Australia is finally catching up with the rest of the world in ditching its incoming passenger card for overseas visitors and returning residents, with the debut of a new digital alternative: the Australia Travel Declaration (ATD).
The digital Australia Travel Declaration is now being piloted on selected Qantas flights from New Zealand to Brisbane, beginning with QF126 from Auckland to Brisbane, with plans to extend the trial to other Qantas NZ-Brisbane flights this week.
Additional Australian destinations and other international Qantas routes are set to join the program “in the coming months”, says Qantas, which is trialling the fast-
tracked arrival process as part of a joint initiative with the Australian Government.
The system generates a QR code that passengers present to Border Force officers upon arrival, replacing the need for a paper card.
However, the Australia Travel Declaration will be an airline-agnostic platform, with a spokesperson for the Australian Border Force (ABF) confirming to Executive Traveller that eventually a Government-run “purpose-built website will be available” – and, we can only presume, an app – for completing the Australia Travel Declaration.
Passengers will have three days to fill out the digital ATD, with the in-app version available up to 72 hours before departure.
Having the ATD initially built into the Qantas app has no doubt speed the ‘time to market’ for this trial, compared to the ABF building its own website form the outset, and could also open the way for other airlines to integrate the ATD into their own apps to provide travellers with a one-stop service.
Qantas Chief Customer and Digital Officer, Catriona Larritt, said the airline’s partnership with the ATD would “make flying into Australia that little bit easier for millions of tourists and Australians each year.”
“The paperless declaration means no more trying to find a pen and your flight details midway through your flight” in order to scribble down all your details on that orange incoming passenger card.
During these early stages of the Qantas ATD trial the digital declaration is available only to adult passengers on single bookings, but by mid-next year it’s expected to accommodate bookings with children and groups.
Those who prefer the existing paper card can still opt for it during the trial phase.
The Australia Travel Declaration is part of the Trans-Tasman Seamless Travel Group’s efforts to facilitate seamless travel between Australia and New Zealand, with ABF Commissioner Michael Outram praising the ATD as a “key foundation for future streamlined and contactless travel.”
Third time’s the charm…
And as we argued only recently, replacing the paper incoming passenger card with a digital version is long overdue.
This is now the third time Australia has attempted to replace the paper-based incoming passenger card.
The Government’s ‘seamless traveller’ initiative of 2016, which was behind the rollout of passport smartgates using facial ID, also included plans – which never eventuated – for a digital arrivals card to be trialled in early 2018.
Global IT giant Accenture then spent $60 million of taxpayer’s money across a staggering three years to develop the Digital Passenger Declaration platform, including a smartphone app which went live in February 2022 as post-pandemic travel kicked in.
But the Digital Passenger Declaration was so appallingly bad in just about every measure – as any traveller of the time can attest – that it was axed after only five months, in July 2022.
Perhaps those two strikes against it might explain the ABF’s caution in ‘beta-testing’ the Australia Travel Declaration with a staged rollout across a series of tightly controlled markets, such as trans-Tasman travellers.
SOURCE – https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/qantas-australian-digital-incoming-passenger-card
