Brussels Airport will add border-control desks and automated passport gates to reduce arrival queues following persistent problems with the European Entry/Exit System (EES).
Eight additional desks in December
Eight staffed control positions are planned for December 2026. According to the airport, this will increase manual border-control capacity on arrival by 66%.
Six additional e-gates will follow in early 2027, increasing automated arrival-control capacity by 50%. These gates were ordered in May.
Longer processing at the border
Brussels Airport says processing arriving passengers who require a visa takes two to three times as long during the morning peak as it did before EES. This concerns processing time at the border, rather than a live measurement of queue length.
The airport also points to technical problems that prevent wider use of e-gates by travellers from outside the EU. Additional infrastructure therefore needs to be accompanied by sufficient staffing and system improvements.
The expansion concerns border control on arrival, rather than security screening before departure. The first additional capacity is planned for December.
Credits
Brussels Airport, 23 October 2026
Brussels Airport archive photograph, 6 April 2018. Jean Housen / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0. Any crop is shared under the same licence.
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