Long queues at Amsterdam Schiphol after passport control system failure

Passengers faced long queues at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on Sunday, October 18, after a technical failure disabled all 78 electronic passport-control gates operated by the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee. The outage began at around 06:00 local time, forcing travellers to undergo manual passport checks and causing significant delays during an already busy autumn holiday period.

With the automated gates out of service, passengers departing from or transferring through Schiphol had to queue at staffed passport-control desks. According to Dutch media reports citing airport officials, waiting times averaged around one hour, with some passengers facing waits of up to 90 minutes. All available manual counters were opened, and officers were carrying out less extensive checks in an effort to reduce the queues, but this was not enough to prevent substantial waiting times.

The cause of the technical failure remained under investigation, and there was no immediate estimate for when the system would be restored. The Marechaussee said there was no current reason to suspect a cyberattack. Schiphol advised passengers travelling from or through the airport to allow additional time and monitor their flight information for updates.

The disruption comes as the Netherlands enters its autumn school holiday period, contributing to increased passenger numbers at the airport. The failure affected passport control rather than airport security screening itself, and no widespread flight cancellations linked directly to the outage had been confirmed in the reports available at the time of publication.