Southwest Airlines is ditching peanuts, effective August 01, 2018.
Health advocates and parents with children allergic to peanuts are rejoicing. Meanwhile, peanut farmers and King Nut (the peanut manufacturer for Southwest) are lamenting. Maybe Jimmy Carter is too.
Southwest confirmed the change in a statement:
Peanuts forever will be part of Southwest’s history and DNA. However, to ensure the best on-board experience for everyone, especially for customers with peanut-related allergies, we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue serving peanuts on all flights beginning August 1.
We’ll miss the peanuts, but, at the end of the day, it’s our Southwest Employees and the Hospitality they deliver that set us apart, far more than peanuts ever could.
Peanuts at baseball games are much more ubiquitous for me than peanuts on airplanes. United Airlines, at least according to my recollection, never served peanuts. I remember my first United flight in 1993 from Los Angeles to Denver featured honey-mustard pretzel sticks. Thus, I have no emotional attachment to peanuts when flying.
Speaking of pretzels, Southwest will still offer complimentary pretzels onboard all flights and cookies on longer flights. I’m not a fan of pretzels at all, but I also recognize that a severe allergic reaction to peanuts can result in death. Thus, I cannot fault Southwest for eliminating them.
You can still enjoy peanuts on Delta. Spirit Airlines also sells peanuts as part of its buy-on-board service.
What about people with wheat allergy or gluten intolerance… severe reaction can result in death…
Only if it’s actually consumed whereas with nuts inhalation is sufficient to cause a problem.
I honestly don’t understand the association of being served nuts on planes. I’d rather not eat any nuts when in first class. There’s got to be a reason why nuts are served on flights
https://www.hipmunk.com/tailwind/history-flight-peanuts-snacks-airlines-offer-great-selections/