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British Airways to require photo ID for domestic flights from 1st September

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From 1st September, British Airways is making a major change to its ID rules for domestic flights.

At the moment, BA suggests you bring some photo ID with you but it is not compulsory.

From 1st September, the rules change – no acceptable photo ID will presumably mean no travel.

British Airways to insist on photo ID for domestic flights from 1st September

What are the new ID rules for BA domestic flights?

Here are the new rules as shown on this page of ba.com, although they do not actually come into force until 1st September:

You do not require a passport to travel within the UK, but you will need to carry one type of photographic ID when travelling with us. Examples include:

  • Valid passport
  • Valid driving license [sic], either provisional or full
  • Valid EU national identity card
  • Valid armed forces identity card
  • Valid police warrant card or badge

Children under the age of 16 do not need to show identification when travelling on domestic flights. The adult they are travelling with must travel with photographic identification and be able to confirm their identity.

Children aged 14 and 15 years who are flying alone will need to show identification when travelling on domestic flights.

What are the current ID rules for BA domestic flights?

For comparison, here are the old rules which were removed from ba.com in recent days:

If you are flying solely within the UK, including Northern Ireland, you do not need a passport but we advise that you carry photographic identification with you when travelling, such as your passport or driving licence. This may be requested at certain points in your journey. Children under the age of 16 years do not require identification to travel within the UK.

Communication of this policy change has been poor – I am guessing that 95% of people reading this article will not know about it, even if they have domestic flights booked.

The list of acceptable ID is also quite tight and is, for example, stricter than the new rules for voting. Some people will struggle to comply with these requirements, especially older people who may have given up driving and let their passport expire.

It is not clear what is driving the change. It is not driven by the Civil Aviation Authority, which said in response to a query:

UK aviation security regulations do not require a passenger’s identity to be checked for security purposes prior to boarding a domestic flight, in the same way when travelling within the mainland on a train or bus. Any further requirement on behalf of the carrier to provide identification may be a condition of travel by the carrier itself.

You can find out more on ba.com here.

Hat-tip to Alastair Jamieson of The Independent for doing the digging on this story – his article is here.

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Comments (190)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Ben Green says:
    25 Aug25 August 22:23

    No one has ever deliberately crashed an international flight into a building. Completely ridiculous that it’s taken 22 years for BA to implement this.

    • AL says:
      26 Aug26 August 01:57

      It hasn’t taken them 22 years to implement. It’s taken them 22 years to enforce.

  • Alan says:
    25 Aug25 August 22:27

    Ludicrous lack of warning from BA and very restrictive list, especially when many may travel without a wallet nowadays. Presumably that means the eGates for boarding at LHR T5 are done for now too if they’re going to have to check ID on everyone too – further lengthening BA’s already shambolic boarding process…

    • JDB says:
      25 Aug25 August 22:43

      They already have to check the photos, so this adds little extra and the list is headed “examples include” so is not exhaustive.

      • Alan says:
        26 Aug26 August 06:28

        No they don’t currently have to check photos for domestic, that’s done by the gates!

  • QFFlyer says:
    25 Aug25 August 23:04

    Wonder if they’ll check it, for example QF (and other domestic carriers) require ID for domestic flights within Australia, nobody ever checks it unless you have to check in at a desk.

  • kt74 says:
    26 Aug26 August 06:40

    My bet is that this has nothing to do with revenue protection, and everything to do with increasing failures of the biometric checks at LHR, which are causing delays and IDBs when photo matching fails at the gate. Also the CAA is wrong: of course ID has to be checked, otherwise why do photos need to match between security and boarding?

    • Stuart says:
      26 Aug26 August 07:21

      The photos have to match between security and boarding as there are hundreds of transiting passengers in T5 that haven’t ‘entered’ the country. They don’t use photos at places like Newcastle where there is no airside transit.

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
      26 Aug26 August 08:43

      Biometrics at MAN has been disastrous lately. I was on an EI flight already late by 90 mins and ended up leaving over 2hrs late due to the slow progress of boarding passengers through the biometrics check.

  • Tony says:
    26 Aug26 August 07:27

    A police badge?! There’s no photo with that….!

    • NorthernLass says:
      26 Aug26 August 10:39

      Police badges haven’t been issued for years though! I think I’ve still got one somewhere from the early 90s, lol.

  • Alex G says:
    26 Aug26 August 07:47

    “The list of acceptable ID is also quite tight and is, for example, stricter than the new rules for voting.”

    BAs list is different to the rules for voting, but not necessarily stricter.

    A Police Officer cannot use their Warrant Card to vote, but can to fly with BA.

  • Sharon says:
    26 Aug26 August 07:50

    My 85 year old mother doesn’t have a driving license and her passport expired when she was 80. Will her senior citizen bus pass do!
    On another note, I regularly fly Luton to EDI on EasyJet for business and they only check photo ID at the gate if you have a checked bag.

    • Nick says:
      26 Aug26 August 09:31

      easyJet’s policy is the same as BA’s new one, you need to have ID to fly. Whether they check it is another question (same with BA…) but their rules are clear.

    • lumma says:
      26 Aug26 August 10:08

      When conducting a right to work check, an expired British passport is an acceptable form of ID, as long as the person is recognisable. I’d argue that she could still use her expired passport for this.

  • TeesTraveller says:
    26 Aug26 August 07:59

    3 EU trips recently, NCL-LHR-AMS/ARN and at no point was I asked to show ID at Newcastle or at Heathrow – you always used to be asked to show a passport at NCL when you had a connection as typically got bleeped when boarding.

    • Red Flyer says:
      26 Aug26 August 10:12

      Has always puzzled me why I never have to do a passport check when leaving UK from MAN/LPL but have always had to do so when leaving any non-UK airport? Do foreigners not have a passport check/stamp when leaving UK but only do on entry?

      • NorthernLass says:
        26 Aug26 August 10:41

        As I understand it, the UK doesn’t keep records of who leaves the country, which is partly why our immigration system is such a shambles.

        • RussellH says:
          26 Aug26 August 11:32

          Yes, but it saves money (according to someone).

        • John says:
          26 Aug26 August 19:28

          The UK gets records from airlines but whether the records are kept in a format which allows matching to entry records is unknown

      • Oliver says:
        26 Aug26 August 10:50

        Yes, my partner is non-eu, only get stamps for enter UK

        • RussellH says:
          26 Aug26 August 11:33

          USA does not put exit stamps in passports, but certainly does exit checks (at least at airports).

          • lumma says:
            26 Aug26 August 13:06

            In the USA, the airlines are responsible for the exit check. If you check in at a desk, they’ll do the check then. HBO and online check in, they’ll check at the gate.

          • John says:
            26 Aug26 August 19:27

            Only at random and sporadically, which also happens in the UK, Canada, Mexico

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