But there will be across-the-board redundancies, including in management, as the airline seeks to reduce costs to offset a huge blowout in fuel expenses.

Call centre workers in London and Tuscon, Arizona, appear likely to be among the first to go. Staff have been told the airline plans to close the London operation in October and the Tuscon centre in February as it consolidates operations in New Zealand.

The expected Qantas announcement comes as Virgin Blue is expected to unveil the results of a similar review that is tipped to lead to further cuts in capacity, defer aircraft deliveries and increase some fares.

However, Virgin boss Brett Godfrey has said he sees no need for staff cuts unless jet fuel prices, currently at $US171 ($175) a barrel, increase to between $US185 and $US200 and stay at that level.

Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon has made no secret of the fact that there will be more job losses, capacity cuts and fare rises if fuel remains at record levels.

Fuel now accounts for about 35 per cent of airline costs and it is becoming increasingly difficult to hedge against future rises. And while oil prices have come down, the cost oil companies impose to refine jet fuel has again increased after falling earlier in the year.

Qantas announced in May that it was grounding planes, cutting routes and raising fares in order to offset high oil prices. That move resulted in job losses said to be in the low hundreds.

It subsequently announced it would cut services to Japan, switch routes to low-cost subsidiary Jetstar and scrap its pilots base in Cairns.

Jetstar has since also restructured its routes, pulling widebody jets off services to Vietnam and Malaysia, and redeploying them to Tokyo's Narita airport.

This week, Mr Dixon began preparing staff for the blow when he warned them that the aviation industry had changed forever.

"The continuing increase in the price of oil has necessitated a further in-depth review of all aspects of the Qantas Group, particularly how our flying businesses will operate in this new cost environment," he said in a memo. "We undertake this review with some reluctance knowing full well the effort put in and the changes accepted by all of us at Qantas over the past 10 years. However, the facts are that oil prices staying at over $US140-plus a barrel has changed forever the way we do business."

Mr Dixon said he agreed with an assessment by Emirates president Tim Clark, who warned in an opinion piece that the industry was in uncharted territory and faced the biggest crisis in its history, ahead of the Gulf wars, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Mr Clark said the overall view of the industry was dire, many airlines had grounded aircraft or gone bankrupt, and an estimated 100,000 jobs would be cut.

Mr Dixon has indicated that Qantas could cut capacity by about 14 per cent with little effect on the airline's bottom line.

However, The Australian understands that there are no plans to move to that level of cuts at this stage.

The airline has cut about 8 per cent of its capacity so far.