Brussels Airport queues hit 5 hours again; Schiphol outages recur; Frankfurt eases

Brussels Airport confirmed on 28 September 2026 that some passengers arriving from outside the Schengen area had waited up to five hours at staffed border control during the week of 21-27 September, with nearly 600 passengers missing flights over four days. The airport attributed the delays partly to recurring technical problems with EES and partly to a process change: travellers from certain countries, including the US, who previously could register at a kiosk and then use an e-gate can no longer do so, pushing more people into staffed queues. This matches, but does not exceed, Brussels' documented early-July peak of 5 hours.

Amsterdam Schiphol saw a similar pattern in early September: recurring EES system outages pushed arrivals-hall and connecting-passenger desk waits up to around 110 minutes, with multiple daily peaks, causing missed flights and delayed departures, according to NL Times and iamexpat.nl on 25 September 2026.

By contrast, Fraport said conditions at Frankfurt Airport had eased by late September, per The Local Germany on 29 September 2026, though the airport continues to advise non-Schengen passengers to arrive three hours before departure and use the EasyPASS automated gates where eligible.

These reports land despite Brussels being among the nine countries informally allowed to keep pausing full biometric enforcement past the 6 September flex-mode deadline (see prior dispatch) — a reminder that the informal pause has not eliminated EES-linked disruption even at airports it is meant to help.