The use of corrosion resistant, and adhesion promoting films and coatings is established industrial practice for many fatigue sensitive components and structures. However, recent environmental legislation restricting the use of a range of toxic heavy metals and their derivative processes, such as chromic acid anodising (CAA), has meant that a number of new coatings systems and pretreatments are currently being developed to replace the traditional processes still in use. Typical of these new systems are the boric acid-sulphuric acid anodising (BSAA) process which can be modified to provide excellent adhesive bonding properties; the sulphuric acid anodising process, which includes an additional electrolytic phosphoric acid deoxidizing stage (EPAD) to produce a duplex oxide layer, and the recently patented ACDC sulphuric acid anodising process which produces a two layered oxide film which can be tailored to produce different porosity volume fractions within each layer. This communication reports the preliminary findings of a study carried out to assess the fatigue response of Al2618:T6 aluminium alloys to these new processes. In contrast to CAA anodising, the initial results indicate that the EPAD and ACDC processes do not appear to have a significant affect on fatigue.