Qatar Airways’ New Safety Video, Featuring Kevin Hart

Qatar Airways has just unveiled its newest safety video, which will be available on all flights by January 2025…

A look at Qatar Airways’ new safety video

Qatar Airways’ new safety video stars actor and comedian Kevin Hart, who is also a new brand ambassador for the airline. The video features scenes from across Qatar, Nairobi, New York, Paris, and Sydney.

Here’s how Qatar Airways describes the video, including some of the other appearances:

Travellers will not want to miss a moment of Mr. Hart’s performance, or the star-studded cameo appearances that help him demonstrate the airline’s important safety instructions. Supermodel Rosie Huntington-Whiteley assists him to reach new heights – in this instance, the overhead lockers – and Anwar and Amal Jibawi remind him to ensure seatbelts are tightly secured and kept on throughout the flight. Additionally, Khaby Lame supports Kevin Hart doing what he does best, and Adam Waheed demonstrates how to put on an oxygen mask.  

It’s not often you see an airline CEO commenting on the safety video, so here’s what Qatar Airways Group CEO Badr Mohammed Al Meer (who is an awesome guy) had to say:

“At Qatar Airways, the safety of our passengers and crew is our highest priority. Our main ambition for this project was to design an in-flight safety video that passengers will not want to miss.”

“As we continue to become more technologically advanced, we are seeing more and more passengers not paying enough attention to the in-flight safety video, instead opting for entertainment content on their other devices. We decided there was no better way to capture their attention than with their favourite celebrities and content creators. Shining a spotlight and amplifying this message, we are proud to welcome Kevin Hart, our latest Global Brand Ambassador, to help spread the word.”

You can watch the new safety video for yourself below.

For context, below is the safety video that’s being replaced, which highlighted destinations across Qatar.

My take on Qatar Airways’ new safety video

Nowadays airlines put quite a bit of effort into their safety videos. It’s something that just about every passenger will watch, and therefore it’s viewed as an extension of the brand, and as a marketing opportunity. Furthermore, many airlines assume that passengers are more likely to watch a safety video if it’s entertaining.

In recent years, we’ve generally seen airlines go one of three directions with safety videos. Some safety videos highlight a carrier’s home country or destination, some safety videos are intended to be humorous or entertaining, and some safety videos are just intended to convey information in a straightforward way.

As you can probably see above, Qatar Airways’ previous safety video fit into that first category (highlighting Qatar Airways’ home country), while the new video fits into the second category (being humorous and entertaining).

We don’t see many airlines just trying to convey safety instructions in a straightforward way nowadays, though that’s exactly what Emirates did with its recent no-nonsense safety video.

It’s interesting how the video starts with essentially calling out that Emirates safety video, with Hart saying:

“You know, they say a lot of these safety videos are no-nonsense. How about we just call it what it is — unimaginative, uninventive, and flat out boring.”

What’s my take on Qatar Airways’ new safety video?

• I’m generally not a fan of these comedy sketch safety videos, though I’ve gotta give the airline credit that this is one of the funnier ones that I’ve seen
• I think this video will definitely be funnier the first or second time you see it, and probably less entertaining for frequent flyers
• The video is really long, at nearly 7.5 minutes, and that’s just in English (and not Arabic); I wonder if it’ll be made shorter for onboard, or else this may be one of the longest safety videos out there
• One of the issues with these kinds of safety videos is that there are lots of people who may not have English as their first language, and it can be hard to follow along, given the pace at which things move, the jokes, etc.

While this isn’t my favorite safety video ever, and while I’m a fan of Emirates’ no-nonsense video, this is one of the better comedy routine videos I’ve seen in some time.

Bottom line

Qatar Airways has unveiled its new safety video, starring Kevin Hart, who is also a new brand ambassador for the company. The new safety video is humorous and well produced, though definitely long. It’s pretty clear that a lot of effort went into this video.

What do you make of Qatar Airways’ new safety video?