On Friday evening there were longer waiting times at the exit passport control in terminal complex 1/2 in front of the D gates at Vienna-Schwechat Airport. Passengers report long queues and about an hour's waiting time before they can show their passport or ID card to the police.

Frequent flyers in particular often confuse the mere presentation of a passport or ID card at the check-in counter or when boarding with an official control. Airlines sometimes have the "papers" of the travelers shown to them, just to check whether the name in the ticket system or boarding card matches that on the ID card. This is to prevent tickets from being used under a false name. First and foremost, it is about illegal resale without a chargeable name change.

A real identity check can neither be carried out by airline nor airport staff. It is a sovereign task that is performed by the police in Austria. At Vienna-Schwechat Airport, the Lower Austria Provincial Police Headquarters is responsible. Passengers arriving from non-Schengen countries, such as the USA, must identify themselves to the police. The same applies if you leave the Schengen area and fly to Croatia, for example.

In principle, waiting times at border controls are possible at every airport in the world and occasionally involve longer waiting times, for example in the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Israel. This doesn't mean that you have to queue for hours every time, but you can be unlucky and catch a real "rush hour".

At Vienna-Schwechat Airport, longer waiting times are rather the exception, at least when entering Austria, because there are police checkpoints at various points at the airport, so that arriving passengers are – if possible – distributed before entering the terminals. When leaving the country, there are also several places where the official exit control can be carried out.

Passengers must expect waiting times at border control

Due to the large number of flights that were processed simultaneously at the D gates yesterday evening, a particularly large number of passengers had to be checked by the police. This resulted in a longer waiting time, which also led to some passengers missing their flights. The state police department of Lower Austria did not comment on this when asked.

In such cases, passengers have no rights and are dependent on the goodwill of their airline. Airlines cannot be held liable for the duration of the waiting time for official controls. This is also the reason why many providers expressly point out to their passengers that they should also take waiting times at passport control into account and, if possible, go through them as quickly as possible. Passengers on non-Schengen flights in the summer months should take this appeal seriously, because officially there is no shortage of staff at the police passport control, but there can be waiting times at peak times because the officers have to check each passenger individually. Even when using the “automatic passport control”, a police officer sits in the background who “sanctions” entry and exit.