The UK’s Heathrow Airport has denounced the introduction of an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) that requires a £10 payment as a “huge blow” to the country’s competitiveness.
The ETA scheme was launched in November 2023 for arrivals to the UK from a suite of Middle East and Persian Gulf states including Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia , and the United Arab Emirates. It will be rolled out to most of the rest of the world in autumn 2024 and to visitors from the European Union, the European Economic Area and Swiss citizens at the start of 2025.
Similar to other visa and travel permit schemes around the world, the ETA involves a £10 payment and the submission online of various biometric data as well as answers to a suitability questionnaire. Heathrow has previously said it supports the thinking behind the scheme.
However it is the inclusion of passengers who are not stopping their journeys in the UK but merely passing through the country’s international hubs to connect to an onward flight connections that Heathrow says is inappropriate and costing UK airports valuable custom.
Heathrow saw 6.7 million passengers pass through in March 2024, an 8% increase on March 2023, and a record for that month. But in a statement to press, the airport’s authorities have said the ETA scheme’s impact has already been seen a drop in the numbers of flyers choosing Heathrow for long-haul connections.
“In the first four months of ETAs being in place, 19,000 fewer transit passengers travelled from Qatar, with the transfer route recording its lowest monthly proportions for over 10 years each month since the implementation of ETAs,” the airport’s statement said.
The application of the ETA to airside transit passengers puts UK airports at a “competitive disadvantage” compared to international aviation hubs in other countries and is a “huge blow” and could jeopardise the long-term viability of some long-haul routes that “rely on transit passengers”, the airport said. It described those routes as “highly important to the UK’s economy, exports and wider connectivity”.
The airport’s briefing went on to call for ministerial action to “remove this measure” and “level the playing field”, particularly as the ETA scheme expands. Heathrow’s Chief Executive Thomas Woldbye said: “It’s great to see the progress we’re making this year with smooth journeys for a record number of passengers choosing Heathrow.
“But to keep up the momentum, the government needs to exempt airside transit passengers from the ETA scheme to avoid encouraging passengers to spend and do business elsewhere.”
The UK Home Office has said the scheme helps to “cement the UK as a world leader in border security”. Whether changes to the scheme will be a UK government priority in an election year dominated by rhetoric about small boats and illegal immigration, as well as a number of structural issues facing the UK’s economy, remains to be seen.
