terminal 90 minutes before your scheduled departure. That is not the airline's minimum; it is the number that survives a slow taxi, a long security queue and a gate at the far end of Terminal 3.
Here is what the 90 minutes has to cover:
- The drop-off. Departures traffic at DXB stacks up in the evening; the last kilometre can take ten minutes.
- Security and passport control. Usually 15 to 30 minutes, longer during the evening departure bank (roughly 22:00 to 02:00) and on holiday weekends.
- The walk. Terminal 3 is long; Concourse A and Concourse B are a train ride apart. Fifteen minutes gate-to-gate is normal.
- Boarding. Long-haul flights close the gate 15 to 20 minutes before departure. (VERIFY current airline gate-closure policies.)
When to make it two hours
- Departing from Terminal 3 on a long-haul flight in the evening bank.
- Travelling with checked bags you had to collect and now have to re-check.
- Any public holiday, the last week of the year, or the days around major events.
- If you needed a visa on arrival and immigration was slow on the way out; it will be slow on the way back too.
How the arithmetic works
Take an 8-hour layover. Deduct 45 minutes for immigration and bags on arrival, 35 minutes each way for the transfer and 90 minutes of buffer: about 4 hours 35 minutes is genuinely yours. Every listing shows the minimum layover it fits with that deduction already made; the planner on the airport page runs the same sum for your own window.
If the window is tight
A 5-hour layover does not leave the terminal safely. It does leave time for a premium lounge: showers, quiet seating, food and Wi-Fi without clearing immigration. That is the honest recommendation for anything under six hours, and it is why the Airport Lounge is the one listing on the site with no minimum.
The rule we follow
If an experience only fits by shaving the buffer, it does not fit. Missing the onward flight costs more than any experience is worth, and it is the one outcome LayStop exists to prevent.
Last checked: September 2026.
