UK ETA fee hike adds £6 to short-stay travel costs
From 9 April 2025 the UK ETA surges 60% from £10 to £16, heightening budget pressures for short breaks and business trips.
The UK’s travel-facilitation landscape has lurched again on cost. Following the phased introduction of the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA)—the digital permission now required for many visa-exempt visitors—the Home Office has rubber-stamped a sizeable rise in its price tag.
From 9 April 2025 the ETA application fee will leap from £10 to £16 (≈ $13), a near-60 % hike. Announced on 19 March 2025 (Home Office factsheet), the change is expected to prompt questions and reactions from both travellers and the travel trade.
The ETA is part of the UK’s push to digitise and speed up border control under reforms styled as ‘streamlined, digital, fast and secure.’ It is required for citizens of non-visa countries planning short stays—as well as for those without existing British immigration status—currently excluding most Europeans. From 2 April 2025 the obligation will extend to nearly all EU nationals.
Although the ETA is not a visa and does not guarantee entry, it is a mandatory digital travel permission for multiple short visits of up to six months within any 24-month period, or until passport expiry if sooner. Travellers attempting to board—air, ferry or Eurostar—without an approved ETA risk being denied boarding.
Anticipated annual extra revenue: £269 million
The hike—first floated in January 2025—is framed by the Home Office as safeguarding ‘the financial viability of the UK border-security system.’ Visitors will shoulder more of the costs of processing and border-control services, reducing reliance on the taxpayer. The Treasury expects the uplift to generate an extra £269 million a year for frontline security and faster processing, pointing to similar programmes in the US (ESTA) and Australia as precedents.
Reaction from aviation and travel-industry leaders has been swift and critical. International Air Transport Association (IATA) Director General Willie Walsh warned that this fee increase ‘could hit the competitiveness of UK inbound tourism.’ Tim Alderslade, CEO of Airlines UK, stressed the importance of air connectivity to an economy where tourism contributes roughly £74 billion annually and sustains more than 1.7 million jobs. The industry fears that even a modest absolute fee rise may deter cost-sensitive short-break and business travellers to perceived lower-friction gateways.
Benchmarking shows the UK is now the priciest of the main electronic-travel-permit schemes. The US ESTA sits at about $21/£17, valid two years. Canada’s eTA is roughly CA$7/£4, good for five years. The forthcoming European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), launching in 2025, will cost about €7/£6 for three years’ validity across 28 Schengen states plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein—a much broader travel zone.
With the imminent price rise, early birds among prospective UK visitors are advised to apply before 9 April 2025 to lock in the current £10 rate; applicants must use the same passport on which they intend to travel, and all ETA fees are non-refundable.
Customer advice: Travellers planning a post-2 April 2025 visit who are already ETA-eligible—including most EU citizens—are urged to submit their application before the 9 April cut-off to secure the £10 tariff. Ensure the passport used for travel matches the one lodged in your ETA request and remember that fees are non-refundable. |
En tant que chargée de relation client, mes missions sont la gestion et le suivi des demandes de visas. Je reste informée des actualités concernant les nouvelles formalités de voyage ainsi que les spécificités des nouveaux visas.