Austrian Airlines has become the latest Lufthansa Group carrier to offer unsold inflight food items at reduced prices, in a bid to tackle food waste.

The carrier launched its buy-on-board Austrian Melangerie service just under a year ago, and said that “Despite the most exact prediction possible for the demand for fresh dishes on board, the demand cannot always be met exactly”.

As a result the airline is launching an “Austrian Melangerie to go” initiative, or “AM2GO” for short, which will see customers on longer European flights being offered the chance to purchase cut price fresh food items shortly before arrival in Vienna.

Austrian said that “For a small contribution, depending on availability, one or two products will be handed out in a paper bag together with a wooden cutlery set”.

“Passengers can thus enjoy the food saved from disposal at home after arrival in Vienna or as a refreshment for their onward journey,” the carrier continued.

Austrian added that the initiative “aims to minimise food waste without reducing the variety of food on offer for passengers”, adding that the pilot would be “continuously adapted and rolled out on other routes”.

Last year fellow Swiss launched a similar trial offering “surprise” bags of unsold inflight food at reduced prices, on the last flights of the day on its European network from Geneva.

Swiss trials “surprise” bags of unsold inflight food at reduced prices

And Eurowings also recently launched a new “Happy Hour” initiative, allowing customers to purchase fresh food items at a 50 per cent discount on the last flights each day.

austrian.com