It’s clear much of Australia spent lockdown planning their next overseas holiday. What a difference a year makes! The first real full-year indication of just how quickly Australia’s travel industry sprang back into action has been released in the latest Australian Government International Airline Activity report. Data for the full-year ending October 2022, reveals that as Sydney and Melbourne ended their final pandemic-induced lockdowns in October 2021, travel planning began ...

In yet another sign that the days of COVID-19 are behind us, several cruise lines have or are returning to traditional muster drills. Disney Cruise Line was the first to return to traditional musters, starting back in November. "We regularly review our processes and made the decision to return to in-person assembly drills in November to ensure all Crew Members and guests are fully aware of our safety procedures in ...

Boarding passes will soon be a thing of the past. Last week, Air New Zealand customers were some of the first to experience biometric verification at the boarding gate after a successful trial at Los Angeles Airport. It’s all part of Air New Zealand’s plan to take the friction out of travel and to make the journey through the airport that much smoother. No sighting passports and no scanning boarding ...

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has released Australia’s next-generation passport, the ‘R Series’. The new passport is even more secure than the trusted ‘P Series’ passport, which has been issued to Australian travellers since 2014. In an Australian first, the R Series has a high security photo page made of layered plastic, making the passport harder to forge and less susceptible to damage. The visa pages show ...