Australian flag carrier Qantas has just launched its latest safety video for 2026, and it looks as if the airline has been listening to aviation safety experts who had slammed its last few attempts, which had been mocked as masquerading as tourism videos.
Unveiled with no fanfare whatsoever (in contrast to the last few safety videos from the Sydney-based airlines), Qantas’ latest safety video takes a welcome back-to-basics approach, and, frequent flyers will no doubt be pleased to hear, clocks in at less than four minutes.
Compare that to the airline’s last big-budget production in 2024, which ran to nearly 10 minutes long, taking viewers on a wanderlust-inducing whistle-stop world tour, with safety messages sprinkled in to comply with regulatory guidelines.
Qantas has now addressed complaints that its pre-flight safety video was getting far too long, going from just four minutes in 2013 to just over six minutes in 2017, a seven-minute version in 2018, and by 2020, stretching on for more than eight minutes.
Unlike the last few safety videos, Qantas appears to have listened carefully to the feedback and has addressed many of the concerns head-on:
- The safety video is now mercifully shorter, clocking in at 3 minutes and 58 seconds.
- Safety scenes are presented in real-world aircraft cabins and cabin mockups that closely resemble the environment that passengers actually find themselves in.
- Safety messages are presented by cabin crew wearing the airline’s current uniform.
- Passengers are seen evacuating their aircraft without any hand luggage.
If I were to have one critique, it’s that Qantas has used cabin shots from various aircraft types, which might not exactly mimic the environment of the aircraft that passengers are actually in.
Nonetheless, the 2026 Qantas safety video is a huge departure from the fun videos of the past five years, and it’s an indication that the airline industry is listening to a growing chorus of concerns about the quality and content of safety.
There is, however, some debate about whether amusing and entertaining safety videos are better at holding a passenger’s attention, compared to drier versions like the latest Qantas briefing.
Aviation regulators have long given airlines a lot of scope in how they present their safety videos, just so long as the key regulatory safety messages are presented in some way or form.
It then seemed as if airlines were in competition with one another to see who could come up with the most inventive safety video. That trend is now, however, beginning to die out.
In 2024, captured the zeitgeist with its ‘no-nonsense’ safety video, which called out airlines using “dancers breaking into song, characters from movies, or celebrities trying to be funny.”
Emirates chose to make its serious safety a point of difference, and other airlines are now following the lead.
The real trendsetter, however, was Japan Airlines, which released a hard-hitting animated safety video in 2019, which showed the devastating consequences of not following safety rules.
In one scene, passengers are shown trapped behind someone stopping to get their hand luggage during an emergency evacuation, and in another, a passenger is shown being injured as they attempt to take their bag onto the evacuation slide.
What do you think of Qantas’ latest safety video? Let us know in the comments below…
