Any federal government support given to Qantas should also be offered to Virgin Australia, Virgin’s chief executive John Borghetti says.

In an open letter to the federal government, Mr Borghetti on Thursday said Virgin had always sought to “to bring strong competition to all sectors of the Australian market, not to destroy the competition”.

He said if the federal government really wanted a “level playing field” in aviation then it should give Virgin the same level of support as any offered to Qantas.

“Any measures that the government plans to take to support Qantas should be offered to Virgin Australia,” Mr Borghetti’s letter states.

“If any government support was given to the dominant player, we would expect the same level of support.”

The letter comes after Qantas on Thursday said it would shed at least 1000 jobs as it works to save $2 billion over the next three years, after announcing it expects to post a half-year loss of up to $300 million.

Qantas’ shares dropped 14.5 per cent to $1.06 as of 1235 AEDT following the announcement.

Qantas is currently in dialogue with the federal government about possible support for the airline.

The airline’s CEO Alan Joyce says government support would help create a “level playing field” for Qantas to compete with Virgin, which is funded by state-backed enterprises.

Mr Borghetti urged the government also to look at Qantas’ strategy of maintaining a 65 per cent share of the domestic aviation market.

“This is a strategy that prevents competition including the possibility of new entrants,” Mr Borghetti states in his letter.

“We strongly believe that a level playing field should include a full and proper investigation of this 65 per cent `line in the sand’ policy.”

He said he had no problem with the Qantas Sale Act being repealed, or amended to separate Qantas’ international and domestic operations.

Mr Borghetti said the suggestion that Virgin had access to cheaper capital “by virtue of our shareholder base” was false.