Qantas rolls out boarding changes

Qantas has revealed new boarding processes for passengers and new baggage tracking technology in a series of presentations to investors designed to highlight the airline’s financial strength.

The investor day in Sydney heard from key executives including CEO Alan Joyce, Qantas domestic and international CEO Andrew David and Jetstar CEO Steph Tully.

Chief customer officer Markus Svensson outlined how Qantas was investing “in the customer” to improve their experience, with initiatives such as “smarter and better boarding” due to start in October.

This would involve passengers boarding in groups, similar to what happens at many overseas airports, in an effort to further improve on-time performance and take the stress out of finding a space for carry-on luggage.

A passenger’s boarding group would be printed on their boarding pass and called by cabin crew at the gate.

An overhaul of the Qantas app will also see baggage tracking technology added, to help give passengers peace of mind that their luggage is travelling with them on their journey.

The tech will be linked to barcodes on checked luggage, and will send notifications to passengers at various points throughout the trip, including before takeoff, during transit and on arrival.

The feature was expected to become available by the end of the year; Virgin Australia announced similar technology couple of weeks ago.

Investors also heard that demand for travel was showing no sign of easing in the wake of the pandemic, with domestic travel intent twice that of 2019 levels, and international travel intent up 80 per cent.

At the same time supply was expected to remain constrained for years to come eventually matching demand at the end of the decade.