Barely five days after the European Union’s new automated Entry/Exit System (EES) became fully operational on 10 April, Airports Council International Europe (ACI Europe) is warning that biometric checks are already producing airport bottlenecks of up to three hours. In a report first highlighted by the Guardian on 15 April, ACI says the worst delays have been logged at peak‐time border-control points in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Greece. Travellers arriving from non-EU countries such as the United Kingdom must now complete face-image captures and four-finger scans in addition to the usual passport swipe; when kiosks malfunction or coaching is required, queues rapidly lengthen.
Belgium’s own flagship hub, Brussels Airport, is among the locations feeling the strain. Although the federal police added 60 temporary officers and installed 24 automated e-gates ahead of Easter, airport managers told local media that average registration is “within the Commission’s 70-second target” only when every kiosk is fully staffed. During the Monday morning wave on 13 April, non-EU queues stretched across the arrivals concourse and some passengers missed rail connections to Antwerp and Ghent, highlighting knock-on effects for business travellers.
To minimise the chances of being caught out by last-minute paperwork issues, travellers can lean on visa specialists such as VisaHQ. The platform aggregates the most current Schengen and Belgian entry requirements—including the new biometric EES obligations—and lets users complete visa applications, order courier pickups and receive status alerts in one place (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/). Having documentation squared away before departure can’t eliminate airport queues, but it does remove one variable from an already time-critical journey.
![EU’s New Entry/Exit System Triggers Hours-Long Queues at Belgian and Other Schengen Airports]()
ACI director Olivier Jankovec is urging the European Commission to give border-police commanders discretion to suspend EES biometric capture whenever lines become “unmanageable.” The Commission counters that teething problems are confined to “a few member states” and that the system has already logged more than 52 million crossings and flagged 700 potential security threats since pilot operations began in October 2025.
For companies moving staff into Belgium, the immediate impact is longer post-flight transit times and the heightened risk of missed onward trains or regional flights. Mobility managers are being advised to pad arrival schedules by at least 60–90 minutes, brief travellers on self-service kiosks, and monitor any future Commission guidance on exemptions or phased roll-backs. Travel-management companies are also updating duty-of-care dashboards so that alerts are triggered when inbound employees spend more than 90 minutes in the border zone.
Looking ahead, Belgian authorities have hinted they may follow the Netherlands in opening dedicated “business fast lanes” once the summer peak is over and data-quality targets are met. Until then, employers should assume that the EES has permanently altered the timing calculus for Schengen-area arrivals and bake the new reality into assignment letters and service-level agreements with relocation vendors.
Belgium’s own flagship hub, Brussels Airport, is among the locations feeling the strain. Although the federal police added 60 temporary officers and installed 24 automated e-gates ahead of Easter, airport managers told local media that average registration is “within the Commission’s 70-second target” only when every kiosk is fully staffed. During the Monday morning wave on 13 April, non-EU queues stretched across the arrivals concourse and some passengers missed rail connections to Antwerp and Ghent, highlighting knock-on effects for business travellers.
To minimise the chances of being caught out by last-minute paperwork issues, travellers can lean on visa specialists such as VisaHQ. The platform aggregates the most current Schengen and Belgian entry requirements—including the new biometric EES obligations—and lets users complete visa applications, order courier pickups and receive status alerts in one place (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/). Having documentation squared away before departure can’t eliminate airport queues, but it does remove one variable from an already time-critical journey.
ACI director Olivier Jankovec is urging the European Commission to give border-police commanders discretion to suspend EES biometric capture whenever lines become “unmanageable.” The Commission counters that teething problems are confined to “a few member states” and that the system has already logged more than 52 million crossings and flagged 700 potential security threats since pilot operations began in October 2025.
For companies moving staff into Belgium, the immediate impact is longer post-flight transit times and the heightened risk of missed onward trains or regional flights. Mobility managers are being advised to pad arrival schedules by at least 60–90 minutes, brief travellers on self-service kiosks, and monitor any future Commission guidance on exemptions or phased roll-backs. Travel-management companies are also updating duty-of-care dashboards so that alerts are triggered when inbound employees spend more than 90 minutes in the border zone.
Looking ahead, Belgian authorities have hinted they may follow the Netherlands in opening dedicated “business fast lanes” once the summer peak is over and data-quality targets are met. Until then, employers should assume that the EES has permanently altered the timing calculus for Schengen-area arrivals and bake the new reality into assignment letters and service-level agreements with relocation vendors.
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