In Flight Food

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Absurdly enough, though, in-flight food is not actually about the victuals.

“It’s 80 percent entertainment and 20 percent hunger,” says Jack Foley, the New York-based executive vice president of Aer Lingus. A meal is one trick airlines use to keep passengers diverted during a long flight in a narrow, sterile metal tube.

“It’s also a way of marking the passage of travel time for experienced flyers,” Foley adds. “On a flight from Dublin, I once sat next to a passenger who started putting on his shoes when the flight attendant announced our tea-and-scones service. When I asked him why, he said, ‘You always serve tea and scones an hour and a half before landing in New York, so I know it’s time to get ready to get off the plane.’ “

It’s just as well that in-flight food isn’t about gustatory greatness, because meal service isn’t easy when you’re five miles high. Even coffee is problematic because it’s harder to bring water to proper temperature at 40,000 feet. When McDonald’s did a Happy Meals promotion with a major carrier in the 1990s, the burger giant had to reformulate the cheese so it would melt rather than liquefy in flight. And forget about gourmet dining. How do you create a four-star meal when open flames are verboten, prep space is nonexistent, knives have rounded edges, and flight attendants must serve dozens of passengers at once using a convection oven?

The future of in-flight food is fairly clear. United’s reversal notwithstanding, more and more coach passengers will have to go without, buy on the plane, or bring their own. Most domestic coach flights have already been stripped of traditional in-flight meals. Airlines are rushing to adopt “cashless cabins” and equipping flight attendants with portable credit-card devices so they can sell ravenous flyers more expensive and higher-quality salads, sandwiches, snacks, and wraps.

In-flight food for international premium-class travelers is changing too, but for an entirely different reason. With stricter security regimens in place, passengers spend more time waiting in the airlines’ lounges. So airlines are beginning to serve honest-to-goodness food there. The cuisine is better and it costs the airline less.

I’ve had several wonderful curries in British Airways’ lounges. Some of the best dim sum I’ve had outside of Hong Kong was in Vancouver, Canada, in Cathay Pacific’s departure lounge—while I was waiting to fly to Hong Kong. The bacon sandwiches are outstanding at Virgin Atlantic’s swanky arrivals club at London’s Heathrow Airport. And while I’ve never eaten there, who wouldn’t be seduced by a sit-down meal at the elegant little restaurant nestled inside Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal in Frankfurt?

Now if there was just an airline that served a good bagel for breakfast…

The Fine Print…

An update to last week’s column concerning the market-driven battle between U.S. carriers that charge for the first checked bag and those that continue to bundle it in the fare. Continental Airlines has switched sides. Beginning next month, passengers flying on discounted coach tickets who do not hold elite status in the airline’s frequent flyer program will pay $15.

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