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Big win for BA and Virgin Atlantic as transit passengers exempted from ETA permits

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Regular readers will know about the disaster (for British Airways, in particular) of the launch of the Electronic Travel Authorisation programme.

The ETA scheme forces most people visiting the United Kingdom who do not require a visa to apply for entry permission in advance of travel. It is rolling out in stages, with the final phase for EU residents launching on 2nd April.

There is, in itself, nothing wrong with this. However, the previous Government insisted that transit passengers must pay it too.

UK Electronic Travel Authorisation

This caused a major problem for the airlines using Heathrow, and to a lesser extent Manchester. These are the only UK airports which allow passengers to transit.

Tourists heading elsewhere were choosing not to travel through Heathrow, and so not travel with British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, because:

  • they had to pay a £10 per person fee for the ETA
  • they had to fill in all the paperwork required to receive an ETA
  • they had to take a small risk that their ETA may be refused after a flight had been booked

…. purely for the ‘privilege’ of changing aircraft at Heathrow.

Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam suddenly looked far more attractive places to transit.

The Government has now seen sense

In an announcement slipped out quietly yesterday, the Government has decided that transit passengers will no longer need to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorisation.

Heathrow’s chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, said:

“The removal of airside transit passengers from the ETA scheme is the right decision and we welcome it.

“This is a critical move to ensure Heathrow and the aviation industry as a whole can continue to deliver for everyone who depends on our world-leading connectivity.

“It shows that the government is listening to industry concerns and is willing to make the necessary changes to strengthen the UK’s competitiveness and drive economic growth.”

The Government isn’t prepared to see any loss of income, however. The ETA fee for everyone else is being hiked from £10 to £16 per person, adding £64 to the cost of a UK visit for a family of four. Even babies have to receive an ETA.

Richard Toomer, Executive Director of the Tourism Alliance, said:

“It is staggering that the Government has taken the decision to further increase the costs for tourists visiting the UK especially in light of its ambition to grow inbound tourism numbers and deliver economic growth.

“This is especially a kick in the teeth for our European visitors that just as they are required for the first time ever to apply for advance permission to travel to the UK, the cost for doing so has been put up by 60%. 

“Even before this hike to £16 per person, ETA was already an additional cost for travellers, and crucially uncompetitive against to the EU’s own forthcoming travel authorisation scheme (ETIAS) both in terms of cost (€7 vs £16), validity period (three years for an EU ETIAS vs two years for a UK ETA) and in terms of the exemptions. The Government has just made matters worse.

“The Government recently announced a target to grow our inbound tourism to 50m visitors by 2030 up from 38m in 2023. Hitting that target will not happen if the Government keep viewing tourists simply as a cash cow. Tourists make decisions in a competitive global marketplace. We are already 113th out of 119 countries for price competitiveness. We need the Government to help address that challenge, not compound it.”

Who is exempt from an ETA?

Everyone entering the UK (but no longer everyone in transit through the UK) will require an ETA unless they have:

  • a British or Irish passport
  • permission to live, work or study in the UK
  • a visa to enter the UK, or
  • are travelling with a British overseas territories citizen passport

Confusingly, Irish residents (non passport holders) are only exempt if they enter the UK from Ireland, Isle of Man or the Channel Islands. They will need to apply if entering from any other country.

How long will an Electronic Travel Authority last?

An ETA will last for two years.

However, it is linked to the passport, not the person. If the passport is renewed, a fresh ETA will be required.

Find out more

You can find out more on the ETA website here.

You can read more about the transit passenger exemption here. It isn’t clear if this is effective immediately or if it needs new primary legislation to be passed, which is the case for the fee increase.

Category

British Airways and Avios, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (176)

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

  • Ian says:
    17 Jan17 January 06:18

    Another money grab from the government.

    What happens if the onward flight is cancelled – do the passengers just stay airside overnight? Or longer?

    Compared to the USA the cost isn’t excessive, but it is to Europe.

    After the last government screwed up the relationship with Europe, we need them more than ever. This is not the way to go about it.

    • BJ says:
      17 Jan17 January 07:04

      Government needs to get money from somewhere after the last lot reversed an inadequate rise in NI only to subsequently replace it with a barmy 4% cut. The UK economy will never be fixed until a government comes along with the balls to substantially increase income tax on middle earners and redistribute wealth towards working families on lower incomes who currently rely on the need for State support despite working. Only, it’ll never happen.

      • The Lord says:
        17 Jan17 January 07:17

        Haven’t taxes on middle earners already been increased substantially over the last 5 years?

        • BJ says:
          17 Jan17 January 07:54

          Tax for everybody has increased but the only scope for substantial increases is in middle earners. Higher rate tax threshold for higher rates need to be lowered with a new level at a higher rate introduced at around £75k IMO. something like no tax up to £17.5k, then 20%up to £37.5k, 40% up to £70k; 45% up to £150k topping out at 50% over that. People have a problem with that they can stop smoking, snorting, drinking and eating as much, vut the gym fees and streaming fees in favour of free exercise to fill their time too. Eventually the pressure on NHS will decrease, and the Nation will be healthier and happier – the only thing they’ll have to grumble abiut is their tax!

          • Thywillbedone says:
            17 Jan17 January 08:02

            The daftest comment I’ve EVER read on here (among fairly stiff competition)…

          • Brian says:
            17 Jan17 January 08:03

            No tax to 17.5k? Why?
            Everyone needs to pay some tax.
            This mad idea that some people have the right to pay no tax.

          • JDB says:
            17 Jan17 January 08:15

            There are probably some free adult education classes on economics in your area

          • Charles Martel says:
            17 Jan17 January 08:30

            The more you raise taxes, the more likely middle earners will leave for Aus, NZ, Canada. If I come back I’ll be hybrid working from a lower tax jurisdiction. Taxes are already the highest they’ve been since the 50s.

          • Rob says:
            17 Jan17 January 09:09

            What you earn and can earn in the future should be a higher consideration than your tax rate. I literally have paid enough tax in the last 20 years to build probably 5 GP surgeries and it doesn’t hugely concern me.

          • Axel Heyst says:
            17 Jan17 January 08:45

            The laffer curve always stops this model from working.

            Scotland raised tax on high income earners and guess what! – less high earners now pay taxes in Scotland generatong less revenue than before the rise.

          • Mike Fish says:
            17 Jan17 January 09:09

            I assume you don’t understand how the current tax system works. We already have a marginal rate (between NI and Income tax) of between 62% and 600% at £100-125k. If anything, the tax rates are far too high and we should be aiming for a flat rate of tax nearer 20%. We had the highest tax burden in 70 years before the latest tax increases. We have a spending problem not a too little tax problem.

          • BJ says:
            17 Jan17 January 09:28

            @Thywillbedone … happy to win something! I forgot I wasn’t going to discuss politics here anymore so that’s it from me. Off to colder and foggy London, who on HfP would ever have thought weather was worse than Edinburgh…

      • Can2 says:
        17 Jan17 January 10:17

        It is encouraging that high school kids are following HfP now

    • JDB says:
      17 Jan17 January 07:29

      @Ian – it’s not exactly a “money grab” as the scheme will cost as much to administer as they will collect in fees.

      • NicktheGreek says:
        17 Jan17 January 08:13

        If that’s the case, why has the price risen 60% presumably to compensate for the loss in revenue from transit passengers?

      • Charles Martel says:
        17 Jan17 January 08:34

        If not a money grab why is it £10 more than the equivalent ETIAS scheme in Schengen? Are our IT nerds and Home Department civil servants less half as efficient as their EU peers?

        • JDB says:
          17 Jan17 January 09:16

          Because the costs of ETIAS are partly borne at EU level (for which you are contributing to the cost) but the rest is to be borne by individual countries.

          • Charles Martel says:
            19 Jan19 January 11:56

            And the £4.5bn Air Passenger Duty collected by HMG doesn’t subside border control efforts?

  • TimM says:
    17 Jan17 January 06:24

    The UK ETA is essentially DIY passport control. Its validity, logically, should be set at the same as the passport. Anything other is just another tax.

    • memesweeper says:
      17 Jan17 January 07:24

      +1

      But the US ESTA on which it is modelled also has an arbitrary expiry.

  • Alan says:
    17 Jan17 January 06:46

    What £16 for 2 years! The fee for these things is not meant to an ‘income’ but to cover the cost of providing the service. Do we really have that many transitting passengers that means we need to charge real visitors an additional 60%?

    At this level it is becoming a real cost rather than a token amount. I can see it causing some tourists to go elsewhere or not come as many times as they otherwise may have.

    • JDB says:
      17 Jan17 January 07:14

      If you think it will make tourists go elsewhere, try the Paris tourist tax! Now €8.45 per person per night in a four star hotel, €11.38 five star and €15.60 in a place.

      • Alan says:
        17 Jan17 January 08:42

        I agree that’s high too. But I guess at least it usually gets quoted in the hotel cost so gets a bit hidden.

        • JDB says:
          17 Jan17 January 09:19

          @Alan it’s usually quoted as a separate cost and added to redemption bookings. Hoteliers like to keep it out of headline rates. It applies also to Airbnbs etc.

          • NFH says:
            17 Jan17 January 10:35

            Articles 5(1)(c) and 6(1)(e) of Directive 2011/83/EU (Consumer Rights Directive) require businesses to quote “the total price of the goods or services inclusive of taxes“. Therefore if a hotel fails to include the city tax within the price of the room, you can refuse to pay it and quote the national legislation in which the directive is enacted. I have done this several times in Italy where this malpractice is particularly common.

          • JDB says:
            17 Jan17 January 11:46

            @NFH – I don’t know about other EU countries, but French law permits the ‘taxe de séjour’ to be excluded from headline rates although it must be collected and itemised on any invoice.

          • NFH says:
            17 Jan17 January 12:31

            @JDB – You might be right with respect to the initial invitation to purchase, but the directive, and consequently French domestic legislation, requires the total price including all taxes to be disclosed before the consumer is bound by the contract.

    • AJA says:
      17 Jan17 January 08:11

      The US ESTA costs USD21 which is over £17 at the current exchange rate.

      • Alan says:
        17 Jan17 January 08:41

        Fair point, but compared to our nearest neighbour the EU it’s like triple

      • Ian says:
        17 Jan17 January 14:42

        However the US invests in immigration.

        Thanks to Global Entry it is far easier to enter the USA than the UK for UK residents!!

    • jjoohhnn says:
      17 Jan17 January 09:41

      Maybe they are just adjusting for inflation and they envisage a 60% rate!

      To be fair, most government things are set at a fixed price then slowly dwindle in value, with little adjustment for inflation. It would be good if they did adjust EVERYTHING both taxes and allowances yearly. Since Oct23 when it was introduced, inflation would increase the £10 to £10.25 now!

  • Stewart Hughes says:
    17 Jan17 January 07:03

    WOW that’s expensive. Can soon see EU reciprocating and increasing fees for GB, maybe other countries too. Why so expensive, Canada is $7 and valid for 5 years. Plus, you haven’t mentioned the unscrupulous agents who charge tourist extortionate fees to process an eta application just cause they come too in any search engines!

    • Paul says:
      17 Jan17 January 09:11

      And the EU should reciprocate. It might then bring about some sense among the great unwashed hoards who voted for Brexit and think the Costa Brava is a colony!

      Look we simply do not pay enough tax for the benefits we demand. The actual costs of health care is staggering and we all use it Chemotherapy is around £1000-£1500 a pop, a GP appointment around £50-£75. Simple blood tests run into hundreds of £ each. Now we could start to reduce what the NHS provides. We could remove IVF, gender re assignment, and no doubt a range of other treatments just as we have done with eyesight and dental, though the U.K. has appalling dental health so that’s gone well.
      Education is expensive, justice fire police and ambulances. Roads, waste collection and defence!
      People in work should not need to claim benefits so I’d support a more progressive tax system that took low pay out of taxation without giving everyone a tax free allowance.

      Bottom line we don’t pay enough tax to properly support the services we demand.

      • Charlieq says:
        17 Jan17 January 16:41

        I didn’t vote for Brexit, but if I knew I was going to receive a blue passport, then I most definitely would have done! 🙂 As for reciprocity, the E.U. aren’t going to single out the U.K., just as they don’t single out the U.S. or other countries with higher fees. And that’s if the E.U. get either of their two systems working properly anytime soon anyway! Speaking of the blue passport, I’ve only got six blank pages of my newly minted November 2022 edition left, nearly every page filled with Schengen in and out stamps, as the E.U. systems were due to be put in operation ‘imminently’ back in November 2022. Since then, the Finnish are very good. ‘…It should be in and out stamps next to each other.. six to a page, so we can check the dates: ”In out, in out, in out”‘. ”Tell that to the Spanish”, I reply, who have a habit of putting an entry stamp diagonally in the middle of a page, and then an exit stamp in the middle of a random page seven pages later. All other E.U. countries are somewhere in-between Finland and Spain with regards to their Schengen stamping capabilities. 🙂

  • letBA_gonesbe says:
    17 Jan17 January 07:03

    I don’t mind the fee and I genuinely don’t think this will deter many tourists from visiting the UK especially that so many things you can visit in London for free which you would have to pay for in another countries.

    I also wonder if someone decides against visiting the UK because of a £16 “entry fee”, how much would’ve they contributed to our economy.

    • jjoohhnn says:
      17 Jan17 January 09:44

      Quite.. Who looks at where they are going on holiday based on the tourist entry fee to the country?! Ludicrous suggestion that a family would choose somewhere else based on such a marginal cost for a holiday.

  • BJ says:
    17 Jan17 January 07:10

    I cannot imagine why anybody would voluntarily choose to transit at LHR unless it was significantly cheaper or choices for origin/destination were limited to it.

    • memesweeper says:
      17 Jan17 January 07:26

      Airside transit is an afterthought at UK airports. It’s gone entirely from Gatwick and Stansted.

    • Can2 says:
      17 Jan17 January 07:29

      For Y pax it is often cheaper of course — especially for families. And changing in London makes it a nice break if you have only 2-3hr left.

  • vlcnc says:
    17 Jan17 January 08:09

    Another massive pointless bureaucratic barrier. Really feels like all governments want to make travelling as miserable as possible for people.

  • AJA says:
    17 Jan17 January 08:13

    Any news on when the EU’s ETIAS goes live?

    • Rob says:
      17 Jan17 January 08:17

      Delayed again, may be next year.

    • Alan says:
      17 Jan17 January 22:35

      I think the last delay was at request of France and one other country. For once it seems Spain actually want it to come in sooner than others. They seem to have their machines sitting around in their airports gathering dust!

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