Is British Airways wisely beginning to realize that if you want people to pay more to fly BA than easyJet or Ryanair, you better offer them a good reason why? In what is hopefully a sign of things to come, British Airways is bringing back free food and drinks on two mid-haul routes in economy class. A complimentary meal service does not itself justify the fare premium on British Airways, but it is a good start toward offering a superior onboard product.
British Airways Brings Back Free Food And Drinks To Two Routes In Economy Class
In 2017, British Airways replaced complimentary meals with a buy-on-board scheme. Then-CEO Alex Cruz gloated about it in 2019. Passengers received a reprieve during the pandemic, when British Airways brought back complimentary bottles of water and a light snack (like small packets of crisps or cookies) to flights (during a time when there was no other service at all).
The free water bottles and light snacks have remained and British Airways has also experimented with free and tea and coffee on some routes. A broad menu of food items from The “High Life Shop” as well as a full bar of drinks are available for purchase onboard.
But British Airways faces intense competition from its low-cost competitors like Ryanair and easyJet and it is often difficult to justify flying BA when its competitors are far cheaper (and in the case of easyJet, offer more legroom). While ultimately it will be a package of benefits like plugs onboard, wi-fi internet, and perhaps even a bit more legroom one day, one way British Airways can instantly differentiate its product is to offer complementary food and drink onboard. And on two routes, free meals are returning.
Per PYOK, on September 7, 2023 British Airways will bring back free meal service on two routes:
- London (LHR) ⇔ Amman (AMM)
- London (LHR) ⇔ Cairo (CAI)
These mid-haul routes will now include:
- complimentary bar service
- cold meal
- breakfast: pastrami-filled croissant, Nutrigrain bar, Actimel milk drink
- lunch/dinner: chicken-filled roll, popcorn, Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bar
There’s nothing revolutionary or particularly compelling about these meals. They are a far cry from the hot meals that used to be served, like the dinner from London – Istanbul below.
And yet I find this an important step in the right direction toward making British Airways a truly full-service carrier again. I hope we will see these free meals expand to many more routes (and not replace the buy-on-board service, which has proven popular).
Then again, this could simply be a very specific competitive response on two popular routes that are also served by the flag carriers of Egypt and Jordan. Both are full-service carriers and offer full meals on these flights. For example, this is what I received from Cairo to London on EgyptAir:
It may be that these two routes are simply a response to two particularly egregious disparities with competitors.
CONCLUSION
British Airways will bring back free drinks and meals in economy class on flights to Cairo and Amman. It’s a small gesture, but hopefully is just the start of things to come. Even if it is not, it is better than nothing.
One of the problems BA face with reintroducing catering on these flights is that they are almost exclusively served by A20/21Ns and in order to cram in as many tightly configured seats with no recline as possible, they have removed almost all the rear galley space. They also cater all their short/medium haul flights at LHR these days with no uplifts at all at outstations and so where are they going to store the catering unless that for the return is in the hold which is what package tour airlines like Britannia used to do before they stopped offering anything to eat in order to get standards as low as possible.
It’s a real shame they don’t run 787s to CAI like they used to with full Club World service. I’m a pretty frequent traveler on LHR-CAI and let me tell you, the AM meals catered in Cairo for CE are worse than the AA turkey pastrami sandwich. I can’t imagine what they’ll serve in Economy. Bar service is great, though!
Absolutely farce, BA is shocking and the LHR -CAI route has been stripped bare. The business class offer is shameful and I fly Egyptair monthly, rather than BA…. ABBA, Anything But BA.
Lard elp we! Oui!
What about LHR – IST ? You would have to be mad to choose BA over Turkish at similar prices given the shocking disparity of service on board.
I Wonder if it’s because wizz/easyJet is flying similar routes.
National Carrier is national infrastructure, and not for profit .. predatory pricing and cut-throat business practices does not look good on a national flag carrier .
Should offer something on london city to malaga I cannot afford the flight but would love to use it
I guess I had my hopes up. Until I saw the two destinations that one could fly to, and the cold selection of food, kinda turns me off and I don’t care if this is introduced universally. I know this is a trial, however the destinations aren’t very appealing to me currently.
If BA are considering Ammam and Cairo, what about Cyprus?. It must be a very similar route timewise. BA are a flag carrier and should be flying the flag for UK.
Strangely enough I have been looking at the menus for other flag carrying airlines and unfortunately BA just dont compare with others.