Brussels Airport Reviews 

AWFUL. We queued for THREE HOURS at passport control in the non-EU queue and were given no information or help, people with babies and children were also expected to just queue endlessly. A group of people tried to push in as they had got in the wrong queue initially (after being told to go to the back by 2 members of staff), we all responded negatively and the staff solution was to fast track the rude selfish people who pushed in to the front! They had only 2 counters open, with many empty and staff were unfriendly and unsympathetic. Will never fly through here again.

As a seasoned traveller this is by far the worst airport experience I’ve ever had, if I could leave below 1 star I would. The check in for our flight opened the standard 2hrs 30 before the scheduled flight time, in which we arrived in plenty of time. Checked in and passed through security with 40 minutes, so good so far. However, the real problem arose when we attempted to go through boarder control in which for non EU residents extended the length of the terminal. We were in this queue for well over 2hrs in which we missed our scheduled flight time, when trying to relay our issue to members of staff we were met with responses such as “I can’t help you and it’s not my problem”. In the mean time, the EU lines were completely empty with boarder control for such lanes twiddling their thumbs. Staff refused to use their initiative and move non EU citizens from the front of the queue to the empty desks. Like every other airport in the world does with non domestic passport holders. The same can be said for our inbound experience of which we queued for hours at boarder control, by the time we got to the luggage carousel the flight information had disappeared.

From the check-in desk opening to gate closing there simply was not enough time to make the flight(s), with many customers in the same having the same experience. The airport needs to urgently review its operating procedures to create a more fluid operation to ensure customers have a positive experience. The Airport is not currently operating as one that is situated in a major European city and I will endeavour to avoid it at all costs in the future.

If you are planning a trip to Spa-Francorchamps for the Formula 1 Grand Prix, I’d thoroughly recommend flying to a different airport such as Cologne, Antwerp or Düsseldorf for a better experience.

*** ENGLISH ***

Brussels Airport – a lack of vision and respect for the traveler

My recent experience at Brussels Airport was one of frustration and disbelief. Flights were forced to remain at the gate or on the tarmac for over an hour, with all passengers already on board. The reason? Runway maintenance that drastically reduced the airport’s capacity.

Scheduling such works during the peak summer season is baffling. This could have easily been done in the off-season or spread over quieter hours. Yet, the full flight schedule remained unchanged, as if nothing was wrong. The result? Delays, confusion, and unnecessary waiting.

The airport’s “gesture” to passengers? A single glass of water. Yes, just one – a symbolic act that said more than any announcement. Thankfully, the air conditioning was working onboard – the only thing that still was.

For an international airport, this reflects a painful lack of strategy and customer focus. Once again, profit seems to take priority, while the traveler is left at the bottom of the list.

*** NEDERLANDS ***

Brussels Airport – gebrek aan visie en respect voor de reiziger

Mijn recente ervaring op Brussels Airport was er eentje van frustratie en onbegrip. Vluchten moesten ruim een uur aan de gate of op de tarmac blijven staan, mét iedereen al aan boord. De reden? Onderhoud aan de startbaan, waardoor de luchthaven veel minder vluchten kon verwerken.

Dat zo’n werkzaamheden net tijdens de drukke zomermaanden plaatsvinden, is onbegrijpelijk. Dit had perfect buiten het hoogseizoen of gespreid over rustiger momenten gekund. Toch werd het volledige vluchtschema behouden, alsof er niets aan de hand was. Gevolg: vertragingen, onduidelijkheid en stilstand.

De ‘tegemoetkoming’ aan de reiziger? Een glas water. Jawel, één glas – met een symbolische waarde die boekdelen sprak. Gelukkig werkte de airco aan boord, want dat was zowat het enige dat nog draaide.

Voor een internationale luchthaven is dit een pijnlijk gebrek aan strategie en klantgerichtheid. Het lijkt erop dat winst opnieuw primeert, en de reiziger onderaan de prioriteitenlijst bengelt.

Arrived from Belgrade — passport control took almost 1 hour despite the flight being on time. Too few officers for several non-Schengen flights arriving at once.
Not acceptable for an international airport. Please improve staffing and organization.Worst experience ever

Completely substandard across the board. Wifi not working, passport control line in excess of an hour to clear, employees who can't be bothered to perform their job with any degree of standard...If this is the EU standard set by EU Commission headquarters I'm glad I'm part of a country outside of this ineptitude.

The passport control at Brussels Airport is a disaster. The line was absolutely massive — it felt like a kilometer long, and it moved painfully slow. I’ve experienced long queues before, like in Portugal, but at least there they had more booths open and the process was faster. Here, it seemed like only a few officers were working despite the crowd. For an international airport, this level of organization is unacceptable. Definitely something that needs urgent improvement.

You need at least 2 hours to clear security and immigration. There are only 4 counters to clear the passports for non EU passports. It doesn’t matter if you will miss your flight, you will have no priority.

When i was queuing up, one of the immigration counters was closed. So just left with 3 serving hundreds of frustrated people.

Backache drop off for Brussels Airlines was extremely slow and staff were care free.

Security was even worse! Staff do not communicate and are in NO rush!

Cappuccino from a cheap cafe was €5.50

USB chargers do not work in most of the seats in the departure lounge.

It was fairly clean though!

Three hours to go through security upon entering the country.
So disrespectful to travellers.
I will never return.

1. Taxi dropped me at pickup point at 5:30 morning, there was not a single airport cart near the point nor all the way to the airport main building and terminals, I emphasize not a single cart was available to arriving passengers. People were carrying luggage themselves or dragging them on the ground What a lousy and shameful airport.

2. I had bought an item as gift to export out of EU. At the customs in this airport, I asked for tax return. They refused saying I could not claim tax return because I was living in EU. I said yes but the item was to be exported out of EU, it was a gift. They refused.

Then, one of the customs personnel threatened me that just for my request of tax return, he threatened with me with a 200 euros fine! He kept threatening me and at the end said he would let me go if I never ever apply for a tax return again in belgium!

There were two customs person: one with beard and one younger guy. The younger guy threatened me.

3. They now only allow wrapping made in the airport, ensuring everybody goes their lousy and expensive wrapping service. They were sitting and doing nothing until this regulation came into effect effectively allowing them to legally steal from passenger.

4. At least they are paying google reviews to avoid any negative reviews. Fake worshipping airport owners.

Absolutely disgusted by the behaviour of some staff at the airport—rude, arrogant, unprofessional, and seemingly enjoying watching passengers struggle. We’re in shock and will never fly through here again. As seasoned travellers, we’ve been in all kinds of situations, but this was appalling.
The airport should seriously investigate its staff, and I hope other affected passengers report yesterday’s disgraceful treatment.

Here’s what happened: A small group of us (6–7 people), arriving from a delayed flight and needing to make a tight connection, reached the passport control area only to find it completely empty—no staff, no passengers. After waiting 10–15 minutes, we asked around. The few staff we encountered were either dismissive or visibly annoyed, eventually directing us to follow the exit signs downstairs to another passport control area. We asked other staff members and they all reacted in the same way but confirmed to go downstairs as this control area was unstaffed.

We rushed downstairs and were told to wait by a white door—“someone will come.” Twenty minutes passed with no one showing up. When we asked again, we were told to just keep waiting. Finally, a staff member arrived, half an hour later, walking extremely slowly and smirking, making it clear he had no intention of helping.

He tells that yes, we will probably miss our flights and that's all our fault. He blamed us for choosing short transfer times (we did not, our flight was delayed), he blamed us for leaving the passport area upstairs and even called us liars as it didn't believe the passport area was empty, and that staff members directed us downstairs.

We look at each others in disblief. By this point, we are all about to miss our flights and not sure what's going on and we have been hostage by this white door for almost 1 hour with no one opening it to let us through.
As he laughs at our desperation, he says that some of us are lucky as there are other flights during the day so shouldn't even complain and why are we eben stressed, while a couple will surely have to fly next day. The couple is visibly upset and he proceeds to argue with them, telling them how wrong they are ans that he is sure they followed wrong directions. The woman was visibly upset and all red in her face, having essentially been accused of lying and stupidity—all while her holiday slipped away. I really hope they got his name and reported him.
When we asked if he could chase his colleagues and call again he replied quite annoyed that he had already done it and won't do it again. As if missing our flights do to lack of personnel and organization, was damaging him and not us.

His behaviour was shameful: he arrived late, helped no one and made fun og us, and treated us with hostility. We were only following the directions of other airport staff. I didn’t catch his name, but he’s hard to miss—young, arrogant, with a smug attitude.

In the end, I believe everyone missed their flights due to this pointless delay and total lack of help by the staff. We were lucky our flight to Madrid was delayed by technical issues, or we would’ve missed it too.

Will report all of this to the airport directly too. Hope all of the others will do the same.

Delays can always happen, but the attitude and the way we were treated was simply disgusting and shameful.

ery bad experience at arrival border control. Always queuing in a very long line! Averagely it will take two hours for just border control😡. I know this is not occasionally, this is a routine. Then it’s not acceptable! As a EU face, the first name card, first impression for Europe, it is very very bad! You are not deserved as the EU headquarters airport!

Thinking as a traveller after long journey, do you yourself want to queue in such a long line?

I know this is a problem of lacking of manpower, but do someone to solve it. It is not something new, it exists a while already! At least do something to improve it at peak time!
There is a big difference between if you want to solve it or you can not solve it! Which I see now is you DON’T want to solve it! What a shame!

Disappointing Experience at Brussels Airport – 2-Hour Passport Control Queue

Brussels Airport seriously underdelivered on basic expectations for international travel. Despite being in a first-world country and a major European hub, the airport was shockingly unprepared. It took over two hours just to get through passport control for non-EU passport holders due to painfully slow processing and a clear lack of staff. Only a handful of booths were open, and the line barely moved while hundreds of passengers stood waiting with no information or assistance. For an airport of this size and importance, the inefficiency was completely unacceptable. This experience left a terrible impression, and I’ll be reconsidering flying through Brussels in the future unless major improvements are made.

Extremely long queues for non EU passports, stood for an hour and a half with my pregnant wife, there was no accommodation for this either despite asking. Very poor service.

Immensely long queues on arrival for non eu citizens! Took over an hour and a quarter to get to the desk!

This airport is by far the worst in Europe. Security takes forever, staff unfriendly and overwhelmed. At check-in, regardless airline, but Brussels airlines is the worst, endless queues. Staff chats and drinks coffee (!) whole customers wait an hour plus in line just to drop off luggage. Hardly any food options apart from beer and fries, and not enough quiet or comfortable seating options to wait. Toilets dirty and tiny.

Security times are ridiculous (at least one hour), even on the fast-track lane, only 4 lanes out of 12 open. You know how many people will be travelling at every day and time, why don´t you plan accordingly? Negligent management.

Tax refund is so horrible. Only 1 staff with a long queue. Took us an hour t9 complete the process

Do not arrive internationally through this airport. Embarrassingly long queues for both EU and non EU passport holders. Passport control to pax ratio is disgraceful. Expect to take at least two hours, any less then feel very fortunate.

I want to express my utter disappointment with Brussels Airport. I have never experienced such extreme waiting times at both the security checkpoint and passport control. Extremely long queues and unprecedented waiting times at Brussels Airport. Understandably, passengers became anxious and impatient, with many resorting to jumping the queue in desperation to avoid missing their flights. We witnessed several arguments and altercations as tensions escalated. Based on this experience, I would strongly advise against using Brussels Airport especially if you are travelling with young children.