EES queues hit five hours at Brussels Airport

Non-EU travellers arriving at Brussels Airport waited up to five hours at passport control during the week of 21–27 September 2026. The airport confirmed the waits on 28 September, said work is ongoing to find structural solutions, and said additional police officers are being trained for the border control posts. No numbers were given for how many officers, or by when.

What caused the five-hour waits?

Two things hit at once. First, the waits were mainly linked to technical problems with EES, which at times slowed checks considerably. Every non-EU short-stay visitor crossing for the first time since EES started has to give a facial image and, in most cases, fingerprints at the border, and that takes longer when the system runs slowly. Second, until April, travellers from certain countries, including the United States, could register at a self-service kiosk and then use the automatic gates. That is no longer possible, so more people have to go through staffed control posts.

The Entry/Exit System has been fully operational across all Schengen external borders since 10 April 2026. Brussels Airport is not the only airport to have struggled, and airports and airlines have warned for months about the system’s impact on passenger flows. What makes the Brussels week notable is its timing: it came after the summer peak, and weeks after IATA called for the option to partially suspend EES checks at busy times to be kept beyond early September. Waits of five hours in the fourth week of September suggest the system has not yet settled.

What has Brussels Airport said before?

This is not the airport’s first warning. In March, according to Travel Tomorrow, Brussels Airport called for more flexibility in how EES is applied after waits reached two hours at departures and more than three hours at arrivals, and said nearly 600 passengers missed flights over four days. The airport has invested in the system, with 12 extra border control booths at arrivals, 33 booths fitted with facial recognition cameras and 61 self-service pre-registration kiosks.

During the September disruption, Belgian MP Michael Freilich posted, as quoted by Travel Tomorrow, that queues at passport control stretched through the terminal on the morning of 24 September and that dozens of families missed their connecting flights.

How does this compare to other airports this autumn?

The proportion of travellers who have already completed EES biometric enrolment grows with every wave of arrivals, and repeat crossings are faster. The broader autumn queue outlook explains how enrolment numbers are changing the dynamic at busier airports. Transfer passengers add to the pressure at Brussels: anyone connecting there from a non-Schengen flight to a Schengen one enters Schengen at Brussels and, on a first visit, needs the full registration process regardless of how busy the desks are.

What does “not enrolled” mean for your trip?

If you have not crossed a Schengen external border since EES began rolling out on 12 October 2025, you are not yet enrolled. At Brussels Airport that means joining the staffed-desk queue, not the e-gate line, and building in extra time accordingly. Arriving off-peak can help. Once enrolled, the official EES guidance says officers only verify your fingerprints and photo on later crossings, which takes less time, though the exact benefit depends on the crossing and whether e-gates are available for your passport.

If you have a connecting flight at Brussels that involves entering Schengen, allow more time than the minimum connection your booking offers on busy mornings, and check with your airline what happens if the border queue makes you miss the onward flight.

Does this affect ETIAS?

Not directly. ETIAS is not yet in operation and no applications are open anywhere. Visa-exempt travellers do not need any pre-travel authorisation yet. An eu-LISA management board meeting is listed for 17–19 November 2026 in Dublin. For the current official position on timing, see the ETIAS status page.