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Qantas has quietly rolled out a new in-flight safety video that ditches its previous emphasis on global destinations and diversity, replacing it with a much shorter and more direct presentation.
The safety video, which premiered on 737 flights late last week, opens with a scene from the expansive and still-empty Western Sydney International Airport, which it notes in small text is on the land of the Dharug people.
The roughly four-minute-long video is primarily set aboard planes, with passing glimpses of Australian airports.
The previous video, from 2024, began with an Indigenous crew member speaking about her “magic place” in the Northern Territory before touring through Qantas staff members’ and customers’ favourite places across the world, many with local cultural performances in the background.
The full-length version ran for about 9½ minutes and faced criticism for distracting viewers from safety information by interspersing it with clips from places ranging from Litchfield National Park in the Northern Territory to Queenstown, New Zealand; Lapland in northern Finland; and Los Angeles.
The video begins with a group of Qantas pilots and crew in their uniforms striding across a runway towards a plane. A pilot says: “Welcome to Qantas. For over 100 years, safety has been our number one priority.”
“You’re about to hear from the people who make us one of the world’s safest airlines,” she says, followed by a flight attendant identifying the plane type before the video cuts to the interior of a 737 with another flight attendant explaining how the seat belts work.
After a quick animation showing Qantas aircraft of the past, the video features flight attendants and ground crew demonstrating seat belts, oxygen masks and aisle lighting, with only modest movie magic.
New rules banning the use of power banks on planes are also included.
Qantas group safety chief Mark Cameron said: “Safety videos are a critical part of flying and are complementary to the role that our cabin crew play to deliver safety messages to our customers,” said
“Our latest safety video is filmed on board our aircraft and in our training centres and features our people demonstrating key safety information for our customers,” he said.
The video is a return to basics, following the lush 2024 video, which attracted scrutiny and criticism from the public and unions.
At the time, then chief customer officer Catriona Larritt said Qantas was “proud to feature our own well-travelled team members and customers, to not only deliver the safety message but also promote travel and tourism by inspiring people to explore destinations they may not have experienced throughout Australia and beyond”.
Airlines like British Airways and Air New Zealand produce elaborate, star-studded films whose tourism and entertainment rival the safety content of their message.
Airlines point to the need to capture the flying public’s attention in order to convey a safety message. However, the films have become a bit of an arm’s race between airlines, especially national carriers who use it as a tourism marketing tool.
Critics contend such productions undermine safety communications.
At the time, Teri O’Toole, the federal secretary of the Flight Attendants’ Association of Australia, said she couldn’t “see anything” in the 2024 video “that assist[ed] a cabin crew as a first responder to do their role”.
In a possible nod to this debate, Qantas this week said the primary objective of the video was to ensure customers understood the safety procedures, but it also needed to capture their attention so safety remained in front of mind.
And that particularly goes for regular flyers who might otherwise tune out.
Qantas said it typically refreshes its videos every couple of years, like most airlines.
Initial reception to the new video appears positive.
One comment on the Australian Frequent Flyer Forum this week said the new video looked like it was “far more focused on the no-nonsense safety procedures on board, which would reflect a growing trend away from the videos that, while better at getting attention, were bordering on abstract and doubling as advertisements”.
Comments on the same forum for the 2024 video were harsher.
“I tried to keep going through the whole thing and failed, and I normally love the QF safety videos. Although it is beautifully shot, it is so glacially paced and uninteresting that it felt like a chore to watch.”
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Chris Zappone is a senior reporter covering aviation and business. He is former digital foreign editor.Connect via X, Facebook or email.From our partners
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