It is becoming more and more unpleasant to fly. Dealing with the TSA humiliation is bad enough without having to go hungry.
The FBI is investigating sewing needles found, in food on 4 Delta flights from Amsterdam, …. The good news is that no one gulps down airline food anyway, so I don’t think that anyone actually swallowed one of the four needles found. Though one man was administered HIV medications after finding a needle in his sandwich.
The best food that I have enjoyed is in First Class on Lufthansa but I’ll be sure to dine in their 1st class lounge before boarding next time.
On a recent United Airlines 3 hour flight, I was in first class but they did not serve any food in first class at all. The flight attendant suggested that I could buy some of the food from the back cabin. A turkey sandwich for $7.99. I never thought that I would miss the peanuts they used to serve!
Plastic cutlery, a hard bread roll and less than appetizing food is the joyless culinary lot for economy class passengers, but not all airline food comes in a plastic wrapper, at least in the business and first class cabins. Air France KLM made 25 million from its Servair, … serving 10 tons of lobster and 40 tons of foie gras last year.
Everyone complains about airline food even the pilots. Click here to see a photo of one pilot’s meager sustenance.
Some airlines are trying to sell off their catering units to focus on the higher profits for shareholders. Business specializing in food catering will produce in-flight meals more cheaply than the airlines do.
LSG Sky Chefs made 2.3 billion Euros in revenue and operating profit of 85 million last year, but is trying to boost the margin with cost cuts and other restructuring moves. The group, which controls more than a quarter of the in-flight catering market and serves airlines such as Australia's Qantas and United Airlines is valued, at about 700 million Euros. The FT Deutschland reported that Lufthansa could sell around half of LSG Sky Chefs by next year in a first step. This worries me because I like the Lufthansa food as it is! Servair could also be on the block as its parent Air France tries to boost profits. Trouble is, that if you sell the golden goose, you can’t get the gold anymore. Mayor Parker got the rent up front for the Houston Convention center, to show a profit. Now she won’t have any income from the property in years to come but she will have the maintenance expenses for it.
In other news …….3 African Elephants are retiring from the Toronto Zoo and will fly to a retirement home in Southern California, so TV Game show host, Bob Barker is paying the million dollar ticket which will include inflight snacks of carrots, which is more than many of us get on flights.
