Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

[Conti764]

After many years of frustration of ex-Shengen PAX ,and very bad comments and reputation for Belgium,it has been decided to hire more police people for the passport controls.
Waiting times for more than 3.hours were considered normal in the minds and brains of BRU management.
At no point in time that management has tried to improve this ridiculous and unprofessional situation.
Blaming politicians and the police for not solving this problem,and hoping the problem would disappear by itself was the only "action"..
Now Mr. Quintin, interior minister is about to solve the problem by hiring or putting 60 more agents.

I blame BRU management for hurting Belgium's reputation and not making serious efforts.
Amateurism and incompetence are still the standard.

BRU is about the last airport in Europe who has not yet reached pre-covid PAX figures.
Not surprising. BRU is airport to avoid.

60 more agents who are free to leave again in a few months, so no solution at all. BAC is not to blame for the mess at the border control.

Luckily for you it doesn't require knowledge to post here.

Luckily not many people share your sympathy for the agent-saboteurs..

As proven many times before, once again you are yapping about things you know nothing about.

[JOVAN2]

60 more agents who are free to leave again in a few months, so no solution at all. BAC is not to blame for the mess at the border control.

Luckily for you it doesn't require knowledge to post here.

Luckily not many people share your sympathy for the agent-saboteurs..

As proven many times before, once again you are yapping about things you know nothing about.

You run out of arguments.
My point as PAX is that such long waiting times are not acceptable.
BRU management and police group responsible for passport control are to blame for this.

You can keep gaslighting.
Facts are there.

[Conti764]

Luckily not many people share your sympathy for the agent-saboteurs..

As proven many times before, once again you are yapping about things you know nothing about.

You run out of arguments.
My point as PAX is that such long waiting times are not acceptable.
BRU management and police group responsible for passport control are to blame for this.

You can keep gaslighting.
Facts are there.

BAC provides the infrastructure. It's up to the police to man these control boots. And that's where things go wrong. Insufficient workforce and only temporary solutions.

Not BAC's fault at all. And nothing to do with sabotage or whatever... You can't just magically find enough officers to man the border control.

[rwandan-flyer]

After many years of frustration of ex-Shengen PAX ,and very bad comments and reputation for Belgium,it has been decided to hire more police people for the passport controls.
Waiting times for more than 3.hours were considered normal in the minds and brains of BRU management.
At no point in time that management has tried to improve this ridiculous and unprofessional situation.
Blaming politicians and the police for not solving this problem,and hoping the problem would disappear by itself was the only "action"..
Now Mr. Quintin, interior minister is about to solve the problem by hiring or putting 60 more agents.

I blame BRU management for hurting Belgium's reputation and not making serious efforts.
Amateurism and incompetence are still the standard.

BRU is about the last airport in Europe who has not yet reached pre-covid PAX figures.
Not surprising. BRU is airport to avoid.

Again you propose good debates, but you mix many things.

1st point: airport is not responsible about the hiring of police staff. It's the state. In France we say that Police law enforcement is "mission regalienne", meaning it's the French Government which must deploy enough staff in airports.The airport which the administrator must provide infrastructure to operate the airport.

2nd point : Police staff in airport have others missions : administrative task, vip escort, investigations about events in airport (crime, stealing, assault,..) committed by passengers or airport or airlines staff, investigations when someone make a request to get airport pass, passport control at the arrival (there i m talking about controls in a jetway),....If you spend 1 week in airport, you will see passengers escorted by Police, you will see Police escort,...An airport is like a city. At CDG 80 000 people work at the airport, over 192 000 passengers use the airport daily.

3rd point : the number of kiosks open is based on passengers flow. In French we call this "l'armement". Ex : between 5h and 7h in the morning, Brussels Airport will say that 2 500 passengers will use the boarder control (for arrivals or connecting flights). So you have to open the right number of kiosks. But there is a problem. You can have flights delayed and they will arrive after the rush. So probably between 7h and 9h, you predicted 1 500 passengers but you will get 2 200 passengers because flights are delayed during the 1st wave. You can't re open kiosks closed like this by pushing a button, because a part of Police staff is now on others tasks.

4th point : all controls for each passengers won't last the same time. It's not because for you the passport control will last 5 minutes, that it will be the same for others passengers. Some passport controls can last longer : doubt about the passport, doubts about the answers from the passengers, the passengers are researched by the Police, the passengers can't speak English or French,...And of course you have always some passengers who arrive at the last minute at the check in and thus last minute at the passport control while they were supposed to be already at the gate or even in the plane (if the boarding started). I m not talking about 2-3 passengers, but probably dozens and dozens passengers in the queue. What makes grows the queue. You can also have abandoned luggage in landside so you have to call police and you close a part of terminal. Meaning people are stranded. You have also computer glitch at the passport control.

5th point : you will probably say that in Asia and in the Middle East, the controls are faster. These airports use automated gates at a large scale which enable to dispatch the flows between humans and machines. They can invest lots of money in machines and the government policy about privacy issue is very very very light. In Europe you have many laws to protect passengers and it can take time to put some machines in airports. At Roissy the introduction of PARAFE (Automated fast-track crossing at external borders ) and body scan took time, because National Commission on Informatics and Liberty needed to see if there weren't not a breach privacy issue. Furthermore not everyone is eligible to use Automated fast-track crossing at external borders or some people refuse to use it ( they fear that personal information are not protected).

No one is saying that there is no problem in European airports. However, say that the airport's fault is wrong. You should contact the Belgium Government or make a petition to the the Belgium Government.

Some solutions are made. At Cdg airport, you have some Police staff from others Europeans countries (Finland, Spain, Italy,...) and i guess it's the same thing in EU. They exchange Police staff between them. There also others people like "hors frontières" staff. They are not really Policeman or Woman but they are trained to make the same task at the boarder control.

It's not possible to get 5 minutes of waiting in the queue during rush even if you have enough staff, because as i said above you can't predict 24hrs before that several flights will be delayed, and all controls are different about passengers profile.

The aim is to reduce the waiting time by focusing on average passport control time for each pax. Ex : 90% of passengers must spend maximum 20 minutes in the queue during a big rush.

[lumumba]

After many years of frustration of ex-Shengen PAX ,and very bad comments and reputation for Belgium,it has been decided to hire more police people for the passport controls.
Waiting times for more than 3.hours were considered normal in the minds and brains of BRU management.
At no point in time that management has tried to improve this ridiculous and unprofessional situation.
Blaming politicians and the police for not solving this problem,and hoping the problem would disappear by itself was the only "action"..
Now Mr. Quintin, interior minister is about to solve the problem by hiring or putting 60 more agents.

I blame BRU management for hurting Belgium's reputation and not making serious efforts.
Amateurism and incompetence are still the standard.

BRU is about the last airport in Europe who has not yet reached pre-covid PAX figures.
Not surprising. BRU is airport to avoid.

Again you propose good debates, but you mix many things.

1st point: airport is not responsible about the hiring of police staff. It's the state. In France we say that Police law enforcement is "mission regalienne", meaning it's the French Government which must deploy enough staff in airports.The airport which the administrator must provide infrastructure to operate the airport.

2nd point : Police staff in airport have others missions : administrative task, vip escort, investigations about events in airport (crime, stealing, assault,..) committed by passengers or airport or airlines staff, investigations when someone make a request to get airport pass, passport control at the arrival (there i m talking about controls in a jetway),....If you spend 1 week in airport, you will see passengers escorted by Police, you will see Police escort,...An airport is like a city. At CDG 80 000 people work at the airport, over 192 000 passengers use the airport daily.

3rd point : the number of kiosks open is based on passengers flow. In French we call this "l'armement". Ex : between 5h and 7h in the morning, Brussels Airport will say that 2 500 passengers will use the boarder control (for arrivals or connecting flights). So you have to open the right number of kiosks. But there is a problem. You can have flights delayed and they will arrive after the rush. So probably between 7h and 9h, you predicted 1 500 passengers but you will get 2 200 passengers because flights are delayed during the 1st wave. You can't re open kiosks closed like this by pushing a button, because a part of Police staff is now on others tasks.

4th point : all controls for each passengers won't last the same time. It's not because for you the passport control will last 5 minutes, that it will be the same for others passengers. Some passport controls can last longer : doubt about the passport, doubts about the answers from the passengers, the passengers are researched by the Police, the passengers can't speak English or French,...And of course you have always some passengers who arrive at the last minute at the check in and thus last minute at the passport control while they were supposed to be already at the gate or even in the plane (if the boarding started). I m not talking about 2-3 passengers, but probably dozens and dozens passengers in the queue. What makes grows the queue. You can also have abandoned luggage in landside so you have to call police and you close a part of terminal. Meaning people are stranded. You have also computer glitch at the passport control.

5th point : you will probably say that in Asia and in the Middle East, the controls are faster. These airports use automated gates at a large scale which enable to dispatch the flows between humans and machines. They can invest lots of money in machines and the government policy about privacy issue is very very very light. In Europe you have many laws to protect passengers and it can take time to put some machines in airports. At Roissy the introduction of PARAFE (Automated fast-track crossing at external borders ) and body scan took time, because National Commission on Informatics and Liberty needed to see if there weren't not a breach privacy issue. Furthermore not everyone is eligible to use Automated fast-track crossing at external borders or some people refuse to use it ( they fear that personal information are not protected).

No one is saying that there is no problem in European airports. However, say that the airport's fault is wrong. You should contact the Belgium Government or make a petition to the the Belgium Government.

Some solutions are made. At Cdg airport, you have some Police staff from others Europeans countries (Finland, Spain, Italy,...) and i guess it's the same thing in EU. They exchange Police staff between them. There also others people like "hors frontières" staff. They are not really Policeman or Woman but they are trained to make the same task at the boarder control.

It's not possible to get 5 minutes of waiting in the queue during rush even if you have enough staff, because as i said above you can't predict 24hrs before that several flights will be delayed, and all controls are different about passengers profile.

The aim is to reduce the waiting time by focusing on average passport control time for each pax. Ex : 90% of passengers must spend maximum 20 minutes in the queue during a big rush.

I understand and hear everything you're explaining, however, the problem has persisted for years. I never transit through Brussels; I always transit internationally via Frankfurt, and I haven't had any problems for years; it works perfectly. Why not through Brussels?
We don't care if it's the airport or the Government.

[Conti764]

After many years of frustration of ex-Shengen PAX ,and very bad comments and reputation for Belgium,it has been decided to hire more police people for the passport controls.
Waiting times for more than 3.hours were considered normal in the minds and brains of BRU management.
At no point in time that management has tried to improve this ridiculous and unprofessional situation.
Blaming politicians and the police for not solving this problem,and hoping the problem would disappear by itself was the only "action"..
Now Mr. Quintin, interior minister is about to solve the problem by hiring or putting 60 more agents.

I blame BRU management for hurting Belgium's reputation and not making serious efforts.
Amateurism and incompetence are still the standard.

BRU is about the last airport in Europe who has not yet reached pre-covid PAX figures.
Not surprising. BRU is airport to avoid.

Again you propose good debates, but you mix many things.

1st point: airport is not responsible about the hiring of police staff. It's the state. In France we say that Police law enforcement is "mission regalienne", meaning it's the French Government which must deploy enough staff in airports.The airport which the administrator must provide infrastructure to operate the airport.

2nd point : Police staff in airport have others missions : administrative task, vip escort, investigations about events in airport (crime, stealing, assault,..) committed by passengers or airport or airlines staff, investigations when someone make a request to get airport pass, passport control at the arrival (there i m talking about controls in a jetway),....If you spend 1 week in airport, you will see passengers escorted by Police, you will see Police escort,...An airport is like a city. At CDG 80 000 people work at the airport, over 192 000 passengers use the airport daily.

3rd point : the number of kiosks open is based on passengers flow. In French we call this "l'armement". Ex : between 5h and 7h in the morning, Brussels Airport will say that 2 500 passengers will use the boarder control (for arrivals or connecting flights). So you have to open the right number of kiosks. But there is a problem. You can have flights delayed and they will arrive after the rush. So probably between 7h and 9h, you predicted 1 500 passengers but you will get 2 200 passengers because flights are delayed during the 1st wave. You can't re open kiosks closed like this by pushing a button, because a part of Police staff is now on others tasks.

4th point : all controls for each passengers won't last the same time. It's not because for you the passport control will last 5 minutes, that it will be the same for others passengers. Some passport controls can last longer : doubt about the passport, doubts about the answers from the passengers, the passengers are researched by the Police, the passengers can't speak English or French,...And of course you have always some passengers who arrive at the last minute at the check in and thus last minute at the passport control while they were supposed to be already at the gate or even in the plane (if the boarding started). I m not talking about 2-3 passengers, but probably dozens and dozens passengers in the queue. What makes grows the queue. You can also have abandoned luggage in landside so you have to call police and you close a part of terminal. Meaning people are stranded. You have also computer glitch at the passport control.

5th point : you will probably say that in Asia and in the Middle East, the controls are faster. These airports use automated gates at a large scale which enable to dispatch the flows between humans and machines. They can invest lots of money in machines and the government policy about privacy issue is very very very light. In Europe you have many laws to protect passengers and it can take time to put some machines in airports. At Roissy the introduction of PARAFE (Automated fast-track crossing at external borders ) and body scan took time, because National Commission on Informatics and Liberty needed to see if there weren't not a breach privacy issue. Furthermore not everyone is eligible to use Automated fast-track crossing at external borders or some people refuse to use it ( they fear that personal information are not protected).

No one is saying that there is no problem in European airports. However, say that the airport's fault is wrong. You should contact the Belgium Government or make a petition to the the Belgium Government.

Some solutions are made. At Cdg airport, you have some Police staff from others Europeans countries (Finland, Spain, Italy,...) and i guess it's the same thing in EU. They exchange Police staff between them. There also others people like "hors frontières" staff. They are not really Policeman or Woman but they are trained to make the same task at the boarder control.

It's not possible to get 5 minutes of waiting in the queue during rush even if you have enough staff, because as i said above you can't predict 24hrs before that several flights will be delayed, and all controls are different about passengers profile.

The aim is to reduce the waiting time by focusing on average passport control time for each pax. Ex : 90% of passengers must spend maximum 20 minutes in the queue during a big rush.

I understand and hear everything you're explaining, however, the problem has persisted for years. I never transit through Brussels; I always transit internationally via Frankfurt, and I haven't had any problems for years; it works perfectly. Why not through Brussels?
We don't care if it's the airport or the Government.

Difficult to say. Maybe police officers in Germany are hired, specifically for the airport?

The tension has been aleviated a bit by finally allowing french speaking officers as well. But they too can leave when they get hired by a local police force.

[lumumba]

Again you propose good debates, but you mix many things.

1st point: airport is not responsible about the hiring of police staff. It's the state. In France we say that Police law enforcement is "mission regalienne", meaning it's the French Government which must deploy enough staff in airports.The airport which the administrator must provide infrastructure to operate the airport.

2nd point : Police staff in airport have others missions : administrative task, vip escort, investigations about events in airport (crime, stealing, assault,..) committed by passengers or airport or airlines staff, investigations when someone make a request to get airport pass, passport control at the arrival (there i m talking about controls in a jetway),....If you spend 1 week in airport, you will see passengers escorted by Police, you will see Police escort,...An airport is like a city. At CDG 80 000 people work at the airport, over 192 000 passengers use the airport daily.

3rd point : the number of kiosks open is based on passengers flow. In French we call this "l'armement". Ex : between 5h and 7h in the morning, Brussels Airport will say that 2 500 passengers will use the boarder control (for arrivals or connecting flights). So you have to open the right number of kiosks. But there is a problem. You can have flights delayed and they will arrive after the rush. So probably between 7h and 9h, you predicted 1 500 passengers but you will get 2 200 passengers because flights are delayed during the 1st wave. You can't re open kiosks closed like this by pushing a button, because a part of Police staff is now on others tasks.

4th point : all controls for each passengers won't last the same time. It's not because for you the passport control will last 5 minutes, that it will be the same for others passengers. Some passport controls can last longer : doubt about the passport, doubts about the answers from the passengers, the passengers are researched by the Police, the passengers can't speak English or French,...And of course you have always some passengers who arrive at the last minute at the check in and thus last minute at the passport control while they were supposed to be already at the gate or even in the plane (if the boarding started). I m not talking about 2-3 passengers, but probably dozens and dozens passengers in the queue. What makes grows the queue. You can also have abandoned luggage in landside so you have to call police and you close a part of terminal. Meaning people are stranded. You have also computer glitch at the passport control.

5th point : you will probably say that in Asia and in the Middle East, the controls are faster. These airports use automated gates at a large scale which enable to dispatch the flows between humans and machines. They can invest lots of money in machines and the government policy about privacy issue is very very very light. In Europe you have many laws to protect passengers and it can take time to put some machines in airports. At Roissy the introduction of PARAFE (Automated fast-track crossing at external borders ) and body scan took time, because National Commission on Informatics and Liberty needed to see if there weren't not a breach privacy issue. Furthermore not everyone is eligible to use Automated fast-track crossing at external borders or some people refuse to use it ( they fear that personal information are not protected).

No one is saying that there is no problem in European airports. However, say that the airport's fault is wrong. You should contact the Belgium Government or make a petition to the the Belgium Government.

Some solutions are made. At Cdg airport, you have some Police staff from others Europeans countries (Finland, Spain, Italy,...) and i guess it's the same thing in EU. They exchange Police staff between them. There also others people like "hors frontières" staff. They are not really Policeman or Woman but they are trained to make the same task at the boarder control.

It's not possible to get 5 minutes of waiting in the queue during rush even if you have enough staff, because as i said above you can't predict 24hrs before that several flights will be delayed, and all controls are different about passengers profile.

The aim is to reduce the waiting time by focusing on average passport control time for each pax. Ex : 90% of passengers must spend maximum 20 minutes in the queue during a big rush.

I understand and hear everything you're explaining, however, the problem has persisted for years. I never transit through Brussels; I always transit internationally via Frankfurt, and I haven't had any problems for years; it works perfectly. Why not through Brussels?
We don't care if it's the airport or the Government.

Difficult to say. Maybe police officers in Germany are hired, specifically for the airport?

The tension has been aleviated a bit by finally allowing french speaking officers as well. But they too can leave when they get hired by a local police force.

Thx

[JOVAN2]

After many years of frustration of ex-Shengen PAX ,and very bad comments and reputation for Belgium,it has been decided to hire more police people for the passport controls.
Waiting times for more than 3.hours were considered normal in the minds and brains of BRU management.
At no point in time that management has tried to improve this ridiculous and unprofessional situation.
Blaming politicians and the police for not solving this problem,and hoping the problem would disappear by itself was the only "action"..
Now Mr. Quintin, interior minister is about to solve the problem by hiring or putting 60 more agents.

I blame BRU management for hurting Belgium's reputation and not making serious efforts.
Amateurism and incompetence are still the standard.

BRU is about the last airport in Europe who has not yet reached pre-covid PAX figures.
Not surprising. BRU is airport to avoid.

Again you propose good debates, but you mix many things.

1st point: airport is not responsible about the hiring of police staff. It's the state. In France we say that Police law enforcement is "mission regalienne", meaning it's the French Government which must deploy enough staff in airports.The airport which the administrator must provide infrastructure to operate the airport.

2nd point : Police staff in airport have others missions : administrative task, vip escort, investigations about events in airport (crime, stealing, assault,..) committed by passengers or airport or airlines staff, investigations when someone make a request to get airport pass, passport control at the arrival (there i m talking about controls in a jetway),....If you spend 1 week in airport, you will see passengers escorted by Police, you will see Police escort,...An airport is like a city. At CDG 80 000 people work at the airport, over 192 000 passengers use the airport daily.

3rd point : the number of kiosks open is based on passengers flow. In French we call this "l'armement". Ex : between 5h and 7h in the morning, Brussels Airport will say that 2 500 passengers will use the boarder control (for arrivals or connecting flights). So you have to open the right number of kiosks. But there is a problem. You can have flights delayed and they will arrive after the rush. So probably between 7h and 9h, you predicted 1 500 passengers but you will get 2 200 passengers because flights are delayed during the 1st wave. You can't re open kiosks closed like this by pushing a button, because a part of Police staff is now on others tasks.

4th point : all controls for each passengers won't last the same time. It's not because for you the passport control will last 5 minutes, that it will be the same for others passengers. Some passport controls can last longer : doubt about the passport, doubts about the answers from the passengers, the passengers are researched by the Police, the passengers can't speak English or French,...And of course you have always some passengers who arrive at the last minute at the check in and thus last minute at the passport control while they were supposed to be already at the gate or even in the plane (if the boarding started). I m not talking about 2-3 passengers, but probably dozens and dozens passengers in the queue. What makes grows the queue. You can also have abandoned luggage in landside so you have to call police and you close a part of terminal. Meaning people are stranded. You have also computer glitch at the passport control.

5th point : you will probably say that in Asia and in the Middle East, the controls are faster. These airports use automated gates at a large scale which enable to dispatch the flows between humans and machines. They can invest lots of money in machines and the government policy about privacy issue is very very very light. In Europe you have many laws to protect passengers and it can take time to put some machines in airports. At Roissy the introduction of PARAFE (Automated fast-track crossing at external borders ) and body scan took time, because National Commission on Informatics and Liberty needed to see if there weren't not a breach privacy issue. Furthermore not everyone is eligible to use Automated fast-track crossing at external borders or some people refuse to use it ( they fear that personal information are not protected).

No one is saying that there is no problem in European airports. However, say that the airport's fault is wrong. You should contact the Belgium Government or make a petition to the the Belgium Government.

Some solutions are made. At Cdg airport, you have some Police staff from others Europeans countries (Finland, Spain, Italy,...) and i guess it's the same thing in EU. They exchange Police staff between them. There also others people like "hors frontières" staff. They are not really Policeman or Woman but they are trained to make the same task at the boarder control.

It's not possible to get 5 minutes of waiting in the queue during rush even if you have enough staff, because as i said above you can't predict 24hrs before that several flights will be delayed, and all controls are different about passengers profile.

The aim is to reduce the waiting time by focusing on average passport control time for each pax. Ex : 90% of passengers must spend maximum 20 minutes in the queue during a big rush.

Most arguments you give are very light.
What excuses will you find or invent about other weak points of BRU :
Poor and obsolete state of Pier B
Long waiting times to get your baggage
Unwelcoming Arrival hall
Scary and windy and dirty taxi area
Chaotic bus station
Etc

With all the excises for BRU continuous underperformance we should may better change the name to Calimero Airport.

[rwandan-flyer]

Most arguments you give are very light.
What excuses will you find or invent about other weak points of BRU :
Poor and obsolete state of Pier B
Long waiting times to get your baggage
Unwelcoming Arrival hall
Scary and windy and dirty taxi area
Chaotic bus station
Etc

With all the excises for BRU continuous underperformance we should may better change the name to Calimero Airport.

No my arguments are not lights, it's the reality. In Western World airports (North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand), there is problem about police staff in airports, passport control and the implantation of new machines. It's not only the case in Belgium. I have gave reasons.

The consequences is to resolve these issues, it can takes years.

You have to vote a budget (it's the gov and not BRU Airport) to allocate money and staff to the Police airport staff
You have test and give certifications before to the introduce machines. They have to fulfill all requirements about privacy issues.
You have to vote laws to protect privacy issues and you know that between left political parties and right political parties, they don't have the same perceptions of privacy issues. Furthermore you have also for each country a national data protection authority and NGO that will put veto for some laws.

The time perceptions of the member of parliament to resolve these issues is not the same that for the airport or pax which want to see these issues fixed the next week. It's not like to built a new lounge in your airport, open a new duty free shop,.....These issues (some of them cited by you) can be fixed by the airport. However when i see that now you are talking about others issues at BRU airport, it means that you are running out of arguments on this border control case.

1of reasons, understaffed staff

Spain : Fights break out at Madrid-Barajas Airport as passport control 'collapses' https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-new ... s-35490636

Portugal : “Task force” created to manage passport control at Lisbon and Faro airports https://www.portugalresident.com/task-f ... -airports/

Germany : Germany updates: Extra border checks unsustainable — police https://www.dw.com/en/germany-updates-e ... e-72586617

United States : Average waits for passport check can top 2 hours at New York JFK airport https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/ne ... 56694.html

Another one is the Privacy Issues which lead to slow down of the implantation of new machines that could reduce spending times in the queue.


Australia : ‘Major weakness’: No relief from SmartGate pain in aviation consumer rights https://www.smh.com.au/business/consume ... 5n27f.html

Czech Republic: Czechia turns off Prague airport facial recognition system amid legal violations https://www.biometricupdate.com/202510/ ... violations

Italy: Italy privacy watchdog halts facial recognition at Milan airport https://www.straitstimes.com/world/euro ... an-airport

I can show you dozens and dozens articles like this. Most of them posted above were published in 2025.

I understand and hear everything you're explaining, however, the problem has persisted for years. I never transit through Brussels; I always transit internationally via Frankfurt, and I haven't had any problems for years; it works perfectly. Why not through Brussels?
We don't care if it's the airport or the Government.

1st : they have probably more staff

2nd : i have used FRA only 2 times, but i mot familiar with this. However you can have various ways to reach a terminal depending the terminal where you fly. Meaning the flow is dispatched through several passport control places. At CDG if you make a connecting flights btw EU and France domestic flights (T2Fused by Air France mainline, TAROM and KLM)) with AF long haul aircraft, you won't have the same path that if you make a connection between Terminal 2G (AF HOP EU & France domestic flights / Luxair flights) and T2E (AF long haul flights). In some place the affluence through the day of terminal is lower than in others terminals.

3rd : as i have said above, all airport estimates the number of passengers that will go through passport control during a busy period, for example in of 2 hours. However, if you have delayed flights you can have more passengers during a weak affluence than during a busy period . And during the rush time you can have less pax than expected with all kiosks opened.

If each times you fly through you FRA you probably lucky : enough staff at this moment, you use a path where the flow is lighter than others paths, you fly between 2 rush,.... However if you make research on google, you will several videos and photos of people making the queue at FRA Airport. Some people have said that they have spent 1h.

https://www.tiktok.com/discover/frankfu ... t-european

You have now some airport websites or gov websites that publish data about the times of spending in the queue https://www.google.com/search?q=airport ... s-wiz-serp


Here is a photo of passport control at T2B at CDG. You can see that the line for Aumtotic gates is crowed, while for non automatic gates, it's empty. Meaning some one which fly from Athens with Aegean (T2D used for UE flights for SAS, ITA, EasyJet,..) to Calgary ( with WestJet at T2B) which is eligable for PARAFE will spend more times at the control than someone which is not eligible who will use the non automatic gates.

[lumumba]

Most arguments you give are very light.
What excuses will you find or invent about other weak points of BRU :
Poor and obsolete state of Pier B
Long waiting times to get your baggage
Unwelcoming Arrival hall
Scary and windy and dirty taxi area
Chaotic bus station
Etc

With all the excises for BRU continuous underperformance we should may better change the name to Calimero Airport.

No my arguments are not lights, it's the reality. In Western World airports (North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand), there is problem about police staff in airports, passport control and the implantation of new machines. It's not only the case in Belgium. I have gave reasons.

The consequences is to resolve these issues, it can takes years.

You have to vote a budget (it's the gov and not BRU Airport) to allocate money and staff to the Police airport staff
You have test and give certifications before to the introduce machines. They have to fulfill all requirements about privacy issues.
You have to vote laws to protect privacy issues and you know that between left political parties and right political parties, they don't have the same perceptions of privacy issues. Furthermore you have also for each country a national data protection authority and NGO that will put veto for some laws.

The time perceptions of the member of parliament to resolve these issues is not the same that for the airport or pax which want to see these issues fixed the next week. It's not like to built a new lounge in your airport, open a new duty free shop,.....These issues (some of them cited by you) can be fixed by the airport. However when i see that now you are talking about others issues at BRU airport, it means that you are running out of arguments on this border control case.

1of reasons, understaffed staff

Spain : Fights break out at Madrid-Barajas Airport as passport control 'collapses' https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-new ... s-35490636

Portugal : “Task force” created to manage passport control at Lisbon and Faro airports https://www.portugalresident.com/task-f ... -airports/

Germany : Germany updates: Extra border checks unsustainable — police https://www.dw.com/en/germany-updates-e ... e-72586617

United States : Average waits for passport check can top 2 hours at New York JFK airport https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/ne ... 56694.html

Another one is the Privacy Issues which lead to slow down of the implantation of new machines that could reduce spending times in the queue.


Australia : ‘Major weakness’: No relief from SmartGate pain in aviation consumer rights https://www.smh.com.au/business/consume ... 5n27f.html

Czech Republic: Czechia turns off Prague airport facial recognition system amid legal violations https://www.biometricupdate.com/202510/ ... violations

Italy: Italy privacy watchdog halts facial recognition at Milan airport https://www.straitstimes.com/world/euro ... an-airport

I can show you dozens and dozens articles like this. Most of them posted above were published in 2025.

I understand and hear everything you're explaining, however, the problem has persisted for years. I never transit through Brussels; I always transit internationally via Frankfurt, and I haven't had any problems for years; it works perfectly. Why not through Brussels?
We don't care if it's the airport or the Government.

If each times you fly through you FRA you probably lucky : enough staff at this moment, you use a path where the flow is lighter than others paths, you fly between 2 rush,.... However if you make research on google, you will several videos and photos of people making the queue at FRA Airport.

I fly twice a month via Frankfurt, and I've been doing so for 12 years. It's no longer a matter of luck.

[Established02]

Today was the inauguration of this new Sabena Engineering building with the A400M in it.
Lots of guests and prominents were invited. The A400M will have here their maintenance

First aircrafts for maintenance were expected in August / September. However no visible activity so far.

What I've heard is this (take this with a massive grain of salt):

Sabena Engineering is currently renting out Hangar 7 to the Belgian Defence for A400M maintenance, but the Belgian Defence is simply not doing anything with it. There are probably reasons for that, but I have not heard much more than this.

Apparently it is supposed to be put to use starting February 2026 by Sabena Engineering themselves, I assume for A-Checks, although I'm not sure if this would be for the KLM Embraer A-Checks or their A330 A-Checks.

Finally some activity. It looks like there is an A330 inside.

[Tim Verheyden]

First aircrafts for maintenance were expected in August / September. However no visible activity so far.

What I've heard is this (take this with a massive grain of salt):

Sabena Engineering is currently renting out Hangar 7 to the Belgian Defence for A400M maintenance, but the Belgian Defence is simply not doing anything with it. There are probably reasons for that, but I have not heard much more than this.

Apparently it is supposed to be put to use starting February 2026 by Sabena Engineering themselves, I assume for A-Checks, although I'm not sure if this would be for the KLM Embraer A-Checks or their A330 A-Checks.

Finally some activity. It looks like there is an A330 inside.

Seems to be an A330-200 from AirTanker (Jet2 livery).

It's currently in there simply waiting for Sabena's hangar 117 to become available, as there's currently a TAP A330-900neo in there for a C-Check. It underwent a pre-check today.

After looking through Flightradar24, it seems to be G-VYGM, which interestingly enough has already passed through Sabena back in September, albeit for a very small check. It's now scheduled for a C-Check.

[Miqvell]

Some pictures were shown at the public information session.

- Permit should be received this month.
- Hotel will be open to everyone and will offer direct access to the new terminal. A panoramic restaurant will be located on the top.
- New offices (3rd picture) will be built after 2032, in a second phase... with Pier A West ?
- Train station will be renovated.
- P4, B24 and B16 will be demolished to make way for the tram.
- Timeline : demolition in 2026, construction in 2027, intermodal hub opens between late 2028-early 2030, terminal+boulevard+hotel in 2032 at the latest.

[Atlantis]

The permit to start the first phase of the intermodal hub, extention of the terminal, hotel, office and the green boulevard, was delivered today. This permit of the first phase is only for the land side.

[lucas]

According to Het Laatste Nieuws, the construction works on the airport tram are starting today.

[Established02]

First aircrafts for maintenance were expected in August / September. However no visible activity so far.

What I've heard is this (take this with a massive grain of salt):

Sabena Engineering is currently renting out Hangar 7 to the Belgian Defence for A400M maintenance, but the Belgian Defence is simply not doing anything with it. There are probably reasons for that, but I have not heard much more than this.

Apparently it is supposed to be put to use starting February 2026 by Sabena Engineering themselves, I assume for A-Checks, although I'm not sure if this would be for the KLM Embraer A-Checks or their A330 A-Checks.

I noticed DHL mechanics working on a DHL A300 or A330 inside of the new hangar.

[Boavida]

The bankrupt Brussels region (minister Maron) launches a procedure against the permit for the new hub at Brussels Airport: Flemish minister Brouns reacts “outraged”.

https://www.hln.be/zaventem/brusselse-m ... ~ae9ffbd0/

Unbelievable!

Time to make the airport 100% Flemish.

[Atlantis]

The bankrupt Brussels region (minister Maron) launches a procedure against the permit for the new hub at Brussels Airport: Flemish minister Brouns reacts “outraged”.

https://www.hln.be/zaventem/brusselse-m ... ~ae9ffbd0/

Unbelievable!

Time to make the airport 100% Flemish.

Don't worry about it. The Brussels government gave their silent approval for Hub 3.0 some time ago.
One person or party cannot take any actions in new issues as there is no fixed Brussels government

[luchtzak]

The bankrupt Brussels region (minister Maron) launches a procedure against the permit for the new hub at Brussels Airport: Flemish minister Brouns reacts “outraged”.

https://www.hln.be/zaventem/brusselse-m ... ~ae9ffbd0/

Unbelievable!

Time to make the airport 100% Flemish.

Don't worry about it. The Brussels government gave their silent approval for Hub 3.0 some time ago.
One person or party cannot take any actions in new issues as there is no fixed Brussels government

In English: Brussels Environment Minister challenges Hub 3.0 at Brussels Airport, Flemish Government reacts sharply ==> https://www.aviation24.be/airports/brus ... s-sharply/

[Established02]

The white dome on top of building 706 has been removed recently. This unfortunately changes the visual character of the building.