British travellers face five-hour queues as new EU border system overwhelms Brussels Airport

You’ve landed, you’re desperate to get to your hotel, and then a passport queue swallows up to five hours. That’s what some passengers arriving at Brussels Airport from outside the Schengen area faced last week, and Brits heading abroad this half-term will be watching closely.

Passengers waited up to five hours to get through Brussels Airport

Some passengers arriving at Brussels Airport from outside the Schengen area waited up to five hours at border control last week, with the airport confirming the delays on Monday September 28. The queues were at passport control rather than security, so passengers arriving from another Schengen country, who don’t face a border check at all, weren’t caught up in it.

The airport said it’s working on longer-term fixes, and extra police officers are being trained to staff the border posts, although no numbers have been given.

Why some passengers can’t skip the queue with the automatic gates

The delays come down to the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES), the fingerprint and face-scan registration that applies to visitors from outside the EU. Brussels Airport’s e-gates are open only to eligible EU passport holders and Belgian ID card holders. Travellers from certain countries, including the US, used to be able to register at a kiosk and then use the gates, but that’s no longer possible, which means more people are joining staffed queues instead.

Reports on the delays don’t say which nationalities waited longest, and none of them explicitly name British travellers. However, the UK sits outside Schengen, so flights from Britain arrive through the same border control, and British passport holders aren’t on the e-gate list either.

It’s not the first time Brussels has struggled 

Waits of up to three hours were reported at the airport on Thursday September 3, with a spokesperson saying registration takes more steps and time per passenger, so queues build up fast in busy periods. Belgium is also one of nine countries, including France, Germany, Italy and Portugal, that have reportedly been given informal approval to keep easing biometric checks after the original September 6 deadline passed. Even with that leeway on offer, Brussels still saw waits of up to five hours. 

Spain isn’t on that list, so Spanish airports are running the full checks.

What to do before you fly this half-term 

Brits living in Spain who hold a TIE (the residency card) should show it with their passport, as holders are exempt from EES registration. For everyone else, experts are advising travellers to build in far more time than they used to and to avoid planning around a tight minimum connection time for now.

So if you’re heading into Europe this half-term, leave plenty of slack around connections and get to arrivals expecting a wait.