AUSTRALIA: Makes incoming passenger card digital

Qantas is trialling a digital version of the Australia Travel Declaration card on select routes to from New Zealand.

In this joint initiative with the Australian Government, Qantas passengers arriving in Australia from New Zealand will experience this new fast-track arrival process.

Qantas is piloting the new Australia Digital Travel Declaration (ATD), which will replace the current incoming passenger card.

The first to experience this new digital process are those arriving from Auckland to Brisbane on flight QF126. Over the next few days, the program will be expanded. Initially, to other flights arriving in Brisbane from other New Zealand departure cities. Eventually, it will be extended to other Australian arrival ports.

How Australia Digital Travel Declaration works

 Qantas passengers will be able to access the digital ATD on the Qantas app 72 hours before departure. If you do it before your flight, you won’t have to scramble for a pen during the flight.

You will be sent a QR code via email and through the Qantas App that you can show to the Australian Border Force on arrival.

At the moment, the trial is only available to single adult travellers

2PAXfly Takeout

This is what the packet says—an electronic version of the card. You will still probably have to scrabble for your passport, decide whether to answer yes or no, etc. It’s not going to be a great time saver; it just means you won’t need a pen.

After this initial trial, expect to see this rolled out on other airlines or an independent, airline-agnostic ATD app or website.

Part of me will be nostalgic for those paper cards. It always felt like official confirmation that you were travelling home when they would distribute these cards on the incoming flight, and you would have to borrow a pen to complete them.

This is not the first attempt at such a digital process. It was initially promised as part of the smart gates rollout in 2016. Again, in 2022, Accenture had an AU$60 million contract to introduce one, which was a disaster, as was much of the Morrison Government’s digital innovations (Robodebt, anyone?).