Jetstar Pacific, the Vietnamese arm of Australia’s budget airline brand, has lost its chief executive as a result of what Australia’s Herald Sun newspaper described as “ideological differences”. Qantas holds 27 per cent of the Vietnamese brand.

The move is a major setback for the Australian carrier, which is under orders from the Vietnamese Transport Ministry to strip the Jetstar name and distinctive orange branding off the six-jet fleet by October because it is “too Australian”, the paper said. Jetstar’s Australian chief Bruce Buchanan was recently in Hanoi to try and diffuse the crisis.