London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Heathrow Airport has stated it experienced a 90,000 drop in passenger numbers on routes included in a £10 a person government plan.
What impact has the £10 ETA fee had on Heathrow’s hub competitiveness?
It represented the electronic travel authorisation (ETA) system as “devastating for our hub competitiveness”. The Conservative government raised ETAs in November 2023 for people entering or transiting via the UK without legal residence or a visa. ETAs, which commanded £10, are required for citizens of Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
The programme is designed to be extended to the rest of the world this autumn, although for visitors from the EU, the European Economic Area and Swiss nationals it will be presented early next year. The airport stated: “While Heathrow continues to attract new routes and record passenger numbers, the latest data following the introduction of the ETA shows that Heathrow has lost 90,000 transfer passengers on routes operating to and from the seven countries included in the scheme, since its introduction in 2023. This is devastating for our hub competitiveness.
Why is Heathrow demanding a review of the ETA policy?
“We demand the government to review the inclusion of airside transit passengers. Every little bit of extra competitiveness that the government can pay for aviation will help deliver vital growth for the whole of the UK economy.”
What are Heathrow’s concerns about the ETA for transit passengers?
The ETA is primarily based on the US electronic system for travel authorisation (ESTA) system and requires travellers to enter the UK before departing and pay the £10 fee. This applies not only to immediate flights from the country but also to those who are utilising UK airports for more than two hours to connect to other flights.
Heathrow has previously expressed concerns about the charge. It stated that, while it supported the overall rationale, those transiting via the airport needed to be excused as it was hitting passenger numbers.
The government first raised the ETA for Qatari nationals in November 2023 before rolling it out. In April, Heathrow stated that, in the first four months of the ETA application, there had been 19,000 more infrequent transit passengers from Qatar coming via the airport as more travellers opted to use other hubs.
What changes did Heathrow observe in transit traffic from specific countries?
Heathrow has expressed the fall represents a “huge impact on UK competitiveness” because many lengthy passages rely on long-haul transit passengers. Heathrow stated it was used by nearly 8 million passengers in July, pushing it Europe’s busiest airport in the first half of the year, outperforming rivals such as Amsterdam Schiphol, Frankfurt, Madrid and Paris Charles de Gaulle.
The west London hub reached a weekly passenger total of 1.8 million for the first time last month, accomplishing so for three consecutive weeks from 8 July. Venice in Italy and Larnaca in Cyprus were among the most popular destinations.
Heathrow stated it “performed well with no material impacts on flights” from issues such as the global IT outage or Just Stop Oil protests. Heathrow expressed that Doha, Dubai, Dublin and New York’s JFK were the latest routes to record 1 million passengers crossing to and from Heathrow this year. There were also big gains for Orlando in Florida and other US destinations such as Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and Dallas.