Australia’s incoming passenger card is going digital

Australia is finally set to catch up with the rest of the world in ditching the incoming passenger card for overseas visitors and returning residents.
It’ll be replaced be a digital Australia Travel Declaration, which will begin testing on selected flights from New Zealand to Australia later this year.
However, “the intent of the Australian Travel Declaration program is to encompass all passengers to Australia,” an Australian Border Force spokesperson has confirmed to Executive Traveller.
Qantas has been selected as the first partner airline for the pilot program, with the Australian Border Force saying the trial “will expand to other airlines as the program progresses beyond the pilot stage.”
And while the paper cards are typically handed out during the flight into Australia, travellers will be able to complete the ATD up to three days (72 hours) before their arrival.
While the NZ trial will see the Australia Travel Declaration initially built into Qantas’ smartphone app and completed by “eligible adult passengers” on selected Qantas flights, the ABF tells Executive Traveller that “as the program expands, a purpose-built website will be available.”
Trans-Tasman trials
The ABF and other Australian and New Zealand government agencies have been working closely with Qantas to pilot the Australia Travel Declaration for immigration, customs and biosecurity status on entry to Australia.
The ATD trial has been championed by the Trans-Tasman Seamless Travel Group, a body established last year to explore ways to move closer to seamless travel between the two countries.
“The Australia Travel Declaration is the first initiative from the group and shows the power of a joint approach and leveraging expertise to modernise and improve the experience for travellers,” says Australian Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram.
However, the ABF notes that “piloting the Australia Travel Declaration will allow us to gain valuable feedback from passengers that will help refine the product and inform future expansion. A successful Australia Travel Declaration will be a key foundation for the future of streamlined and contactless travel.”
“We are excited by the possibilities this pilot program can open up for the future traveller experience – both in and out of Australia – and as we prepare to welcome the world when Brisbane hosts the Olympics in 2032,” Outram adds.
Third time’s the charm…
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 in July, in just five months.
Perhaps those two strikes against it might explain the ABF’s caution in beta-testing the Australia Travel Declaration on trans-Tasman travellers.
Our take
The Executive Traveller take on this? As we argued only last week, replacing the paper incoming passenger card with a digital version is long overdue.
It makes sense to start small and trial this on the Australia-New Zealand market, which has long been seeking frictionless movement between the two countries. We hope a successful trial quickly sees the Australia Travel Declaration available on a worldwide basis.
Having the ATD initially built into the Qantas app also speeds the ‘time to market’ for this trial, compared to the ABF building its own website, although of course that will come once the ATD fully replaces the orange incoming passenger card on all flights from overseas.