IATA and Airlines Call U.K. ETA Price Hike Proposal “Bewildering”

It’s been just about a week since the new U.K. Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) program went into place, and it’s already causing issues between the U.K. government and airlines. 

The U.K. Home Office last week proposed to increase the cost of the ETA, which is required or will eventually be required of all travelers to the U.K. outside of Irish citizens, by 60%. Under the proposal, which needs to be approved by Houses of the U.K. government, U.S. citizens traveling to the U.K. would have to pay £16 (about $19.50 USD), up from £10 (just over $12 USD), to apply. 

Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General, this weekend called the proposal “bewildering” and said that the increase would be a “self-inflicted blow to the U.K.’s tourism competitiveness,” especially when compared with the E.U.’s ETIAS. 

“Gouging these travelers with a 60% increase in the ETA is a very bad start. The added cost would come on top of the Air Passenger Duty (APD)—the biggest travel tax in the world—which itself will increase again in April,” Walsh said. “And let’s not forget that travelers have choice and the EU’s ETIAS will be far better value—costing about a third as much as this proposed pricing and lasting a year longer.” 

“It makes no sense to discourage visitors with high costs even before they set foot in the country.”

IATA was far from the only group to come out against the proposed hike as other concerns have been raised within the U.K., particularly from companies that rely on inbound tourism. The Tourism Alliance criticized the proposed increase, calling it “staggering.”

“It is staggering that the government has decided to further increase the costs for tourists visiting the U.K., especially given its ambition to grow inbound tourism numbers and deliver economic growth,” said Richard Toomer, executive director of the group.

“The government recently announced a target to grow our inbound tourism to 50 million visitors by 2030, up from 38 million in 2023. Hitting that target will not happen if the government continues viewing tourists simply as a cash cow,” he added.