Travellers at Brussels Airport endured queues of up to 90 minutes on Saturday, 18 April 2026, after automated border-control eGates across Europe went offline due to a software glitch. The malfunction, reported by The Brussels Times, forced Federal Police officers to switch to manual passport checks at the non-EU lanes just as weekend traffic peaked. The outage was not limited to Belgium; airports in France and Germany also confirmed disruptions. All use the same EU-wide Entry/Exit System (EES) infrastructure that became mandatory on 10 April. According to airports association ACI Europe, some 500 eGates in 15 countries required emergency reboots. Brussels Airport said the crisis plan—redirecting families with children and passengers with tight connections to staffed booths—kept missed flights below 2 percent, yet nearly 600 travellers reportedly failed to board on time. Airlines were advised to waive rebooking fees. For corporate mobility planners the incident is an early warning: while the EES promises faster, biometric-based processing, any system-wide glitch instantly creates bottlenecks. Companies should brief assignees to arrive earlier than the usual two-hour window and to carry printed boarding passes, which staff can process faster when kiosks fail. EU officials insist the hiccup is “teething trouble” and stress that contingency clauses allow Member States to suspend EES registration temporarily. Nevertheless, ACI Europe and Airlines for Europe have renewed calls for a flexible ‘kill-switch’ during the busy summer season. If not addressed, similar failures could jeopardise punctuality targets for business travellers transiting through Belgium’s main hub.
Source: The Brussels Times
