Qantas will cut its regular sport sponsorship commitments, estimated to be worth $15 million, in favour of community and arts packages.

The news is a setback for the sports sponsorship industry, where Qantas is one of the biggest spenders, and has sparked suggestions the airline, which is midway through a $3 billion cost-cutting program, is taking a scalpel to its marketing activities.

Despite its $10 million to $15 million Commonwealth Games sponsorship, a one-off commitment in addition to its ongoing sports program, the Qantas group reduced its media spending by 11 per cent to $40 million last year and this week axed its Australian Airlines leisure brand.

But marketing activities are not being reduced, according to Qantas group general manager of marketing Neil Ross, who handles advertising, promotions and sponsorship for the airline.

"We want to achieve a better balance," said Ross in his first interview since joining Qantas in January. "We want to spend more on community and arts and charity sponsorships. [There will be] less sport."

His appointment partly reverses the airline's decision to abolish the chief marketer's role last April following the resignation of marketing director Martin McKinnon as part of the cost-cutting drive.

McKinnon's responsibilities had been divided between sales director Ross Gurney, who became head of sales and marketing, general manager of customer relationship marketing, Neil Thompson, and head of customer services Lesley Grant.

Qantas is a naming-rights sponsor of the Wallabies rugby union team and the Socceroos football side, and has associations with Australian rules, rugby league, golf, the Australian Open tennis, athletics, netball and cricket. It supports 26 community and arts groups including CanTeen, the Starlight Children's Foundation, Opera Australia and the Australian Ballet.

Sponsorship sources predicted Qantas would move away from sports properties that generated brand awareness in favour of key events that could be packaged with flights to generate a measurable increase in sales.

While Qantas was a top-tier sponsor of the Commonwealth Games Melbourne last month, it limited its activities to signage and corporate hospitality, as well as Games travel packages. There was no sign of the $10 million it spent to launch a new version of its "I still call Australia home" commercials featuring child choristers during the 2004 Athens Olympics opening ceremony.

The airline's next major marketing push focuses on its sponsorship of the Socceroos, bringing it into possible conflict with rival airline Emirates, which is a global sponsor of the FIFA World Cup.

Ross said Qantas, which cannot use its naming rights once the tournament begins in June, would not ambush Emirates which it gazumped two years ago with a $7 million bid for the Wallabies naming rights. Instead Qantas would focus on "showing our support for soccer" on SBS during the tournament.

While Emirates ran a promotion earlier this year that included World Cup tickets, Qantas has just launched its "Follow the Socceroos to Germany" promotion, which carefully avoids using the term World Cup and only offers tickets to lead-up matches.

It is expected to boost sales by up to 2 per cent.

Meanwhile, Qantas is gearing up for increasing levels of global competition from low-cost carriers in the Asian region as well as rivals such as Emirates by improving customer service levels and promoting the new larger Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft it has commissioned.

"An airline is something people experience intensely," Ross says. "There's something about the wonder of travel that's wrapped around Qantas."

After 21 years working in advertising agencies, including one he co-founded called Smith Ross & Muir, Ross was retrenched from his role as managing director of McCann-Erickson Sydney by a new management team headed by chief executive Chris Mort last year. He was later approached for the Qantas position.

"[Advertising] is a highly competitive, over-serviced industry with clients just focused on reducing costs," Ross said. "I think I've got a better balance."

Welcome words for Qantas's advertising suppliers Singleton Ogilvy & Mather, M&C Saatchi, Optimedia and Publicis.