It has been a tough few months for Indian airlines due to rising fuel costs. As a result, airlines are exploring every opportunity to cuts costs. And one key benefit that has been in the spotlight is in-flight catering. It all started with Air India going all-vegetarian on short routes. Next came Jet Airways, who switched to snack boxes, and Vistara announcing meal-less Lite fares this week.
Lets circle back to Air India, then. In it’s latest move to cut costs, Air India has decided to replace fresh food with packaged options on flights which are less than one-hour long. This means that instead of greasy samosas and pakoras, you’ll get pre-packed cookies and nuts onboard.
A senior Air India official has been quoted that this course of action is to address passenger complaints about being served spoilt food. Further, he states that passengers can pick these new snacks on their way on the aircraft, and they went to great extent to state that there are no direct savings on costs due to this switch. Read this Times of India article for more details.
For Air India, while there may or may not be saving on the cost of food, this change would bring down operational cost. Air India expects that by eliminating trays, they would cut weight which will lower the fuel bill. And with packed foods having a longer shelf life, the airline wouldn’t need to load food onto the aircraft or trash spoilt food as often as before.
[Editor’s Note: Air India is also hoping perhaps you will forget that pack of nuts and not ask for it later. Another small saving. What they could have done is to go around distributing the snack once the aircraft started to cruise, just like other airlines do]
A segment of flyers are going to get unhappy with this move, but we should not forget that airlines around the world have been serving packaged snacks for quite some time now. All this does is align Air India with other international airlines when it comes to facing the harsh realities of running an airline.
Bottomline
Air India’s decision to switch to pre-packed snacks comes on the back of increasing costs. Though the airline has not yet announced when this change comes into effect, it would be interesting to see if other airlines would follow suit, further cutting down on their catering.
If you have experienced your Air India flight of peanuts, do send us a picture at ajay@livefromalounge.com so that we can share images.
Air India has been serving packaged snacks on flights upto 60 min for a while. Everytime I fly Bombay-Aurangabad they serve 200ml bottle of water, tetra pack fruit juice and two tiny cookies in a cute looking Air India box.
No trays are used and crew come around with a bin bag to collect the rubbish.
Hot Drink aren’t served either.
Now I dont understand if AI are trying to save money by serving peanut and not cookies?
May be the cookie company isn’t paying the babu to renew their contract
@theflyingsikh do you have a picture you could send me?
The same case on Delhi-Chandigarh route and back
I, for one, welcome this decision. Don’t get me wrong, but I prefer packaged snacks over mostly boring airline food (mostly, because SG continues to offer tasty food, though their service is pathetic).
Also, anything which helps airlines keep afloat is good decision. If AI shuts down due to losses, other airlines get to raise prices as supply has fallen.
So, take that bag of snacks and thank god airlines are not shutting shop