Four Corners
UnITed STaTeS ‘A taste of things to come……’ David Loft
vp sales and service, Flying Food Group
Consolidation is everywhere in the industry at the moment, with today’s announcement of the takeover of Air Tran by Southwest Airlines in the US, plus all the other mergers, acquisitions and alliances going on all over the world, I wonder how we manage to keep up! This year’s IFSA conference
“Co-location in Long Beach
enabled everyone
to understand the bigger picture”
IndIa Spreading the load Zafar Siamwala
Chief operating officer Oberoi Flight Services
Doha, India and Mauritius
“The meteoric growth of the
aviation industry has opened up
new skies for the business of airline catering in India”
The Indian aviation industry is once more going through high growth and its infrastructure is fighting hard to expand its contours to provide the required facilities. According to the Airports Authority of India, passenger traffic saw a jump of 25-30 per cent last year increasing aircraft movements to an unprecedented level. What’s more, the airline business in India is growing at a rate of 32 per cent in the domestic sector alone. The business of in-flight catering
is not only about providing meals to airlines. Today most catering companies are performing the role of in-flight solution providers, providing the airlines with all that goes inside an aircraft,
like newspapers, magazines, cabin cleaning, laundry, menu development, dry stores and duty free sales. The government has plans
to rejuvenate most of the non- operational airports by 2010/11 so as to evenly spread the existing loads and also make provisions for the increasing passenger traffic with expansion plans being phased in at all major metros. A number of foreign airlines have also increased their operations at Indian airports in addition to the Limited Open Sky policy of the Indian government. The proposal allows foreign carriers, already operating in India, to add to their passenger-carrying capacity during a specified period,
by either introducing a larger aircraft or increasing the frequency of aircraft movements. Challenges for a catering company
are on a daily basis and as is true for any food-related business, an in-flight caterer has to maintain the highest standards of food safety and hygiene along with keeping that competitive edge. We at Oberoi have pioneered
the implementation of ISO - 22000 standards across our kitchens in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai and have commenced operations from Mauritius in July 2010. New state of the art facilities are coming up in Cochin and New Delhi T-3 Airport during the period October 2010 – March 2011.
www.onboardhospitality.com 45
in Long Beach certainly helped emphasise the benefits of working together. With the co-location of IFSA, AIX and APEX there were many opportunities to look at all aspects of the passenger experience from the culinary offerings, to equipment, innovation and design, technology and entertainment. It was certainly beneficial to be able to see all these great
exhibitions and conferences in one location, it enabled everyone to understand the bigger picture rather than focusing on their own specific area. I took the opportunity, as did many
of us, to visit the other exhibitions and was excited to see aspects of the business I would not normally be privileged to see. Some of the highlights included the new Spice galley from Airbus, a great new innovative approach to the traditional galley, a new Business flat seat layout that gives everybody an aisle seat so no acrobatics are needed to get out and the crew can serve without having to navigate over your fellow passenger’s head, as well as a host of hi-tech electronic gadgetry.
You only had to walk through
APEX and AIX to realise the cost of the equipment for each aircraft is massive and it is the area where peoples’ demands and expectations are becoming higher and higher. However, we must always remember in-flight catering is one of the most effective ways for airlines to differentiate themselves from the competition. With the in-flight service departments becoming more integrated with the total on board experience, it makes sense to be where we can share knowledge and network with colleagues from other parts of the industry. Long Beach is ‘A taste of things to come……’
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