Qantas today hit back at Hanoi after allegations about the safety of its minority-owned Jetstar Pacific domestic airline in Vietnam were given prominence in the Australian media.

The term “hit back” is not one used by Qantas. It is still trying to play the patience and low key, meek and mild cards in what is turning into a tense battle of wills over the future of its $US50 million ($A54 million) 27% stake in the carrier, which it officially regards as a critical part of its trans-border franchising of its low-cost brand throughout Asia.

But the pressure is piling up.

An official rebuttal of the safety claims in the form they have been hyped up is about to come out of Qantas.

The allegations related to claims made by two Australian employees who Jetstar sacked for poor performance after it gained access to management decisions in Jetstar Pacific.

The Qantas statement will build on an earlier Jetstar statement that the allegations primarily concerned administrative or record-keeping issues, which had been identified by an investigation by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam into nine specific allegations.

Jetstar received the official audit by the CAAV on Tuesday following its own extensive audit of the operations conducted last year.

It is reported in the Vietnam media as having accepted that report and to have begun working with the authority to address and rectify those issues as necessary.

It is also understood that some of those issues arose because of the incompetence of the expat workers Jetstar  sacked. The then CEO of Jetstar Pacific, Luong Haoi Nam, resigned from his role in November while the audits caused by the allegations were under way.  He and the two expats are adversely named in the CAAV audit.

Jetstar Pacific is burdened by having a small fleet of aged Boeing 737-400s, which Jetstar in Australia plans to replace with new Airbus A320s similar to its own, one of which is already in service in Vietnam.

Will the old Boeings be replaced by new Jetstar A320s? That’s a question that only Hanoi can answer.