“Disappointing”: New inflight Qantas video slammed for “missing the mark”
A new inflight safety video from Qantas has been widely panned for being “elitist” and “sexist”, while skimming over vital safety information.
The new video, which is set to replace an earlier retro video released in 2020 that marked the airline’s 100th birthday, features frequent flyers and Qantas staff delivering the pre-flight safety announcement from their favourite “magic places” around the world.
The video features destinations such as Litchfield National Park near Darwin and Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia, as well as international places such as Lapland in Finland and Marrakesh in Morocco.
After the video was shared by the airline, members of the Flight Attendants Association of Australia were quick to express their feelings.
Flight Attendants Association of Australia national secretary Teri O-Toole told news.com.au the video was “disappointing” for a lot of different reasons.
“Not one Australian-based international crew member was used,” she said.
“There are no cabin crew in uniform and there are no shots of the interior of an aircraft which are all important factors for non-English speaking passengers and those that need to know who is in charge.”
“Not once does it say ‘follow the directions of your crew member’, which you would’ve thought would be the focus of a safety video.”
She also questioned why a female pilot appeared in a swimsuit, suggesting that sort of depiction took women in the workplace took the airline “back 20 years”
“I didn’t see a male pilot in a pair of budgie smugglers,” she said.
She went on to describe the video as “great marketing”, but totally “misses the mark” in terms of a safety video, while also adding “elitist” to focus on frequent flyers during a cost of living crisis.
Social media users were equally scathing.
“I’d prefer just focus on, oh I dunno, in flight safety during the in-flight safety video?,” one wrote. “Why do we need a long video with all this added stuff?”
Another described it as “slow, long, tedious and boring. I couldn't make it through the entire thing”, while a third person labelled it “absolutely awful”.
Qantas chief customer officer Catriona Larritt defended the video insisting safety was the number one priority across the Qantas Group, and the in-flight video together with cabin crew, plays a key role in capturing the attention of travellers to watch and listen to the critical information.
“First and foremost, the video is about familiarising our customers with safety procedures and we try to make it as engaging as possible, in particular for regular flyers who might otherwise tune out,” she said.
Image credits: Qantas