Alcobendas is on the list because MAD is reachable and busy. 252 scheduled nonstop destinations and 103 operating carriers mean the desk is rarely stuck for a routing, and 19 minutes of road means you are rarely too far to take it. Those two facts together are the whole reason Alcobendas has a page of its own.
Open · Spain desk · Alcobendas
On Board Courier, Alcobendas
Time critical hand carry assignments from Alcobendas. One consignment in the cabin, one handover against signature, 19 minutes between your front door and the check in desk at MAD.
OnBoard Courier is a United Arab Emirates company, contracted by ICSL FZE and run from Dubai. A city named on this site is a place we cover and route through, not a separate company in that city. Assignments are contracted under UAE law, and the terms are published in full under legal and policies.
Based inAlcobendas, Madrid
Nearest gateMAD · Madrid
Drive to the aircraft19 km · 19 minutes
Nonstop from MAD252 airports
EngagementFreelance · per assignment
Fee per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600
Apply for this position
Applying is free. Freelance · self-employed ·
posted 7 September 2026 · open until 7 March 2027
What the work pays
The fee for an assignment is agreed with you in writing before you accept it. These are the figures the site publishes, and what the desk covers on top of them.
Top published feeAED 2,000The highest fee the site shows for a single assignment: sealed medical samples in a cooled case, Dubai to Singapore.
Published band, per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600A document pouch to London is AED 1,200, an aircraft part to Frankfurt AED 1,500, an escorted watch on the Berlin lane AED 1,800.
What the flight costs youAED 0The desk books and pays the ticket, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never fronts the fare.
The one payment you makeAED 199, returnedThe Academy, paid once. It comes back in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. Applying itself is free.
Fees vary with the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate, so the desk quotes each assignment individually rather than pretending one number fits every trip. You are self-employed and there is no minimum: accept or decline whatever you like, and declining costs you nothing. Earnings are paid per delivery by bank transfer, they appear in your courier portal, and you can request a payout once the balance reaches AED 200. Apply and see the flight board.
You fly as a passengerOne consignment in the cabin, one handover against signature. No warehouse, no van, no round.
The desk books and pays the ticketFlight, transfers and, where the routing needs it, a hotel are booked before you leave for the airport.
Paid per assignmentA fee agreed in writing before you accept, paid to your bank account after the signature. Applying is free.
How to start, in four steps
1
Apply once
One application covers every country desk. Tell us which passports you hold and where you can travel.
2
Verification and the Academy
Identity and background check, then a short course on customs, handovers and chain of custody.
3
Your first offer
The desk sends the routing, the dates and the fee in writing. You accept or decline, nothing is automatic.
4
Fly, hand over, get paid
Collect, board, clear customs in person, hand over against signature, and the fee is paid to your account.
The assignment
You will usually know the day before, sometimes only in the morning. The desk sends the routing out of MAD, the sealed consignment reaches you or you collect it, and the drive of 19 minutes is timed backwards from the check in deadline rather than the departure. The Gulf sector out of MAD is nonstop, so there is no connection to miss.
Getting to the aircraft from Alcobendas
Measured door to terminal, Alcobendas to MAD is 19 km and 19 minutes. That is the number the desk uses when it decides whether to call Alcobendas for a departure this evening.
A drive of 19 minutes puts Alcobendas in the group of cities the desk can call at short notice without doing arithmetic first. One gate, 19 minutes away, and no second option. That is worth knowing before you join the Alcobendas list, and it is why the MAD board matters so much on this page.
| IATA | Airport | By road | Driving time | Nonstop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MAD | Madrid Adolfo Suárez-Barajas | 19 km | 19 minutes | 252 |
Alcobendas is a city of 116,000 people in Madrid, and the clock there runs 2 hours behind the Emirates in summer and 3 in winter. Road distances are measured driving routes rather than straight lines, and nonstop counts come from the scheduled route data this site publishes.
What MAD reaches without a change
The relevant question about MAD is not how big it is but what it flies. 252 nonstop destinations across 82 countries, and the ones with real frequency are listed here.
| IATA | City | Airport | Frequency | Operators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PMI | Palma De Mallorca | Palma De Mallorca | about 26 departures a day | 6 operators: Iberia, Air Europa, Avianca |
| LPA | Gran Canaria Island | Gran Canaria Island Gran Canaria | about 22 departures a day | 6 operators: Iberia, Air Europa, Avianca |
| LIS | Lisbon | Lisbon Portela | about 22 departures a day | 6 operators: Iberia, Air Europa, Aeromexico |
| TFN | Tenerife Island | Tenerife Island Tenerife Norte | about 20 departures a day | 6 operators: Air Europa, Avianca, Qatar Airways |
| FCO | Rome | Rome Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino | about 20 departures a day | 6 operators: Iberia, Air Europa, Ryanair |
| IBZ | Ibiza Town | Ibiza Town Ibiza | about 15 departures a day | 6 operators: Air Europa, Ryanair, Vueling |
| BCN | Barcelona | Barcelona | about 15 departures a day | 6 operators: Iberia, Air Europa, Korean Air |
| LHR | London | London Heathrow | about 14 departures a day | 2 operators: Iberia, British Airways |
| AMS | Amsterdam | Amsterdam Schiphol | about 13 departures a day | 6 operators: Iberia, Air Europa, Delta Air Lines |
| OPO | Porto | Porto Francisco de Sá Carneiro | about 13 departures a day | 6 operators: Air Europa, Etihad Airways, Azul |
Counting every airport a courier in Alcobendas can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 252 airports. Frequencies are average daily flights and change with the season, so the desk checks the live schedule before it offers you anything.
The industry inside this catchment
The industrial geography inside the MAD catchment explains the deadlines. These facilities are publicly documented and are listed here as context for the work near Alcobendas. None of them is described as a client of ours.
- Airbus, Getafe and Illescas. Rear fuselage, tail sections and composite structures. The Spanish sites sit on the same takt as the French and German ones. It sits on MAD, which is 19 minutes from Alcobendas by road, and the sector is aerospace.
Why a courier in Alcobendas is useful to the desk
Most of what the desk moves out of Madrid is small, sealed and late. The constraint is never the size, it is finding a person near enough to MAD. Alcobendas is near enough: 19 minutes to MAD, on a board with 252 nonstop destinations.
A consignment moving between Alcobendas and the Gulf has a straightforward path. From Alcobendas the Gulf is a single sector: MAD and DXB are joined nonstop, about 2 departures a day, flown by Emirates. That is roughly 7h 11m in the air over 5,650 km, and it means a consignment can leave Alcobendas in the evening and be in the Gulf before the next working day starts.
The nearest other cities on the Spain list
Show the 12 closest, and how far each is from Alcobendas
Madrid15 km away, MAD in 24 minutesLas Rozas de Madrid21 km away, MAD in 34 minutesAlcalá de Henares25 km away, MAD in 30 minutesRivas-Vaciamadrid27 km away, MAD in 29 minutesMóstoles31 km away, MAD in 40 minutesCollado-Villalba32 km away, MAD in 49 minutesValdemoro40 km away, MAD in 38 minutesGuadalajara42 km away, MAD in 40 minutesToledo83 km away, MAD in 1 hour 12 minutesTalavera de la Reina120 km away, MAD in 1 hour 41 minutesBurgos200 km away, BIO in 2 hours 3 minutesAlbacete230 km away, VLC in 2 hours 4 minutes
All 64 Spain cities are listed on the Spain courier desk, which stays the general application for the country.
The engagement, and who we are looking for
The engagement
- Type: freelance, self-employed. You are an independent courier accepting individual assignments, not an employee, and you decide which ones you take.
- Where it runs: assignments are flown out of MAD, between Spain and wherever the consignment is going, with the return leg agreed per mission.
- Hours: variable. An assignment is a single trip, not a shift or a roster.
- How you are paid: a fee per completed assignment, agreed in writing before you accept it. The fees published on this site run from AED 1,200 for a document pouch to AED 2,000 for a cooled medical consignment, and the figure for your assignment reflects the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate.
- What the desk pays: the flight, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never pays for the ticket and never fronts the fare.
- Applying is free. No payment is required to apply, to be screened or to be placed on the courier list. The Academy costs AED 199, paid once, and is returned in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. It is the only payment a courier ever makes to us.
What we look for
- A passport with comfortable remaining validity and free pages, and the right to enter the country on the routing. The desk checks the visa position for your specific passport before any assignment is offered.
- A clean background check and a willingness to be verified. Couriers carry other people’s property.
- Availability at short notice, and a realistic view of the 19 minutes drive to MAD. Most assignments are confirmed hours, not days, before departure.
- Presentable, calm and articulate at a customs counter. The consignment is only as smooth as the person carrying it.
- A working phone, reachable on the number you gave us, for the whole assignment.
What we provide
- The ticket. Always. A courier never pays for the flight and never fronts the fare.
- The paperwork, prepared before you reach MAD, and a named contact at the desk on both ends.
- A briefing on the consignment, the consignee and what the customs position at the far end looks like.
- A fee per completed assignment, agreed with you in advance and paid by bank transfer after the handover.
Questions about the Alcobendas list
01How far is Alcobendas from MAD?
About 19 minutes, 19 km by road. The desk has that number for every city on the list and uses it to decide who gets called for a departure out of MAD tonight.
02What can I reach from Alcobendas without a change of aircraft?
MAD serves 252 airports nonstop across 82 countries with 103 operating carriers, and counting every gate a courier in Alcobendas can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 252 airports. That is the practical range of a single assignment from here before anybody has to connect.
03Getting from Alcobendas to the Emirates: nonstop or not?
From Alcobendas the Gulf is a single sector: MAD and DXB are joined nonstop, about 2 departures a day, flown by Emirates. That is roughly 7h 11m in the air over 5,650 km, and it means a consignment can leave Alcobendas in the evening and be in the Gulf before the next working day starts.
04Do I have to live in the UAE to be on this list?
No. The desk is in Dubai and the company is Emirati, but the courier list is worldwide and Alcobendas is on it. Where you live changes which assignments you are shown, not whether you qualify.
05Does it cost anything to apply?
No. The Alcobendas list is free to join and free to stay on. The only money that moves from you to us is the AED 199 Academy, paid once, and it comes back on top of the fee for your first completed assignment.
06How is my fee agreed?
One assignment out of MAD, one fee, agreed in advance. The 19 minutes you spend driving there is part of what that figure is calculated on.
Apply to fly out of MAD
If you can be at MAD within 19 minutes and you have a passport with room in it, the rest is a conversation.
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