Airlines get ready for in-flight meal services

Even though flight services resumed on May 25 in a phased manner — about two months after they came to a halt — it was only on August 27 that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) allowed airlines to serve meals on board

Chefs wearing masks, sunglasses, hair nets, and gloves; an automated process using conveyor belts replaced with manual packaging of food; staff strength cut down by 90% to ensure social distancing; and a blaring alarm every 30 minutes reminding workers to sanitise their hands.

National carrier Air India will serve in-flight meal services from Monday. (Shutterstock)

These are glimpses from an Air India catering facility, where the activity has increased with the civil aviation regulator allowing in-flight service of meals on board. When HT visited the facility near the Delhi airport earlier this week, preparations were underway for the resumption of these services after around five-and-a-half months of restrictions in view of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Even though flight services resumed on May 25 in a phased manner — about two months after they came to a halt — it was only on August 27 that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) allowed airlines to serve meals on board.

In line with the decision, national carrier Air India will serve in-flight meal services from Monday. “So far, we have been giving only ready-to-eat packed meals, which are placed on passengers’ seats before their boarding. But now, with DGCA allowing the service, we, at our ‘The Ambassador’s Sky Chef’ facility near the Delhi’s airport, have started preparations to resume serving hot meals in the sky,” said an Air India official from the catering facility.

Ambassador’s Sky Chef is one of the three catering facilities that prepare and deliver food to Air India passengers.

“At present, we have cut down our staff strength from around 1,100 people to just 80-100 employees in order to ensure social distancing. This has also affected our productivity. Earlier, at this facility, we used to prepare 40,000 meal boxes every day, which has now come down to 5,000. Of these 40,000 boxes, 15,000 were taken by Air India alone (the facility also caters to some other private airlines). We are using 3,500 meal boxes out the total 5,000 prepared here every day because air traffic is low,” said the official quoted above who works closely with Ambassador’s Sky Chef.

Air India said it will also resume serving alcohol on its international flights, and will start with beer for now.

Vistara, which also operates on international routes as part of the “air bubble” arrangement with select countries, said it too was planning to serve pre-packed meals and beverages for domestic flights beginning next week.

“While we are already serving pre-packed meals on international flights; we plan to serve hot meals and limited beverages from next week. The menus for meals and beverages are in the process of being finalised. Enhanced service will be introduced progressively from next week,” a Vistara spokesperson said.

SpiceJet said pre-booking of sandwiches and cold beverages will open soon. “...We will also offer a ‘goodie bag’ for pre-booking, which would contain packed ready-to-eat food items along with beverages such as tetra pack juices, coconut water, buttermilk and aerated drinks,” a spokesperson said. “Customers who do not wish to consume hot meals or sandwiches can opt for this ‘goodie bag’. All food and beverages on our flights will be prepared, packed and handled with extreme caution.”

Dr T Jacob John, a retired professor of clinical virology at Christian Medical College, Vellore, said the Sars-CoV-2 virus, said: “Food borne infection is unlikely as it is a respiratory infection, more like influenza. Food is not the worry, but people will have to remove their face masks while eating and there is more chance of them inhaling the virus if there’s any infected person on-board. Therefore, an airline must stagger the food service so that everyone isn’t eating at the same time,” he said.