Wanna real meal? Pay up!

For the past few years, airlines have been experimenting with not including meals with the price of the airline tickets and have finally learned a good lesson about what to provide with the “buy on board” options.

Airlines seems to be learning that customers want real food available rather than just a selection of snacks. It seems that many are willing to pay for quality food, particularly those traveling on business who can be reimbursed for the expense.

Some of the first carriers to catch on to the quality airline food trend  have been US Airways, Midwest Airlines and Delta. These carriers now offer menus which are more nutritious and flavorful than traditional airline food.

Delta, for example, offers a chilled black-olive spaghetti salad for $8. On the menu at Midwest is a $10 skewered beef dinner while US Airways offers an orange chicken salad with roasted pecans for $7.

The menus above are unfortunately not available on all of the flights operated by the respective airlines. Generally most airlines offer meals on flights longer than three of four hours. Shorter flights generally offer a snack such as a trail mix or chips for $3 each.

Most airlines are now aiming to offer more substantial meals on most flights, especially as they learn more about their customer’s taste. One way airline’s are recording customer preferences is through the increasing number of credit card transactions.

The general manager of in-flight products for Midwest, Robert Schuerman, said: “That’s our biggest challenge: matching that demand to supply.” Midwest prepares its meals in hub airports and is one of the few airlines to offer hot meals.

www.delta.com