Qantas, Virgin Australia apps to get live flight tracking
Airline apps will gain fresh features courtesy of Apple’s new iOS 26 software.
By David Flynn, October 14 2025
Qantas and Virgin Australia are both in line for an upgrade to their iPhone apps which will include live flight tracking.
This will let travellers see important flight information such as estimated arrival time displayed on the iPhone’s lock screen as a Live Activity, in the same way that live sports scores can be displayed today.
It’s courtesy of the smart boarding pass feature in Apple’s latest iPhone iOS 26 software, which is already up and running on the United Airlines app.
The beefed-up UA digital boarding pass which is tucked into the Apple Wallet lets users easily track their flight.
Apple's iOS 26 will supercharge boarding passes and airline apps.
Additionally, this Live Activity can be shared with friends or family members who need to track your flight; they’ll see the same Live Activity on their lock screen, although without your boarding group and seat number.
Similar functionality is already available on the popular Flighty app, although Flighty offers a much richer set of features geared to frequent travellers.
In addition, enhanced Apple Wallet boarding passes will display relevant information such as Apple Maps directions for the airport terminal and a shortcut to AirTag baggage tracking in the Find My app.
Apple also says it will be easier to access “key services on an airline’s app, such as seat upgrades and standby lists”, although this facility will need to be embraced by each airline’s IT team.
The list of airlines on the starting block for the smart boarding passes of iOS 26, as advised by Apple, includes Qantas, Virgin Australia, Jetstar, Air Canada, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and the Lufthansa Group.
QF
11 Jul 2014
Total posts 1080
So Flighty is gone from my Home Screen, Tripit is killing me to when it joins 15 trips together into one.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
11 Oct 2014
Total posts 689
So, what plans do Qantas and Virgin Australia plan to extend these new features to their apps in the vastly more popular Android world ?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
27 May 2023
Total posts 3
It might happen, but it would be much harder to roll out to a critical mass. As a result, airlines would be hesitant to devote resources to support this platform. Not to mention the question of what Android version they could roll this feature out to. Apple controls the iOS hardware and software, which allows mass adaptation of updates, whilst Google only controls the software and a very few handsets. Most Android users are on older Android versions due to slow update cycles, manufacturer restrictions, and hardware limitations. Only about 4.5% of active devices are running Android 15, and a negligible number are running the most recent Android 16. Consequently, approximately 95% of Android devices cannot be upgraded to the most recent version as of October 2025.
20 Nov 2015
Total posts 601
Global market share is not relevant here, you want to be talking about AU market share, which is evenly split, as of March 2025 this was ~53% Android and ~45% iOS. But either way, Qantas and Virgin can only add this feature to their apps because of Apple enabling it in iOS 26, so don't blame the airlines, blame Google if that same technology is not already in Android.
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