by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
British Airways (BA) has announced that it will stop serving meals on most of its European routes. There will not even be a “trolley service” available where people can purchase sandwiches and drinks like on budget airlines the likes of Ryan Air and Easyjet. So it is BYO with passengers having have to bring their own sandwiches and such.
While this, presently, is only going to affect economy class passengers on European routes it may, I assume end up also in the other classes, such as business class. If that is the case that would not be a pad move as I do not think that on a 2 hour flight it is really necessary to serve lunch.
I find it very doubtful that anyone will require food served by the airlines on such short haul flights such as,s ay, from London to Frankfurt, for example. People are hardly going to faint from starvation on such a short trip. Lack of water could be a cause but not food.
BYO lunches should become much more of a routine for air travelers, at least on short haul flights, as much as for office workers and students. It would save a great deal on packaging considering the individual portion packs of the various things, not counting the plastic sandwich packs and such.
Also, and most people, of that I am sure, do not know this: When a flight is canceled at a relatively short notice the food destined for that flight has to be destroyed by the catering company supplying the airline. Such waste just cannot goo on and can also be prevented by the BYO lunches operations.
I do not want to talk about flying per se as it is not a very environmentally friendly way anyway but the food waste issue here is one that can be sorted by going, at least on short haul, to a BYO food system.
While BA is not abandoning the meals service on the European flights because of environmental concerns and the concern of waste reduction – for in truth it is all about saving money in general – it has that good side effect and hence we can welcome it.
© 2009
<>
