Australia's incoming passenger card is going digital — and it's starting at the country's newest international gateway. From Monday 26 October, Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport will be the first Australian airport to accept the web-based Australia Travel Declaration (ATD) from international arrivals, replacing the familiar paper card you used to fill in on the plane.
Travellers can complete the online form at any point up to 72 hours before their flight, lodging immigration, customs and biosecurity declarations in one go. Once submitted, they get a single QR code that carries them through the arrivals process at the airport. It works for families too, so one submission can cover the whole household. The paper card isn't dead — it stays available for anyone without a device or those who simply prefer the old way.
The system was trialled by the Australian Border Force, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Qantas, and the numbers so far suggest plenty of people are already using it: more than 477,000 travellers lodged a declaration across over 8,400 eligible flights between 1 January and 30 September 2026, with over 118,000 of those making a biosecurity declaration.
For the government, the appeal is speed and smarter screening. Border and biosecurity officers get the declaration information earlier, which helps them target checks and respond to global health or biosecurity risks rather than processing everyone the same way on arrival. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke summed up the pitch bluntly: he wants arrivals out of the airport and enjoying Australia as fast as possible.
Western Sydney is going first partly because it's new — the airport has only just launched its first international flights and lounge, and Infrastructure Minister Catherine King called it Australia's most technologically advanced airport. From here, the ATD will roll out to every other international airport and seaport in phases over the next 12 to 18 months, backed by more than $56 million in funding over four years from 2026/27.
Why it matters for travellers: if you're flying into Western Sydney from 26 October, you can skip the paper card entirely by filling in the web-form beforehand — five minutes on your phone a day or two before departure could mean a faster queue at the border. If you're entering Australia elsewhere for now, expect the digital option to reach your arrival airport within the next couple of years. Anyone travelling with elderly relatives, kids without devices or patchy access to the internet should note that the paper card remains a valid fallback, so no one is forced online.
