Air New Zealand serves inflight meals after landing

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Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

  • Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    I just don’t know what to make of this….

    Thank goodness it’s the end of this year. In fact, it’s already next year in New Zealand. Perhaps the clue to understanding it…

    Covid Sends In-Flight Meals Out of the Plane at Air New Zealand

    “After upending global travel, Covid-19 is doing the same to in-flight dining. Passengers at Air New Zealand Ltd. will now only get fed after they’ve disembarked.
    The airline wants to make sure passengers keep their masks on for the entire flight, it said in a statement Friday. It will now hand out snacks like cookies and popcorn when people get off their plane to enjoy at their destination.”


    PeterCoultas
    Participant

    Maybe there is a high alcohol beverage that protects against viruses ??? They could serve that through straws through a small hole in the masks…


    cwoodward
    Participant

    This applies to all of the sort) domestic flights only. No changes to international dining.
    Seems a sensible move ?


    Inquisitive
    Participant

    If a flight time is less than 2 hours, it actually make sense to eliminate food service – just water could be provided.

    Handing out packet food after landing might catch up as trend as long as the content is good.

    That approach would make inflight experience a bit safer and cleaner. A clean passage is always better for stretching or for toilet break.

    In my earlier years of flying, I used the inflight eating as time pass, but now I normally decline food for a short trip as I can keep myself busy with entertainment – be it in my mobile or from inflight entertainment system.

    I believe if a survey is taken, many flyers may prefer free inflight data/wifi over food in a short duration flight.

    Happy and Healthy New Year to all readers.

    4 users thanked author for this post.

    AMcWhirter
    Participant

    In some ways this reminds me of Lufthansa’s Gate Buffet of the 1990s.

    It was provided only on domestic flights and the idea at the time was “to eliminate wastage” as Lufthansa would say.

    Gate Buffet was provided in the departure lounge with a selection of snacks and fruits which passengers could take on board if they wished. If I remember correctly onboard service was limited to hot and cold drinks only.

    The idea was sound but the problem was that some passengers took too much food from the Gate Buffet to consume later, after arrival, possibly to save on business expenses.

    I recall some customers would even fill their hand luggage with copious amounts of snacks/fruit from the display !

    Little wonder then that Lufthansa eventually scrapped its Gate Buffet.

    As an aside … zero catering on short flights was actually introduced in Europe by BEA in 1975 with its domestic Shuttle flights.

    The benefit for BEA was that by eliminating onboard food and drinks not only would it save money but the process of turning around a flight would be simpler and faster.

    However BEA’s no frills onboard service was ahead of its time in 1975 and proved unpopular with customers.

    4 users thanked author for this post.

    TominScotland
    Participant

    Alex, SAS also had something similar for domestic flights around that time, maybe even a bit later. I certainly remember flying north from Stockholm in Sweden with that arrangement to hand but there was only fruit on offer. Most folk seemed to take just the one item.

    If airlines here in the UK adopted the Air NZ model, with the British propensity to litter, terminal buildings would soon resemble the average municipal park after a warm summer Sunday…….

    6 users thanked author for this post.

    norbert2008
    Participant

    Yes the BA shuttle then went over the top with catering to combate BM offering with hot breakfast, afternoon tea’s, etc…..my brother used to have to serve a hot breakfast with champagne on a L1011 LHR CDG. clearing up during final approach! I even had it on my last 767 Paris flight. Air France on the other hand used to serve a selection of canapes and champagn, with pre flight champers offered too! Those were the days……

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    AMcWhirter
    Participant

    Quite true norbert2008

    A full hot breakfast was served on the longer domestic legs when Super Shuttle arrived to compete with BD (British Midland).

    However the Shuttle services from 1975 and the later Super Shuttle (with the onboard catering restored) were limited to four domestic routes from LHR: BFS, EDI, GLA and MAN.

    At the time BEA/BA intended to extend its Shuttle concept to short European routes like CDG or AMS but it never happened.

    Why ?

    Because at that time trade body IATA controlled what international airlines could or could not do. In addition international air services were controlled by governments.

    So if Air France objected to BEA/BA’s Shuttle service then it could not be offered (because Air France would tell its government to reject the proposal).


    Maaki
    Participant

    Flying quite a lot the last 22 years (well, not the last two years…) I have always asked myself, why anybody wants to have a “meal” (snack) on a short flight?
    Do you get this in a High-Speed-Train (even if travelling a couple of hours e.g. from Hamburg to Munich)?
    LH has a new offering, i.e. you just get water for free and you can “order” a couple of other things (snacks, alcoholic beverages etc.) from the trolley.
    The only thing is, that people in half of the aircraft don´t have the chance to buy something, because it takes forever to serve people in the first half of the aircraft (“hmm, I might take this one, oh no, maybe that one, aah the other option looks nice as well” ….) and then the service has to be finished (imagine a flight duration of 1,5 hrs and about 160-180 people to ask and serve – it can´t work).
    Just finish any kind of service in short haul flights (up to two hours e.g.) today and after half a year nobody will complain.

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    Variation on a theme

    Changing Course: American Air Tweaks Meals to Boost Masking

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-21/changing-course-american-air-tweaks-meals-to-boost-masking


    ASK1945
    Participant

    So what does the article say, Tom? It’s behind a pay-wall.


    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    From Wednesday, in first class, the first three courses of meals will be served at once, rather than separately, on international flights.
    In economy, drinks will only be offered with the meal service.
    It doesn’t say what the situation is in business, so I will ask that today and if I get an answer will write a news piece about it.
    I imagine it’s to stop people just sitting there all flight with no mask but with a drink in front of them, although in my experience, people just do that with a bottle of water anyway.

    2 users thanked author for this post.

    TGRW
    Participant

    Dear All,

    Today I flew internally in Thailand (Phuket to Bangkok after serving my sandbox week) and received the same service from Thai airways, a bag presented to me as I deplaned the aircraft.

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