Preflight Catering System
A novel airline catering service that provides passengers with an enhanced dining experience, while simultaneously reducing food waste.
Unsustainable and uncomfortable meals
This project was proposed by a short and medium haul airline that wants to become more sustainable. Currently their catering service is quite wasteful, but as providing every passenger with a meal is one of their USPs they don't want to eliminate it altogether. That is why they asked us to find a solution that would provide users with a meal, while being more sustainable.
Providing passengers with a fresh meal (i.e. prepared and packaged about 24 hours earlier) is seen as a positive experience, the eating experience on board isn't great. The food is often not really fresh anymore, there is not a lot of room to eat comfortably and they always run out of your preferred option. Meanwhile you have plenty of time before your flight, but you don't want to eat then because you're going to get something on board anyway. We saw an opportunity here.
Less waiting time, more enjoying time
In the Preflight Catering Service, the airline works together with several food and beverage partners at airports, to provide a mutually beneficial relationship. Airline passengers get a food voucher that is linked to their boarding pass, with which they can choose something to eat or drink at one of the airlines partners. The benefits for the passenger here are threefold. First, they are not limited by the onboard catering offering, but they can choose from a large variety of restaurants that can serve fresher food. Second, they can eat in a more comfortable setting with proper chairs and tables. If they are traveling with a larger group, this also allows them to eat together. And third, the waiting time at the airport is now less waiting time; it becomes enjoying time.
Waste reduction
By eliminating the fresh meals like sandwiches and salads from the onboard catering service, food waste is greatly reduced. These fresh food items have to be cooled, which means that if they stay uneaten after a flight they have to be thrown away. In contrast, packaged food items (like muffins and cookies) and drinks can be reused, as long as they stay sealed. Therefore, we propose to keep these items in the service offering onboard, as it still gives the passengers a feeling of being cared for.
Sustainability rating
To encourage users to make more sustainable food choices by giving each partner restaurant a sustainability rating. This is based on for example ingredient sourcing, supply chain emissions or food packaging. The passenger collects sustainability points based on their choices, which can over time be used to increase the value of their food voucher. On top of encouraging the passenger to be more sustainable, the rating also encourages the food and beverage partners to do so. After all, a higher sustainability rating makes them more attractive to customers.
Mutually partnerships
This partnership is on the one hand beneficial for the airline, as less food waste means less wasted money and fuel. On the other hand it is beneficial for the food and beverage partners, as they become more visible to the passengers through the app. Additionally, their revenue may increase because passengers might spend extra money on top of their voucher.
Three horizons implementation strategy
As implementing this service requires quite a lot of change in the airline's processes, we propose a three-horizons strategy. First, the airline should launch the service at their most important airport or hub. Here they might already have partnerships or connections that could help them take off. It also gives them the opportunity to test and develop the service in their home market. After the service has been well established in the first two years, the airline can start expanding to other destinations. We think it is best to do this country by country, as often airport restaurants operate across multiple airports nationally. Finally, we see the third horizon after 6 years, then the airlines catering system has been fully transformed into the Preflight Catering System. Now, their passengers know that they can count on the airline to always provide them with an enjoyable and sustainable experience.
