Qantas Airways has sacked a John Travolta safety video from its flights, igniting union fears that CEO Alan Joyce will soon announce a major restructure of the Australian airline that will include pilots' jobs being outsourced.

John Travolta has told Qantas passengers for months that “there is no one I’d rather have at the controls than a Qantas pilot”, but the seemingly common sense message has now earned the Hollywood star the sack from the Qantas in-flight video.

With Qantas management under Alan Joyce preparing to announce moves to replace Australian Qantas pilots with outsourced and offshore alternatives on August 24, Travolta’s message has been deemed inappropriate for the times. The controversial in-flight safety video is being phased out on Qantas flights, with Travolta’s line scrapped and copies of the video removed from YouTube over the weekend.

AIPA Vice President Richard Woodward said as the extreme unpopularity of management’s plans become more and more obvious, desperation seemed to be setting in.

“Admittedly, the John Travolta in-flight video had its fair share of detractors, but the one line I think everyone agreed with was that there is no one you would rather have at the controls than a Qantas pilot,” Captain Woodward said.

“In simpler times, this would be an uncontroversial remark, but with Alan Joyce now eager to outsource Qantas pilot jobs overseas, well, suddenly Travolta is out of step with the CEO.