Business and leisure visitors heading to Austria – along with the 28 other Schengen members – will soon have to factor an extra line into their travel budgets. According to a report released on 4 February 2026, the European Commission has set the price of the forthcoming European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) at €20 (about £17). ETIAS is **not** a visa; rather it is a mandatory electronic clearance for citizens of 59 currently visa-exempt countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. Applicants will complete a short online form (passport details, travel history, security questions) and, in most cases, receive approval within minutes. The authorisation will be valid for three years – or until the traveller’s passport expires – and carriers will have to verify an ETIAS approval before boarding.
For Austria’s tourism and export sectors, the fee is small but strategically significant. Pre-pandemic figures show that more than 3 million British and American visitors entered Austria each year, generating roughly €2 billion in direct spending. Industry association ÖHV says that even a marginal drop in arrivals – caused by price-sensitive weekend break visitors balking at “yet another fee” – could reduce hotel occupancy outside the peak ski months. Airlines are already preparing online prompts and website pop-ups that will remind passengers to apply for ETIAS during the booking flow, in order to avoid check-in desk bottlenecks once the system becomes mandatory.
From a compliance perspective, Austrian border officials welcome ETIAS as an additional security filter that runs traveller data through Interpol, Europol and Schengen Information System databases before a passenger even lands in Vienna or Salzburg. The Interior Ministry told local media that it expects a “single-digit percentage” of applications (those that trigger database hits or require manual review) to take up to 30 days – a timeline companies will need to build into last-minute business-trip planning.
![EU’s New ETIAS Fee Confirmed: Travellers Will Pay €20 to Enter Austria and Other Schengen States From Late-2026]()
To help travellers navigate this new layer of red tape, VisaHQ’s Austria portal (https://www.visahq.com/austria/) offers an end-to-end service that stores passport profiles, monitors expiry dates and submits the ETIAS application the moment trip details are confirmed—saving both holidaymakers and corporate travel teams valuable time.
Corporate mobility managers should update pre-trip approval workflows now. Best practice will mirror the ESTA rule for the United States: insist that employees obtain ETIAS before non-refundable flights or accommodation are booked. Travel-management companies are also advising multinationals to preload frequent-traveller passport data into their booking tools so that system reminders are automatic. Failure to secure an ETIAS in advance could see assignees denied boarding or, worse, refused entry on arrival – a potential breach of duty-of-care obligations.
Although the €20 fee will not come into force until the ETIAS “live” date in late 2026, Austrian airports will operate a six-month soft-launch period in which the authorisation is recommended but not compulsory. The Interior Ministry plans a public information campaign in German and English to reduce confusion at the border. With the UK implementing its own Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) in parallel, global mobility teams should expect a permanent era of mutual pre-travel screening – and communicate the new normal to expatriates and frequent flyers alike.
For Austria’s tourism and export sectors, the fee is small but strategically significant. Pre-pandemic figures show that more than 3 million British and American visitors entered Austria each year, generating roughly €2 billion in direct spending. Industry association ÖHV says that even a marginal drop in arrivals – caused by price-sensitive weekend break visitors balking at “yet another fee” – could reduce hotel occupancy outside the peak ski months. Airlines are already preparing online prompts and website pop-ups that will remind passengers to apply for ETIAS during the booking flow, in order to avoid check-in desk bottlenecks once the system becomes mandatory.
From a compliance perspective, Austrian border officials welcome ETIAS as an additional security filter that runs traveller data through Interpol, Europol and Schengen Information System databases before a passenger even lands in Vienna or Salzburg. The Interior Ministry told local media that it expects a “single-digit percentage” of applications (those that trigger database hits or require manual review) to take up to 30 days – a timeline companies will need to build into last-minute business-trip planning.
To help travellers navigate this new layer of red tape, VisaHQ’s Austria portal (https://www.visahq.com/austria/) offers an end-to-end service that stores passport profiles, monitors expiry dates and submits the ETIAS application the moment trip details are confirmed—saving both holidaymakers and corporate travel teams valuable time.
Corporate mobility managers should update pre-trip approval workflows now. Best practice will mirror the ESTA rule for the United States: insist that employees obtain ETIAS before non-refundable flights or accommodation are booked. Travel-management companies are also advising multinationals to preload frequent-traveller passport data into their booking tools so that system reminders are automatic. Failure to secure an ETIAS in advance could see assignees denied boarding or, worse, refused entry on arrival – a potential breach of duty-of-care obligations.
Although the €20 fee will not come into force until the ETIAS “live” date in late 2026, Austrian airports will operate a six-month soft-launch period in which the authorisation is recommended but not compulsory. The Interior Ministry plans a public information campaign in German and English to reduce confusion at the border. With the UK implementing its own Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) in parallel, global mobility teams should expect a permanent era of mutual pre-travel screening – and communicate the new normal to expatriates and frequent flyers alike.
