The UK Home Office has announced an exemption to the Electronic Travel Authorisation scheme for transiting passengers.
As was reported last week, the ETA scheme is being extended worldwide this year, firstly to visitors from 48 non-European countries (as of 8 January), and subsequently to 34 European countries from 2 April.
The scheme requires visitors who do not need a visa for short stays to apply for an ETA in advance, and had applied to passengers both travelling to or transiting through the UK.
But in a statement the Home Office said that “following feedback from the aviation industry, the government has agreed a temporary exemption for passengers who transit airside, and therefore do not pass through UK border control”.
It added that the move “will primarily affect Heathrow and Manchester airports, as the only UK airports which currently offer transit facilities”, and said that the exemption would be kept under review.
Last year Heathrow Airport had urged the government to drop ETA requirements for transiting passengers, stating that in the first four months of the scheme being in place it had seen 19,000 fewer transit passengers from Qatar.
However at the same time the Home Office has also proposed an increase to the ETA fee for other passengers from £10 to £16.
It’s not clear when this change will take effect, as it first needs to be debated in Parliament and is then subject to approval by both Houses.
The move is part of a range of increased fees for “immigration and nationality products and services”, which the government hopes will generate an additional £269 million in revenue per year.
These include the certificate of sponsorship fee rising to £525, the charge for processing naturalisation as a British citizen rising to £1,605, and the fee for processing naturalisation as a British overseas territories citizen rising to £1,070.
