I’ve written fondly about my flight on Air Malta last summer and also how the carrier is in the process of restructuring. Does a suspicious meal from Berlin give us a concerning taste of what is to come for the Maltese flag carrier in terms of business class?
Frozen Dinner Is The New Business Class Meal Service On Air Malta?
One of my favorite Instagram accounts is airlinecatering, which showcases airline meals from carriers around the globe. Unlike the once-great AirlineMeals.net, this account is frequently updated with new meal pictures and they are really quite interesting…
When I flew Air Malta business class from Zurich to Valleta, I enjoyed a refreshing cold antipasto dinner onboard. The food was delicious and the tableware and Maltese wines made the otherwise ordinary flight special:
> Read More: Air Malta A32oneo Business Class Review
Longer flights have, or at least had, a hot meal—here’s what lunch looks like from London Heathrow:
(snapped by my friend Dennis Lennox)
But look at what was served on a flight from Berlin (BER) to Malta (MLA) last month:
Nothing says business class quality like frozen lasagna! (Indeed, this looks like a lasagna from Air Malta’s buy-on-board menu). It doesn’t look quite so bad unwrapped…
I hope this was a catering snafu…but I post about this because we have very little info about what business class may look like when Air Malta dies and Air Malta 2.0 (KM Malta Airlines) takes it place using the same fleet and employees.
> Read More: KM Malta Airlines Will Launch On March 31, 2024
The carrier has lost millions of Euros over the last few years, but I hope that the catering that actually made me pay double for my business class ticket (versus economy class) will not be removed. Otherwise, there really is no point in having business class.
CONCLUSION
A lasagna dinner served on a microwavable tray in its original packaging does not scream quality. Let’s hope this was a one-off and not a sign of what what is to come for the next reincarnation of Air Malta.
image: airlinecatering / Instagram
It would be interesting to compare this lasagna to the one you ate at Casa Cipriani New York. It’s difficult to fault the airline for serving the same frozen meals most hospitals deliver to patients’ rooms.
LCCs have really made most European flag carriers unnecessary. Who really loses if Malta no longer has an airline. Possibly MLA based flyers, but if I lived in MLA, I’d probably be a Star flyer for the all around better benefits. Most holidaymakers are booking the cheapest, and that’s on Ryanair, EasyJet, or Wizz.
There really is no comparison. LCCs sell few/no connections and have lots of routes with just 2-3 flights per week. Never mind business travel, you often can’t even fly them somewhere for a long weekend.
Obviously Malta is tiny and rather out of the way, so the loss of KM isn’t going to have a huge impact, but flag carriers are vital for anyone who is unwilling and/or unable to build their travel plans around an infrequent flight and accept the risk of huge inconvenience in case of IROPS.