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Air Berlin: first budget airline to offer hot meals

Published: 06/04/2006 - Filed under: News »

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Budget carrier Air Berlin already sets itself apart from rivals by offering passengers benefits like seat selection, free snacks and drinks, an FFP and through baggage checking. Now the airline is bucking the trend further. It says that from May 1 it will provide passengers with improved catering including the offer of (paid for) hot meals.

Air Berlin has teamed up with upmarket airline catering firm Do and Co (which handles the first class catering for national airline Lufthansa amongst others) to devise a range of menus which will be served network-wide.

There will be different menu options throughout the day with English breakfast on morning flights. All meals will be served on porcelain dishes and menus will be seasonal.Breakfast will cost Euros 10 with meals at other times of the day priced between Euros 7 and Euros 15.

English breakfast, arguably the most important airline meal of the day for business passengers, will consist of bacon and egg, fried mushrooms and potatoes, fresh fruit, yogurt, ham, cheese, jam, croissant and rolls.

A lighter "tapas" menu at other times might consist of Serrano ham with olives and grilled artichokes, prawns with sour cream cocktail sauce, tomatoes and mozzarella cheese, curried chicken salad, a bread roll and chicken mousse.

According to an Air Berlin spokesperson, "If passengers have to buy food on board we say it should be of the highest quality. We want to offer passengers a top quality service and we believe it gives us a point of difference over our rivals."

The airline says early trials have proved that its speed of service can be maintained. Air Berlin's planes are fitted with hot ovens and staff have for a number of years been providing passengers with hot meals on the many charter services between Germany and Southern Europe.

But the test will come in real life. Whether staff will be able to cope with serving dozens of hot breakfasts (and collecting the cash) on a Monday morning flight from Stansted to Belfast, Manchester or Dusseldorf remains to be seen.

The carrier's existing free snacks and drinks will continue as before. But quality will be upgraded now that Do and Co is involved.

Air Berlin is the third largest low-fare airline in Europe behind Ryanair and Easyjet. It operates several dozen B737s and has begun taking delivery of the first of a large fleet of Airbus A320s. From the UK there are flights from Stansted to Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hanover, Leipzig, Munster, Nuremberg, Paderborn and Vienna. From Stansted Air Berlin flies to Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast City (from May 2).

For more information go to airberlin.com

Report by Alex McWhirter

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