Air India to offer only veg meals for economy class

Air India passengers of economy class will be served only vegetarian food as the company wants to cut down on costs and stop wastage.

The carrier will stop non-vegetarian meals for economy class passengers on domestic routes to cut down on costs and stop wastage, says CMD Ashwani Lohani

“This is an attempt to rationalize costs. We have also realized that this will reduce wastage to a great extent because we carry extra vegetarian and non-veg meals,” said Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani.

He said that the airline will be taking more such steps in future to reduce its expenses, including in the catering department. Serving one type of meal to passengers in economy class will also make the job of crew members “simpler”, Lohani said.

An airline spokesperson told television channels that the decision was taken last week. An Air India official, who did not wished to be named, explained the move: “70% of our meals are veg. Most Indian passengers opt for the veg meal and there are hardly any takers for the non-veg meal. Also, you can’t serve non-veg to a vegetarian but vice versa is possible.”

The official also said that this will help avoid arguments between crew members and passengers if they insist on a particular kind of meal, which may have been exhausted.

A former airline official explained how restricting choice of food onboard a plane paves the way for a hassle-free service. “When you have just one type of meal to offer then you can just start from one end (of the aircraft) and finish at the other end, which helps you improve efficiency. Secondly, if you offer a choice then you have to ask a customer whether he or she prefers vegetarian or non-vegetarian, which is a more time-consuming exercise.

“Thirdly, so that you don’t run out of either the vegetarian or non-vegetarian meals you carry surplus food, which adds to wastage.”

Last year, Air India replaced veg and non-veg sandwiches with veg hot meals on flights of up to 90 minutes duration. It had also decided to strike off both tea and coffee from its lunch and dinner menu.

Last month, the Lohani had appealed to senior executives to work towards boosting the airline’s revenue at a time it is saddled with a debt of Rs52,000 crore. “Let us become aggressive commercially and display a major spurt in revenues,” he told his colleagues.

In response to this, an official had suggested that the airline could do away with salad in meals on international flights and carry fewer copies of Air India’s inflight magazine. Many airlines world over are known for coming up with novel ways to cut costs, majority of which is accounted for by the fuel bill.

A few years ago, a domestic airline in India decided to employ only female flight attendants on weight grounds. In the 1980s, an American carrier found that if one olive was removed from every salad served to the passengers, it would save up to $40,000 a year.