BBC NEWS | Magazine | The mile-high food fight

BBC NEWS | Magazine | The mile-high food fight: "The mile-high food fight
By Denise Winterman
BBC News Magazine



Would you eat it?
Airline meals are often the butt of jokes but they are even harder to stomach when they don't arrive at all, as British Airways passengers have found. So why is in-flight food such big business?
They are ridiculed almost as much as the old British Rail sandwich, but hungry passengers on recent BA flights would have gladly accepted the usual tray of foil-covered, in-flight food without complaint.
Caught up in a multi-million pound food fight involving BA, its caterers Gate Gourmet and 670 of their sacked staff, travellers had their flights cancelled and no hot food was served on planes that actually made it into the air for two weeks.
They may be a standing joke, but airline meals are at the heart of the battle for customers and add up to a multi-billion pound industry.
BA alone uses 80,000 a day, with the average meal in economy class costing airlines an estimated �12 to prepare and serve, with everything factored in.
Michelin stars
'The whole essence of BA is that it is a class product and worth paying good money for,' says Simon Calder, travel editor of the Independent.
'Meals are a big part of that and it makes much in its advertising of its 'free' food and drink.'
Each airline's menu involves months of research and development, testing and tasting, often with expert consultants. With research suggesting pressurised cabins dull our taste buds by up to 30%, food and wine is selected not only for its flavour but its ability to fly.
To me a vacation begins upon boarding the airplane, so I usually get out my camera when the attendants serve the meal

Aron Danburg
Airline food enthusiast
And getting the meals t"