Heathrow boss warns on 'devastating' impact of £10 ETA permits for transit passengers

The boss of Heathrow today said the airport has already lost 90,000 transfer passengers since the introduction of a £10 a head electronic permit system last year.

CEO Thomas Woldbye said the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), introduced for nationals from seven countries - Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - who could previously travel visa free with just a passport had been “devastating” for Heathrow’s hub status.

Passengers from those countries are obliged to obtain and pay for an ETA even if they are simply transiting through Heathrow and do not pass the UK border.

It is due to be rolled out to visitors from other countries, including the EU and US, later this year.

The warning from Woldbye came despite new record traffic figures for the west London hub with almost 8 million passengers passing through in July.

The total of 7.98 million passengers was 4.2% up on last year and the running total of 47.81 million for the year to date was 6.9% higher.

Before last month, Heathrow had never exceeded 1.8 million passengers in a week but was achieved three weeks in a row in July, which also included six of its busiest ever departure days after schools broke up for the summer holidays.

Doha and Dublin joined Dubai and JFK as the latest routes with one million passengers travelling to and from Heathrow this year. There were also big boosts for Orlando and many other US destinations such as Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and Dallas

Woldbye said: “Team GB’s performance in Paris has been an inspiration to the nation and to Team Heathrow. In July, we were smashing a passenger record almost every single day and we’re chasing down our never before seen goal of serving 8 million passengers in a single month.

“I’m proud that although there were a few potential challenges which could have caused us to stumble, our team remained focused on the prize of making every journey better and delivered a medal-winning start to the summer getaway.”