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Two Airlines Are Testing the Concept of Selling Meals Aloft
January 7, 2003
By JOE SHARKEY
Now that the Giants have choked so spectacularly on their
way to the Super Bowl, we listen hopefully for the thwack
and crack of a new season. Can that be spring training in
the air, with those shouts of "Getcha red hots!" and "Hey!
Who wantza pretzel?"
Nah, baseball's spring training is still almost two months
away, and the last time I looked, Yankee Stadium was dusted
- make that crusted - with snow.
Instead, any hawking in the aisles you hear today would
more likely be coming from a flight attendant on America
West Airlines. America West has started selling food on its
flights and, in all likelihood, is leading the air-travel
industry into a whole new ballgame. Northwest Airlines, in
fact, is planning its own test period of selling meals on
board, starting next week.
Let's be more precise about what America West is up to.
They're not peddling hot dogs (yet), and the pretzels are
still free when they hand them out in those Chiclet-size
packets. What America West has done is to begin a
three-week test of selling meals in the coach cabins on
certain flights, to try to determine whether passengers
will plunk down cash to be fed in the skies.
"Based on the feedback that is gathered from our customers,
we will determine our forward plan," said a statement
yesterday on America West's Web site giving details of the
food sale program, which the carrier calls Buy on Board.
Last Friday, the airline had been a bit coy about
discussing specifics of the test program, which began on
selected flights yesterday.
"Things are going to be kind of fluid for a while" as the
idea is tried out on passengers, said Janice Monahan, an
America West spokeswoman, who declined to say Friday which
flights the tests would be on, after I indicated I planned
to buy a ticket and sample the new fare. I'll do that
later.
Right now, as described in the airline's statement, Week 1
of the program (on selected flights between Phoenix and
Seattle, Houston, Portland, Dallas, Milwaukee and
Minneapolis) begins modestly. There are only two offerings,
described as Snack 1 ("Box with cheese, crackers, nuts,
teriyaki beef jerky and cookies, $3") and Snack 2 ("Box
with hot sandwich, chips and salsa, a chocolate bar, $5").
Next week - on certain flights between Phoenix and
Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit and Pittsburgh - there are
three lunch and dinner choices for $5: a beef patty melt, a
steak Caesar salad and pasta with chicken. There are also
three breakfast selections: a cheese omelet on a roll, a
large fruit bowl and what America West describes as a "very
large cinnamon bun," each at $5.
Then, perhaps with the cries of "Hey! Getcha very large
cinnamon bun!" still ringing in the aisle, comes Week 3 (on
select flights between Phoenix and Tampa, Fort Lauderdale
and Raleigh-Durham) and the real grub, with $10 dinner
menus including chicken Kiev and beef tenderloin.
No one can say right now what further delights, if any,
Week 4 and thereafter might bring, if the program is deemed
successful. But all kidding aside, the America West
experiment - like that carrier's decision early last year
to slash its business fares across the board - is getting
serious attention from competitors, especially other
full-service carriers struggling desperately to figure out
a way to make a profit.
Northwest Airlines, for one, is evidently about to follow
America West.
"It's only a mater of study at this point," said Kurt
Ebenhoch, a spokesman for Northwest. However, Mr. Ebenhoch
said that if Northwest did go ahead, it would sell food
only on flights that currently do not have meal service.
Surveys by the airline-food industry show that passengers
overwhelmingly support the idea of being able to buy food
on flights that don't already provide it, he said.
"It wouldn't be traditional airline food," he said.
Instead, he added, Northwest is studying a plan with
D'Amico & Sons, a Minneapolis-based chain of restaurants
and take-out shops.
Mr. Ebenhoch would not say when the plan might start, but
Larry D'Amico, a co-owner of the company, said yesterday
that D'Amico would take part in a monthlong pilot program
on select Northwest flights, starting Jan. 15. The food
will be prepared in the kitchens of a Northwest caterer,
LSG Sky Chefs, "to my specifications," Mr. D'Amico said.
Other airlines are also known to be studying the idea,
though Continental Airlines, which generally resisted
marching its competitors' sharp reductions in meal service
last year, is considered to be the least likely to start
selling food from aisle carts any time soon.
Incidentally, United Airlines, struggling through
bankruptcy reorganization, quietly eliminated some food
service this week in the first-class sections on a number
of flights of less than three hours. These are typically
flights on which most first-class seats are occupied by
passengers who have been upgraded from coach seats through
frequent-flier status.
Meanwhile, what about the folks who will have to shoulder
any burdens associated with hawking food in the aisles, the
flight attendants?
Observers from the Association of Flight Attendants were on
board America West flights that began experimenting with
selling food yesterday, said Dawn Deeks, a spokeswoman for
the union, which represents more than 50,000 flight
attendants at 26 airlines, including America West.
"The concerns are largely logistical," Ms. Deeks said.
Flight attendants have long sold drinks off carts, she
noted. Adding food items, several flight attendants said,
introduces possible new difficulties involving things like
collecting money and giving change - a chore that flight
attendants have always disliked - and handling new food
items and disposing of take-out trash.
Ms. Deeks did credit America West for including its flight
attendants in the initial planning stages for the program.
"It was really a positive way to do things," she said.
"There are problems that can only be worked out once you
see how it works in real life."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/07/business/07ROAD.html?ex=1042949787&ei=1&en=ab09e85be9221334
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