Digital arrivals card for all Australian airports this year

Australia will finally abandon that flimsy orange arrivals card this year, as the new Australia Travel Declaration (ATD) goes nationwide.

Yes, it’s the same app-based system which has officially been in ‘trial mode’ since its debut in October 2024 on selected Qantas flights into Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

The Federal Government is now moving the digital Australia Travel Declaration out of this over-long pilot mode, extending it to not only all airports but also cruise terminals and other seaports.

For most travellers, this orange card can't be gone soon enough.

Here’s what you need to know.

The ATD's current footprint will be extended to Adelaide and Perth before the end of 2026.

Across 2027 to mid-2028, the program will be phased in at all Australian international airports and seaports.

Although today the ATD is available only via the Qantas app – which effectively limits its use to passengers on Qantas flights – it will become available for other airlines to integrate into their own apps.

The Australian Border Force says it will also launch its own web-based version of the Australia Travel Declaration through a “purpose-built website”, while the existing paper cards will remain available in the arrivals hall of all airports.

Passengers have three days before the arrival of their flights into Australia to fill out the digital ATD.

How the new Australian Travel Declaration looks when integrated into an airline app (in this case, the Qantas app).

After completing the declaration, passengers receive a digital pass with a QR code through both the Qantas app and their nominated email address; that QR code is shown to ABF officers upon arrival for swift clearance through border controls. 

Third time’s the charm...

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 materialised – for a digital arrivals card to be trialled in early 2018.

This is the third time the Australian Border Force has trialled a digital solution for inbound passengers.

Global IT giant Accenture then spent $60 million of taxpayer 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 these two failed attempts explain the ABF’s abundance of caution in ‘testing’ the Australia Travel Declaration with a staged rollout across a series of tightly controlled markets.