Apple Wallet: These airlines are participating in Apple’s improved boarding passes

With iOS 26, Apple has upgraded its Wallet app on the iPhone. In addition to new AI functions for shopping, this also applies to flying: boarding passes are now supposed to be smarter. However, this is only possible if the respective airline plays along. The first airlines have already announced that they will support the “Refreshed Boarding Passes”.

Information from airline apps directly in the wallet

The idea is to combine the respective boarding pass with live activities, such as those known from Flighty and more and more apps from airlines themselves (such as KLM and Air France). You can easily follow the progress of a flight as a live activity in the Dynamic Island or on the lock screen. Another new feature is that you can share this information with friends and family.

Furthermore, the new boarding passes also have other iOS features such as direct access to Maps for navigation on the airport grounds or “Find My?” for finding items or luggage. Also nice: Airlines can map parts of their app in the Apple Wallet, such as Apple announces: Including the ability to purchase seat upgrades or get on a standby list.

Lufthansa joins in

So far, it has not yet been said when the introduction of the new boarding passes in Apple Wallet will start in general. So far, the service has only been partially implemented by United Airlines. Otherwise, only those who otherwise take part in the first round are announced. According to Apple, these are the US airlines America, Delta, JetBlue and Southwest, Air Canada from Canada, Qantas Virgin Australia and Jetstar from Australia as well as the Lufthansa Group (without specifying the respective brand) from Europe.

Initial tests with United show what the new boarding passes look like in concrete terms. There, at the push of a button, there is a live activity (it apparently doesn’t start by default), the possibility to share the “Flight Tracker” with other people (who then also see a live activity) and buttons for route guidance via maps as well as tracking luggage in “Find My?”. Changes to the flight apparently cannot be made directly in the wallet at United. No information on how complex the implementation will be has yet been given. Details on how to update Wallet passes Apple states on its developer website. Further details can be found on a (so far still quite narrow) Info website as well as a developer video. However, it is about all the new features in Wallet for iOS 26.