A sudden IT failure at Brussels Airport’s non-Schengen border zone on Friday evening, 6 February, forced the federal police to shut down all automated passport e-gates and switch to 100 % manual checks. The outage continued on Saturday, 7 February, the airport confirmed, creating bottle-neck queues that snaked hundreds of metres through Pier B.
Because the defect affects the electronic lanes reserved for EU and EEA travellers, every passenger—EU and non-EU alike—must now line up for a staffed booth. Brussels Airport urged outbound passengers on long-haul services to the United Kingdom, North America, the Gulf and Africa to arrive “at least three hours before departure,” while inbound arrivals reported waits of up to 50 minutes at peak morning banks. Airlines have begun issuing SMS and app alerts advising travellers to seek the border immediately after clearing security rather than lingering in duty-free areas.
Federal police technicians and the airport’s IT vendor spent most of Saturday diagnosing the fault, which first appeared at 18:30 CET the previous evening. While officials say there is no indication of a cyber-attack, they have not ruled out a hardware failure in the biometric scanning network that feeds Belgium’s national border database. A contingency roster of additional passport officers has been deployed, but staffing shortages mean no further booths can be opened without diverting personnel from intra-Schengen gates.
![Technical glitch knocks out e-gates at Brussels Airport, triggering manual passport checks and hour-long queues]()
Travellers suddenly finding they need to reroute via other hubs—or secure additional transit visas because of longer ground times—can streamline that paperwork through VisaHQ’s easy online service. The company’s Belgium page (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/) provides clear, step-by-step guidance for dozens of visa types, rush processing options and live support, helping passengers and corporate mobility teams stay compliant even when airport procedures are in flux.
For corporate mobility and travel-management teams the timing is awkward. The glitch comes just nine weeks before the EU Entry/Exit System (EES) becomes mandatory, a change that will require non-EU visitors to give fingerprints and a live facial scan. Carriers fear that if the e-gate infrastructure proves unreliable now, the EES roll-out could paralyse morning and evening wave operations at Europe’s hub airports. In Brussels, Pier B handles roughly 11 % of the airport’s daily traffic but 64 % of its passport-control workload, making redundancy in automated gates critical.
Until the system is back online, travel managers should instruct assignees and VIPs to pad schedules, pre-select fast-track options where available, and monitor Brussels Airport’s social-media feeds for real-time updates. Employers planning group moves or assessment-centre visits next week may wish to re-route via Amsterdam, Paris or Frankfurt if connection timings are tight.
Because the defect affects the electronic lanes reserved for EU and EEA travellers, every passenger—EU and non-EU alike—must now line up for a staffed booth. Brussels Airport urged outbound passengers on long-haul services to the United Kingdom, North America, the Gulf and Africa to arrive “at least three hours before departure,” while inbound arrivals reported waits of up to 50 minutes at peak morning banks. Airlines have begun issuing SMS and app alerts advising travellers to seek the border immediately after clearing security rather than lingering in duty-free areas.
Federal police technicians and the airport’s IT vendor spent most of Saturday diagnosing the fault, which first appeared at 18:30 CET the previous evening. While officials say there is no indication of a cyber-attack, they have not ruled out a hardware failure in the biometric scanning network that feeds Belgium’s national border database. A contingency roster of additional passport officers has been deployed, but staffing shortages mean no further booths can be opened without diverting personnel from intra-Schengen gates.
Travellers suddenly finding they need to reroute via other hubs—or secure additional transit visas because of longer ground times—can streamline that paperwork through VisaHQ’s easy online service. The company’s Belgium page (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/) provides clear, step-by-step guidance for dozens of visa types, rush processing options and live support, helping passengers and corporate mobility teams stay compliant even when airport procedures are in flux.
For corporate mobility and travel-management teams the timing is awkward. The glitch comes just nine weeks before the EU Entry/Exit System (EES) becomes mandatory, a change that will require non-EU visitors to give fingerprints and a live facial scan. Carriers fear that if the e-gate infrastructure proves unreliable now, the EES roll-out could paralyse morning and evening wave operations at Europe’s hub airports. In Brussels, Pier B handles roughly 11 % of the airport’s daily traffic but 64 % of its passport-control workload, making redundancy in automated gates critical.
Until the system is back online, travel managers should instruct assignees and VIPs to pad schedules, pre-select fast-track options where available, and monitor Brussels Airport’s social-media feeds for real-time updates. Employers planning group moves or assessment-centre visits next week may wish to re-route via Amsterdam, Paris or Frankfurt if connection timings are tight.
