Airports across Germany have been hit by a massive IT outage with huge delays for arrivals outside of the Schengen zone including the UK as it is affecting police systems checking passengers
Travellers are facing chaos at German airports due to a police IT outage which is preventing people going through passport control.
Brits and other people from outside of the Schengen zone are having major delays and at Dusseldorf Airport that there has been significant disruption from when the problem started at around 1pm local time.
The outage has affected federal police systems used to check incoming passengers with the cause not yet known. It has meant that for some passengers they have had to wait several hours to enter depending on the airport.
“Our colleagues have to do a lot of things manually that the system used to do. We’re still managing to get it done at the moment,” said a police spokesperson responsible for Frankfurt airport, Germany’s busiest.
There are currently long queues that have built up at the security area of Düsseldorf Airport where some passengers had been waiting for more than two hours.
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A spokesperson for the airport posted on X: “Currently, there are nationwide disruptions in border control for flights to and from non-Schengen areas in Germany. As a result, delays may occur during both entry and exit. EU destinations and other Schengen Area member states are not affected. The cause is a nationwide IT malfunction at the Federal Police. We regret the inconvenience and kindly ask you to check the status of your flight with your airline or travel operator.”
But currently at Munich Airport there are no long queues, said a Federal Police spokesperson although there are minor delays which is a similar situation to what is happening Berlin and Hamburg airports. A spokesperson for Berlin Airport said: “Here, it takes a little longer to enter the country. But there is no entry ban.”
Dusseldorf Airport appears to be particularly badly affected with outlet WDR, saying it is currently not possible to enter Germany from outside the Schengen area. It reported that there has been a serious technical fault since midday today. It reports that according to the airport, both the main system and the backup systems are affected. It is possible that an interface is the cause and the airport is “working hard to solve the problem” although it is not known how long it will take.
Heiko Teggatz, chairman of the Federal Police Union has blamed a lack of investment on IT for the outage. He told German newspaper BILD: “It was only a matter of time before something like today happened. It is now a threat to the entire European Schengen system.”
He told how for three years, the authority has lacked the money to modernize its IT infrastructure. “We have already warned the Federal Ministry of the Interior about this many times, but Ms. Faeser has always consistently ignored it,” he stated. “This is an absolutely home-made problem of the Federal Minister of the Interior and chaos waiting to happen!”
