On Friday, January 3rd, the entire airport IT system in Germany was paralyzed due to a malfunction, causing disruptions to the border control police system and resulting in long queues of incoming passengers from outside the EU Schengen travel area.
According to the report by the German public broadcaster WDR, this issue affected travelers arriving from non-Schengen countries to Germany, with some passengers waiting for two hours at immigration checkpoints, while others were asked to remain on board their planes.
Reuters cited a spokesperson for the German Federal Police reporting over the phone, saying, “There is currently a nationwide IT disruption, forcing officers to manually process the documents of non-Schengen area travelers.”
A spokesperson for Düsseldorf Airport confirmed that they were also facing similar issues, stating, “We can confirm that since around 2 pm (GMT 13:00) today, border controls for flights arriving from non-Schengen areas have been disrupted.”
He added that the airport is providing drinking water for passengers.
The cause of the malfunction is currently unknown. This IT system failure has led to long queues at border control checkpoints in multiple German airports, including Frankfurt Airport, the busiest airport in Germany.