Qantas extends Next-Generation Checkin to New Zealand

Qantas will introduce Next-generation Checkin to New Zealand airports by year's end, and is also looking to extend the service to the USA, beginning with the mega-hub of Los Angeles.

The award-winning self-service checkin system will go live at Sydney and Melbourne international airports, along with Auckland airport, on November 29.

Brisbane, Wellington and Queenstown will follow in early December, with Christchurch going live by end the of December.

“The international Q Card readers will have the capability to take a passport swipe and when it prints off the boarding pass it also includes access to the express path” says Alison Webster, Qantas Executive Manager for Customer Experience.

The system is aimed at passengers who travel with carry-on bags only, “and that’s as many as two-thirds of our frequent flyer across the Tasman” Webster told Australian Business Traveller.

Webster said that Qantas is also examining an international rollout of Next-generation Checkin, starting with Los Angeles and Sydney.

“We recognise that Los Angeles is a pain point for our customers so that’s one of the key ports we’re looking at, and clearly our home port of Sydney will be another focus.”

The system will look and work different to the domestic Next-Generation Checkin, Webster says, due to “the complexities of the environment, with immigration and customs and the more complex regulatory controls.”

The size and scope of LAX will set a high bar for Qantas, but as Webster says, “if we can do Next-generation Checkin there we can do it anywhere.”

David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.