BA unveils multi-million pound investment in World Traveller catering
British Airways has unveiled a multi-million pound investment in its long-haul economy catering.
From January 17, it will introduce an ‘exciting and expanded’ new World Traveller menu that will change every six months.
It claims the move will improve both the quantity and quality of its meals and snacks on long-haul flights.
The changes come exactly a year after it controversially switched to paid-for catering on short-haul flights, introducing M&S snacks.
Director of brand and customer experience, Carolina Martinoli, said: "Our customers tell us that when they’re taking a long-haul flight, great food and beverages make a real difference to them.
"It’s a huge driver of customer satisfaction so we want to make sure we deliver a great experience. With this multi-million pound investment we’ve focused on introducing more quantity and quality to the catering, delivering tasty meals and great snacking options throughout the flight."
Changes include pretzels with the welcome drink, a four-course meal with a bottle of water, a second light meal of a sandwich or pizza wrap, Magnum ice creams and snack boxes.
"Our customers have also told us they want to be able to save some items for later in the flight, so we’ve replaced the water cup with a bottle of Highland Spring on the first meal, and added Graze snack boxes on our longest flights. We’re also offering Magnum ice-creams on daylight flights from London and a Tuck Box on inbound and overnight flights," added Martinoli.
Today’s announcement comes as the airline confirmed the introduction of seats that passengers are unable to recline on short-haul flights.
The new seats, designed to help BA keep prices low, will be set to a ‘gentle’ recline but won’t allow passengers to recline them any further.
The new seats will be on 35 brand new short-haul planes arriving over the next five years and in the cabins of all of BA’s existing A320 and A321 aircraft at Heathrow.
BA is also installing at-seat power throughout the aircraft and is introducing onboard Wi-Fi.
The Wi-Fi is already being rolled out on long-haul aircraft.
There are two paid-for WiFi packages – ‘Browse’ and ‘Stream’, and for one hour, four hours or the full flight. Browse starts from £4.99 and Stream start from £7.99.
BA is investing a total of £4.5 billion in improvements over the next five years, installing Wi-Fi, in-seat power, fitting 128 long-haul aircraft with new interiors and taking delivery of 72 new aircraft.
The airline is also investing £600 million specifically in Club World.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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