British Airways will be improving meals soon
BA has done a great job with its lounges at Heathrow but sadly is now lagging seriously behind the competition in terms of its onboard food and beverage service. On short-haul you get a sandwich and dessert with the addition of a small starter salad at mealtimes and on longer routes. Drinks on short-haul are pretty much normal except they are only served in plastic glasses.
On long haul in Club and First drinks are in plastic cups and the offering from Club Europe. So no LPGS in First and average at best wines. First get a box meal with starter, choice of two hot mains, dessert, and cheese. Club World gets a box with a sandwich as the main course! You also get a starter, dessert and cheese and biscuits.
Normally I don’t publish stories until I have had them confirmed by official sources, but I have heard the same thing from 4 people within British Airways so I’m going to assume it is correct. BA are planning to bring back hot food for Club World. It is unclear what the exact timings are but it is expected to be by the end of October. It will be along the same lines as First, so the rest of the box will be the same but the sandwich will be replaced by a choice of two hot main courses. There is no change to the plastic cups or alcohol offerings on board as far as I have been able to find out.
Having spoken to the crew on my Gatwick flight about catering, I was told that part of the issue at Gatwick is the usual supplier, Newrest is still not back to normal after shutting down during lockdown. The meals are now being supplied by a different company which may explain some of the issues.
Hopefully, they will go back to normal glasses as well soon. The use of such a large amount of single-use plastic is hard to see and it is pretty unpleasant to drink out of too. You can find my suggestions on how to make your flights more luxurious and comfortable here.
BA’s new CEO Sean Doyle talks of his challenges
In his first public appearance since being named British Airways’ new CEO last week, this morning (19 October) Sean Doyle gave the keynote address at Airlines 2050: Beyond the Crisis, telling the industry that British Airways continues to play a crucial part in connecting Britain with the world and the world with Britain and is doing everything in its power to emerge from this crisis.
Mr Doyle said the airline believes the risk to public health of flying is low after the industry body IATA suggested that since the start of 2020 there have been as few as 44 cases of COVID-19 linked to flights. Over the same period some 1.2 billion passengers have travelled. Mr Doyle continued: “The safety of its customers and crew is always our priority, and we are taking every safety measure to keep our customers safe. This is a multi-faceted approach and includes minimising contact, sanitising our aircraft from nose to tail,and asking customers and crew to wear face masks at all times, unless they have a medical exemption. In the cabin, air is completely replaced every 2 to 3 minutes, passing through HEPA filters which remove microscopic bacteria and virus clusters with over a 99.9 per cent efficiency, equivalent to hospital operating theatre standards.”
Sean laid out quite the extent of the crisis. At the height of the financial crisis in 2008/9, BA lost £316 million in one quarter. This year they have lost £711 million in one quarter and recovery is looking many months away. In terms of trade, the loss of trade between the US and UK is expected to be £45.8 billion. You only have to look at BA’s New York to London schedule which was previously 12 flights a day but is now only 2 and each flight only has less than 200 passengers. Sean called for a worldwide recognised test before flying such as rapid testing before boarding and requested that the US and UK work together to trial solutions as soon as possible.
And he confirmed that British Airways does not believe quarantine is the long-term solution, saying: “We believe the best way to reassure people is to introduce a reliable and affordable test before flying. For the UK this approach reduces the stress on NHS testing systems within the UK and on policing the quarantine system.”
I agreed with his points that after many months of inaction, the government’s latest proposal for a reduced 7 days quarantine with a negative test result will do little to save the travel industry. Sean’s point was that many governments are prioritising travel and tourism to get their economy going again and yet the UK is being left behind.
It may allow some people to travel on holiday from the UK knowing that they can cope with 7 days quarantine when working from home, but these are in the minority. It certainly will pretty much deter any business travellers or tourists wishing to visit the UK. Understandably, the government are trying to be belt and braces in terms of safety with the 7 day quarantine. However, they are totally missing the point that currently they have a quarantine that is largely unenforced and allows people to travel on public transport (notwithstanding the tier rules) to get home! So they are accepting that they will be a certain amount of non-compliance and risk that there is some possible transmission on public transport. Many other countries are accepting a single test and then monitoring for a period or like Barbados a very short quarantine on arrival before a second test.
The government has never denied that there is a trade-off between public health and the economy. In many areas, it has gone for an acceptable compromise. Yet it seems unable to apply the same common sense to travel.
