New ID Cards Could Cancel Out Passport Requirement for trips from Britain to EU Countries

Recent suggestions indicate that a new travel scheme involving ID cards could help out UK travel insurance customers intending to travel to destinations within Europe. ABTA, The Travel Association, said that the initiative could allow for cheaper ways for British citizens to travel back and forth from Britain to the mainland.

Sean Tipton, the spokesman for ABTA, said that new ID cards would cut down costs by eliminating the requirement to purchase a passport for British citizens who only plan on travelling within the European Union. He added that for a long term outlook, should the ID cards be a success, and everyone receives one, then the cost of traveling to Europe would become a lot cheaper by avoiding hefty passport fees. He also indicated that the majority of Brits still only holiday to the EU when going abroad.

The Identity and Passport Service announced their decision to increase prices for adult ten-year passports from £72 to £77.50, which partially prompted the travel company’s comments. New ID cards, should they be approved, will only cost £30.

Recently, the Daily Telegraph released figures which indicated that roughly 28 million consumers would have to participate in the scheme in order to help meet the overall tax payer cost of £825 million. Although, these numbers might be possible as this year annual passport applications fell to an all time low.

Records indicate that this year only a total of 5.23 million Brits applied for renewal or new passports. Previous years have seen numbers in the 6-7 millions applying for passport applications. Since the global recession hit, figures have been consistently slowing with 2007/2008 seeing 5.9 million passport applicants, and 2008/2009 seeing only a total of 5.2 million passport applicants.
With new budget airlines springing up all over Europe, passport costs can actually quite often be more expensive than the flight to the EU, causing many Brits to think twice about taking trips if they are not already passport holders.