February 22, 2019 
19 Comments 
Qantas, Jetstar and QantasLink will all ditch paper boarding passes and switch to a purely digital system in a move due to be introduced across both airlines this year.
In a bid to cut down on paper waste, the Qantas Group plans to become the first airline in the world to reuse, recycle and compost at least 75 per cent of its waste by the end of 2021.
The change will apply to all international and domestic boarding passes.
Qanats also announced it would cut out single-use plastics, replacing them with “alternative packaging”. Along with plans for paperless passes and operational manuals, coffee cups will be recycled or composted, old crew uniforms will be recycled and more food will be composted or donated to those who need it.
“In the process of carrying 50 million people each year, we deal with more than 30,000 tonnes of waste. That’s the same weight as about 80 747 jumbos,” said Qantas Group chief Alan Joyce.
“It is quite literally a waste, and we have a responsibility to our customers, shareholders and the community to reduce it.”
Mr Joyce says he’s proud of what Qantas is doing to reduce its carbon footprint.
“We’ve already removed plastic wrapping on our pyjamas and headsets, as well as plastic straws. Even plastic Frequent Flyer cards are going digital,” he said.
“It adds up to millions of items a year because of our scale, and there’s a lot more we can do.
“Few industries can eradicate waste completely, but with this program we’re saying that avoidable waste should no longer be an acceptable by-product of how we do business.
“This isn’t just the right thing to do, it is good for business and will put us ahead of legislative requirements in the various countries we operate in where there is an end-date on various single-use plastics.”
And the cuts could eventually trickle down to the bottom line, especially the staff costs associated with the time it takes to manage waste during and after a flight.
“Some of the best feedback to our efforts so far has been from our crew who see the sheer volume of waste generated in cabins of hundreds of people every day,” said Mr Joyce.
Qantas has targets to reduce fuel, water and electricity consumption, and claims it already has the largest carbon offset scheme of any airline in the world.
Would you choose Qantas because of its environmental focus? Or do you just want the cheapest, best flights possible? Do you applaud the group for this action?
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How is this going to work, are they saying you won’t be able to get a paper ticket or boarding pass at all, and you must use some sort of electrical or mobile device to enable you to board the plane? I can see a lot of delays with flat batteries if that’s the case.
This article was meant to be a Qantas ad, Jim!
Also, they need to first make sure their Online check-in system works, as often it doesn’t!
Their quality within the plane is also severely lacking – both for badly maintained facilities & the couldn’t-care-less staff. Over-rated airline – Joyce needs to fix that, rather than focus on the size of his Bonus.
Too many inconvenient questions here.
I don’t own a smartphone so does this mean I will not be able to book a Qantas or Jetstar flight?? If this proposal is exactly as indicated in your article, it is ridiculous and I am totally sick to death of companies, and individuals, thinking that every person in the world has as smartphone and wants to only do business digitally. I own a simple mobile phone which we don’t take with us when we travel overseas.
Plenty of senior travellers do not have smart phones, so does this mean they can no longer travel? My brother is one of these, trip booked in a few weeks, and already stressing about this. Should be the same, that is either is a legal ticket.
This is the journalists interpretation of Qantas’ plans. They won’t abandon paper boarding passes for those who need them. I already use a digital boarding pass and have done so for years. Simple as….
Brilliant idea ,just like the Greens suggestion about washing out used condoms
Just as well I won’t have a bar of Quantas then. Another nail in their coffin. Over priced and overated!
great for people like my father who doesn’t have any digital/electronic devices at all NOT
There isn’t enough detail in this article to comment properly, nowhere in the story does it mention mobile devices, it could mean the paper tickets are replaced by a tag which you hand in once you board the plane, or something similar. Wait till you get the full story before you start to panic.
If you have private health cover and go overseas, you need to suspend the cover before you go and resume the cover when you land. If you don’t have access to a paper boarding pass for either of your journeys, then the health fund may not resume your cover until you get a copy of them.
That puts paid to purely digital versions of boarding passes for overseas trips.
I’d still rather fly BA than Qantas! And that’s saying something from an Aussie born and bred.
I’m pricing flights from Sydney to London via Singapore for a July departure and October return and BA is still the cheapest @ around $6500 return for a business seat and Qantas going for around $8000.
Please tell me what the difference is?
Luggage limits
BA – 2 bags @ 32kg each (total 64 kg)
Qantas – 40kg flat, no leeway (adult with no frequent flyer advantages)
Why would I ever want to fly Qantas with a smaller luggage limit and a higher price? My answer is NEVER!
I won’t fly ‘Cattle Class’ full-stop!
Have you seen the Finair prices?
Suggest you might also look at the ABT and FFG newsletters, gray info on them.
I am a star alliance Flyer only, so getting platinum really helps.
Hey SuziJ check out Royal Brunei. Great airline, great fares, flown to Heathrow with them the last 6 times
Great that they are reducing their waste, people should support it. Have they got solar energy on all those airport roof’s yet?