Qantas' workforce fears deep job cuts as high as 3000 will be revealed next week when the airline's management reveals how it plans to strip $2 billion in costs from the business.

The airline flagged in December that it will report a half-year loss of up to $300 million, and detail the extent of job cuts which it has previously said will be at least 1000 this year.

Fears are growing Qantas will slash as many as 3000 jobs when it unveils its half-year results next week.

Well-placed sources said on Friday they believed the jobs cuts, likely to include engineers and pilots, would be in the thousands. While they could not put a definite number on the cuts, sources said they would be ''pleasantly surprised'' if it was less than 2000 or 3000.

Qantas would not respond directly to questions of how many jobs would be axed but put out a statement late on Friday noting a ''series of unsubstantiated and unsourced rumours swirling around ahead of our half-year results, ranging from estimates on job losses to route changes''.