Nationwide IT Failure Disrupts German Airport Border Controls

A technical outage in police systems caused delays at major airports, with manual processing required for non-Schengen passengers.

An IT outage on Friday affected border control systems at major German airports, including Frankfurt, Berlin, and Düsseldorf.
The issue, linked to systems operated by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), forced manual passport checks for passengers from non-Schengen countries.
Passengers experienced long delays, with some waiting hours in terminals or on planes, though no significant flight cancellations occurred.
Authorities confirmed the problem was technical, with no evidence of a cyberattack, and efforts to resolve the issue were ongoing into the evening.
The situation improved by Friday night, with systems partially restored and normal operations resuming at several airports.