Qantas makes major change to how passengers board domestic flights

Qantas passengers travelling domestically may notice new systems for boarding from Monday, as the airline begins a rollout of new “Australian-first” procedures aimed at speeding up performance times. The improved boarding systems will be implemented across four major domestic airports, starting with Brisbane Airport on June 3, followed by Perth on June 10, Melbourne on June 17, and finally Sydney on June 25. While airlines have largely used systems such as boarding from the back to the front, or seating premium cabins and high-ranking frequent flyers first, Qantas’ new system will assign passengers a group number from one to six on their boarding passes, which will determine when the passenger can board. The location of a passenger’s seat in the aircraft will affect their number allocation, but cabin and frequent flyer status will still be a factor. The overhauled group boarding procedures will apply to all domestic routes departing Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, operated by Boeing 737 and Airbus A330 aircraft. The new procedures, which follow months of trials conducted from mid-2023, mark the “most comprehensive change” to the airline’s boarding processes in more than a decade, according to Qantas’ domestic CE Markus Svensson. “Group boarding is designed to minimise the time our customers spend waiting to board and allows them to get settled more quickly,” Svensson said.<br/>