pax july/august vol 15. no. 4

N E W S A N D A N A LY S I S F O R T H E PA S S E N G E R S E R V I C E S E X E C U T I V E

J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 1 1 | V O L . 1 5 , N O . 4

DELTA IMPROVEMENTS12 ITCA AND

REED EXPOS18 C H E C K O U T P A X O N L I N E A Twww.pax-intl.com

GUESTLOGIXCONFERENCE7

LATIN QUARTERBlessings and burdens

in South America

ARE YOU BEINGSERVED?

Passenger feedback in the electronic age

THE TRIFECTAThree aviation events

soon to hit Seattle

PAXJUNAUG11:GULF APR05.qxd 27/06/11 3:38 PM

www.servair.fr

A taste of the world

53 destinations worldwideServair brings you a taste of the world – a taste journey into four continents for our airline, company and group clients.What’s more, we prioritise great service and the respect of local specifi city in order to better meet our clients’ needs.

Finally, we offer our clients the highest possible quality professional restaurant and airport standards, see we meet

their service expectations.

www.pax-intl.com | PAX INTERNATIONAL | 3

Contents

4 EDITOR’S COMMENTS

5 NEWS

17 WHAT’S HOT!

18 ASSOCIATION NEWS

18 CALENDAR EVENTS

N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 1 | V O L . 1 2 , N O . 6

REGIONAL REPORT8 GUARDED GROWTH

Several airlines in Latin America are involved in dynamic consolidation and fleetacquisition, but fuel prices in the region are an especially heavy burden

PASSENGER SURVEYS10 CLOSING THE LOOP

PAX International looks at different ways that airline passengers provide usefulfeedback and what must be done in order to find and make use of it efficiently

AIRLINE PROFILE12 BIG IMPROVEMENTS

Delta rolls out the welcome mat for 45 million passengers this summer with the firststeps of a $2 billion investment in the cabin and on the concourse

EVENT PREVIEW14 TOGETHER, AGAIN

Three events meet under one roof, as IFSA, APEX and AIX convene in the Emerald City

Q AND A16 HITTING THE ROAD

Jim Curry, General Manager of Flying Food Group’s LAX unit talks about the caterer’sunique service for British Airways in this issue’s Industry Q and A

148

10

12"IT BECAME OBVIOUS

THAT WE AS AN ASSOCIATION COULDNOT HAVE CONTINUEDFINANCIALLY FOREVER.THE BOARD HAD TOMAKE A STRATEGICDECISION TO ENSURETHE SURVIVAL OF THE

TRADESHOW."ITCA President Steven White on ReedExpo's takeover of the association's

annual European trade show. Page 18


4 | PAX INTERNATIONAL | JULY/AUGUST 2011

PAX International26 Pearl Street, Mississauga, Ontario L5M 1X2, CanadaTel: (1 905) 821-3344; Fax: (1 905) 821-2777website: www.pax-intl.com

P U B L I S H E R

Aijaz KhanE-mail: [email protected]

E D I T O R I A L O F F I C E S

Rick Lundstrom, Editor in Chief PAX International723 Jefferson Street, NEMinneapolis, MN 55413, USATel: (1 612) 378-0862Fax: (1 612) 378-0852E-mail: [email protected]

Maryann Simson, Associate EditorTel: (1 905) 821-3344 x31E-mail: [email protected]

Chantelle Boyal, Associate EditorTel: (1 905) 821-3344 x21E-mail: [email protected]

A R T D E PA R T M E N TPatrick Balanquit, Art DirectorE-mail: [email protected]

A D V E R T I S I N G O F F I C E S

Deepa J, Subscription & Conference ManagerTel: (1 905) 821-3344 x35Fax: (1 905) 821-2777E-mail: [email protected]

PAX International is published six times a year

(January/February, March/April, May, June/July/August,

September/October, November/December) by PAX

International, 26 Pearl Street, Mississauga, Ontario

L5M 1X2, Canada. International Distribution.

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$400 for three years. Art and photographs will not be

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reflect the views and opinions of the publisher or

editor. June/August 2011, Vol. 15, No. 4. Printed in

Canada. All rights reserved. Nothing may be reprinted

in whole or in part without written permission from the

publisher. © PAX International magazine

EDITOR’S LETTER

ANCILLARY REVENUE’SIMPORTANCE

Amajor study done over the lasttwo years on the airline’s ancil-lary revenue of dozens of air-lines shows that 2009 was abreakout year when a la carte

programs and commission-based servicesnetted airlines worldwide a revenue streamexceeding US$13.5 billion a 43 percent increasefrom the previous year. By the end of 2010 that figure had grown

to more that $21.4 billion, nearly double whatwas raised in 2008.Those are some of the important find-

ings from Amadeus Review of Ancillary Rev-enue Results at the end of May announced byAmadeus and a Shorewood, WI companycalled Ideaworks. “Many of these airlines are becoming

savvy retailers,” says the report. The numberof a la carte products and services are increas-ing and branding and pricing are becomingmore sophisticated. Forty-seven airlines dis-closed the information for the most recentAmadeus/Ideaworks study. Offering passengers products and services

for sale is, obviously no longer the purviewof low cost carriers. The top four airlinesparticipating in the report, United/Conti-nental, Delta Air Lines (see related story page12), American Airlines and Qantas Airwaystook in more than US$8.3 billion. Naturally, services like baggage handling:

commissions from hotel and car rental book-ings, co-branded credit cards, and loyaltyprograms produced most of the yearly ancil-lary revenue. The report, which was releasedat the end of May, made no specific mentionof the amount spent on products within the

cabin. Amadeus promises a more compre-hensive compilation of ancillary revenue bysometime this summer. Jay Sorenson, of Ideaworks was one of

the people behind this report, and previousones for Amadeus. He has some ideas forairlines that are looking to increase the amountpassengers purchase. Some are bold, such aseliminating complimentary drinks to pas-sengers. As long as the passenger can get a freebeverage, the less likely they are to open theirwallets for food. Another has been to add apre-paid option such as the ones in place atseveral airlines. The latter, he says, still has aways to go before it is adopted throughout theindustry. This, he said would not only raiserevenue, but would also allow the airline tobetter manage galley stock and cut back dras-tically on waste. Sorenson also produced some examples of

per passenger food and beverage revenue,though figures are still hard to pin down.EasyJet reported a per-passenger spend of€1.98 for food, while Jetstar raised €1.73and US Airways reported €2.6 per passengerlast year. It’s been 10 years since Michael O’Leary

the CEO of Ryannair floated the idea of bun-dled fees taking the place of airfare. While thatis clearly not happening, ancillary revenueshave been a bulwark for many airlines againstrising fuel prices and have become a perma-nent part of the operating mix for both low-cost and legacy carriers.

Rick LundstromEditor-in-Chief, PAX International

The delicious olive treat, now at 30,000 feet!LOVE IS IN THE AIR!

Visit: www.oloves.com or email: [email protected]

PAXJULAUG11:PAX Magazine 30/06/11 12:20 PM

AIRLINE


NEWS

SUPPLIER NEWS


LSG Sky Chefs opens CSC at O’Hare

Quantum Trolley rolls aboardLufthansa flights this summerThis summer, Lufthansa German Airlines willstart replacement of more than 30,000 servicetrolleys with the Quantum Light Weight Trolleyfrom Norduyn.

Lufthansa estimates the lightweight trolleyswill save the airline 9,000 tonnes of fuel and28,350 tonnes of CO2 annually.

The Quantum has gone through extensiveinflight testing and will be phased in throughmid-2014. The composite trolley was devel-oped with the help of LSG Sky Chefs, which isMontreal-based Norduyn’s exclusive partner.

CRUISE LINES

RCCL/SATS to team up on fly/cruise serviceSATS began its association with Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. in May, whenthe cruise line launched its inaugural summer season in Singapore with its Leg-end of the Seas ship.

SATS will be working with passengers who book a fly/cruise vacation on sevenairlines that operate into Singapore. A SATS customer service representativemeets arriving passengers at the cruise terminal to take them to Marina Bay Sandswhere they can check-in for their return flight and deposit their luggage.

The service is designed for returning cruise passengers who arrive duringthe day to catch an evening flight. The guests can check-in for the flight at theirconvenience and deposit their bags during a free day in the city.

SATS also plans to continue offering the service when the Legend of theSeas returns in November and for Royal Caribbean’s.

MSC adds flexibility to dining experienceMSC Cruises is opening up its meal service, adding casual fare in a buffet stylethan can be accessed anytime.

The cruise line announced the changes at the end of April. The line was tout-ing the light fare that will be available such as pizza and kabobs. MSC is alsoenhancing its drink service, making coffee, tea and iced water available com-plimentary throughout the day.

The changes will be rolling out across the MSC fleet through the spring.

Private Flightprovides an

innovative globalonline ordering andfulfilment platform

for VIP inflightcatering and

passenger serviceoperations

LSG Sky Chefs announced in late May that they will re-enter theChicago market this summer with a new Customer ServiceCenter at O’Hare International Airport.

The first customer for the caterer will be Alaska Airlines,which started 16. With the addition of ORD, the company nowserves Alaska Airlines out of 20 Customer Service Centers acrossNorth America.

"We are happy that LSG Sky Chefs will once again provide cater-ing services in this key market," said Lisa Luchau, DirectorOnboard Food & Beverage at Alaska Airlines.

In addition to catering, Luchau said that LSG Sky Chefs will supportthe carrier’s inflight recycling program through a process in Chicago to recoverand recycle inbound products.

The Customer Service Center at ORD is built for flexibility and can beadjusted to accomodate increasing demand and can supply first class meals,buy-on-board selections, main cabin frozen entrée options and regional jet offer-ings, said the caterer.

"The return to this key market speaks to our desire to provide our customerswith more opportunities to serve their growing needs," said Sondra Lehman,RCOO North America at LSG Sky Chefs. "We are confident that we will suc-cessfully build our position in this market."

Chicago O’Hare is the second busiest airport in the United States, behindHartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. O’Hare also has a crowded fieldof caterers. It is the headquarters city of Flying Food Group. Gate Gourmet alsooperates three units that serve O’Hare and maintains a regional office.

LSG Sky Chefs operated a unit at ORD until 2004, but vacated the airportwhen it learned that a planned expansion would have forced a relocation, whichthe caterer said would have led to a loss of its major customers.

Gama picks Private Flight for business jet fleetPrivate Flight will cater 80 business aircraft oper-ated by Gama Aviation in Europe, the Middle Eastand the United States, the operator announced lastweek.

The announcement comes after a six-monthtrial with Private Flight following an initial contractsigned last year. For Private Flight, Gama will beamong its first customers in the United States.

“Our offering provides Gama with access to atruly global catering solution,” said Shamir Samd-jee, director of Europe and the Middle East forPrivate Flight, in the May 19 announcement. “Part-nering with Private Flight will enable Gama to buildon their premier passenger services, whilst at thesame time provide a greater transparency in respectto catering costs.”

Private Flight sources its food products from high-end hotels and boutique restaurants.

Gama is a United Kingdom based companythat works in more than 30 bases. It has offices atFarnborough Airport, Stratford, Connecticut andSharjah, UAE.



Back in the year 2000, a major cruise line cameto its drink ware supplier, Whirley DrinkWorks,with a problem that needed a smart solu-tion. The cruise line was looking for an effec-tive way to stop certain guests from abusingsoda refills. People were taking advantage ofself-serve soda programs and it was affect-ing bottom lines. Pete Dorney, an inventor of sorts and sales

representative for Whirley DrinkWorks, tookup the challenge and set to work designinga machine that he thought would eventuallyput this practice to an end. His idea was tocreate a self-service machine that intriguedpassengers, saved money for the cruise lineand used cutting edge technology to ensurethat only those guests who had paid for softdrinks were able to pour them. Four years later, in 2004, the first application

was submitted to patent Dorney’s ground-breaking ValidFill Solution comprised of spe-cial souvenir mugs embedded with RFID(radio frequency identification) tags, a cupprogramming station and a self-serve sodamachine outfitted with RFID tag readers.“Whirley DrinkWorks actually funded the pro-

totype as a way to expand their offering,”said Greg Edelson, President of ValidFill LLC,a sister company to Whirley DrinkWorks cre-ated specifically to make and market ValidFill.“In 2004 they filed all the patent work andthen waited for the RFID technology to progressand for prices to reach a point that made thesolution economically attractive to the cruiselines and other potential customers.”The idea was to have vacationers pay a set

amount per day for almost unlimited access

to the soda fountain. Thefountain would be able toread the RFID tag in the“validated” cup and dis-pense the desired amountof beverage. When thepaid time period expired,the cup would no longerwork unless the guestbrought it to a staff mem-ber and paid the fee tohave it re-programmed.To control sharing, the machine can be alsoprogrammed to not dispense additional bev-erage within a certain time frame of the lastfull pour. In the beginning Dorney had his naysay-

ers. Many experts believed that it was sim-ply not possible to reliably use RFID tagsnear carbonated beverages, as they are knownto alter electrical signals. Dorney and histeam prevailed in the end though, finally work-ing out the system’s bugs and securing apartnership with soft-drink giant Coca-Cola. In August 2010, Royal Caribbean Inter-

national became the first cruise line to test theValidFill System. After a positive reaction fromguests on Freedom of the Seas, RoyalCaribbean tested the system out on Majestyof the Seas, which at the time was operatinga very different itinerary. The system wentover well with customers and crew, provingthat it could be suitable for all demographics.As a result of the testing, the cruise line hasnow committed to roll out the solution fleet-wide, a process that is already underway. “Guests absolutely prefer self-service soft

drinks and not to be dependent on a serveror a bartender,” Bob Midyette, director offleet beverage operations for Royal CaribbeanInternational and Azamara Club Cruises toldthe Cruise Industry News. “It is quite simplyfaster – for them and for us.”In addition to helping Royal Caribbean

bolster sales significantly and speed up barservice on the pool deck, Whirley DrinkWorkshas created yet another machine that hascut down on time and labor in the galley. TheRFID souvenir mugs that activate the sodafountain now arrive at the ship pre-sanitizedand ready for sale, thanks to an innovatenew UV light tunnel at the Whirley DrinkWorksfactory. Sanitized by lights of varying wave-lengths, the cups no longer need to be opened,cleaned, and re-assembled by staff onboard.Installation is simple, says Edelson, as

long as the desired location has water, elec-trical and the ability to drain to the appropri-ate waste area. “After that, launching theprogram is just an extension of an existing sodaprogram. The freedom to avoid the service barleads to exceptional sales growth.”

NEWSCRUISE LINES

Shown here is the ValidFill Solution onboard Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of theSeas. The concept has come a long way from inception and now features a monitorthat can be used for advertising or other promotional media

Soda solution sets sail

PEOPLE NEWS

Alpha names GM of Flight Management ServicesAlan Hayes is the new General Manager of Alpha Flight Management Ser-vices. He joins the company from Thomson Airways, where he was respon-

sible for the commercial performance of the retail range. He wasinvolved in development, marketing, space planning and inflightentertainment. He was instrumental in integrating the inflightretail business between Thomsonfly and First Choice afterthe merger of TUI AG and First Choice Holidays PLC in 2008.He was successful in growing inflight sales performance

for three consecutive years with the rollout of end-to-end inflightsales technology.

At Alpha, Hayes will be responsible for the over-all management of the company’s contract withMonarch Airlines.

GuestLogix, Inc., a leading global provider ofonboard store technology to the airline indus-try, has announced that Stuart McGuire willjoin the company as a Non-Executive Director. McGuire is the Founder and Managing Direc-

tor of Scorpio Distributors Ltd., a global dutyfree distributor that operates with more than 180airlines and most major duty free shoppinggroups. The global duty free retailer Gebr Heine-mann took a 51 percent ownership of Scorpioin 2007. Scorpio sold and an exclusive line ofluxury watches and fashion accessories to thetravel retail market.

Stuart McGuire’sScorpio Distributorssupplies duty freeproducts to 180 airlinesAlan Hayes comes to Alpha Flight Management Services from Thomsonfly

Scorpio Distributors headjoins GuestLogix Inc.



NEWS

GuestLogix Gears up for Third Annual User Group Conference

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In September 2009, Toronto-based globalprovider of onboard store technologyand merchandising held its first annualUser Group Conference in Toronto. Evenat this, the company’s first event, atten-

dees numbered in the hundreds and weremade up of senior level representatives andcabin crew from dozens of GuestLogix’ air-line customers.

As fall approaches once more, the rapidlygrowing Canadian firm is preparing to hostits third User Group Conference in Ontario’scapital and the excitement is growing amongstthose involved. Though the conference hasbecome larger (350-400 delegates are expectedin 2011) and the discussion topics have alsoexpanded to keep in line topical industry sub-jects and challenges, GuestLogix maintainsthat the catalyst for the first event still holdsas the single most important mission goinginto the 2011 conference: the creation of a con-nected network of the world’s travel operators.

“The whole is greater than the sum of itsparts,” said Dan Thompson, Director of Mar-keting and Communications at GuestLogix.

“And thus, the User Group acts as collabo-ration between the largest players in onboardretailing. GuestLogix’ portfolio of customersis what drove the initiative to gather theseminds together in the first place, to enhancethe current GuestLogix solution, share the bestpractices, and drive new business efforts.”

The conference is to be held from Octo-ber 3-5 2011 at the Hilton Toronto and willfeature sessions, keynotes and several chan-nel partner exhibitors. There will be a strongfocus placed on operational processes, tech-nology developments and new tools toenhance business efficiencies, improve cus-tomer experiences and increase sales oppor-tunities. Time will be devoted to discussionsabout specific trial and implementations cur-rently happening with clients and there willbe a focus on the extension of traditionalonboard retailing (via POS devices) into newdistribution channels such as IFE, eCom-merce and mobile.

“The evolution of the conference is drivenby both the evolution of the industry as wellas GuestLogix as a company,” said Thompson.

“The industry is certainly evolving and traveloperators are becoming more and more savvyas retailers. GuestLogix continues to strengthenits solution with new functionality and newfeatures that will increase the performance ofeach of our clients’ operations.”

Product launches have also become a mainattraction at the yearly GuestLogix UserGroup Conference. In 2010 the companyrevealed its AVATA-m handheld device andthe Analytics Platform, a scalable and easilyintegrated technology allowing users to con-stantly monitor trends in performance andaccess new and existing information to guideonboard retail operations. The companyexpects equally powerful product launches totake centre stage at this year’s event.

As of publication date, 25 airlines fromaround the world had committed to attendthe 2011 event and keynote speakers had yetto be announced.

For more information please visit www.guest-logix.com or contact Dan Thompson, Direc-tor of Marketing and Communications forGuestLogix [email protected].



The story of Latin American air-line growth and profits over therest of this year can often, likeanywhere else in the world, betied directly to nearly constant

fluctuations in the price of fuel. This fact may even hold the greatest truth

in Central and South America where carriersare in a state of merger flux and organizationssuch as the Latin American and Caribbean AirTransport Association (ALTA) spend much oftheir time dealing with thorny issues such assafety, efficiencies and infrastructure, envi-ronment and government policies for a groupof dozens of nations, nearly all with theirown flag carriers and long lists of challenges. Still growth and profits are keeping airlines

in business and reaching out more and moreto destinations in the United States. Managersin the inflight services keep a keen eye on theinflight products of competition from Europe,which is increasing rapidly from severalnations with strong ties to Latin America. As spring wore on into summer, ALTA

member airlines were staying ahead of the

forces that challenge them every year. Year-to-date traffic statistics were showing a 5.4 per-cent increase in passengers and a 6.6 percentincrease in revenue passenger kilometers.But what was also growing, and concerningpeople like Yvette Batalia, communicationsdirector for ALTA, was the June 6-10 averagefuel price of $3.1 per gallon, a 50 percentincrease from a year ago. Average costs for therest of the year should be approximately $3per gallon, said Batalia. "It is important to mention that gas prices

in Latin America are higher than any otherregion of the world, about 5 percent higherthan the worldwide average," she tells PAXInternational.This places carriers in the regionat a significant disadvantage.For Latin American carriers, in 2010, fuel

was 30 to 38 percent of their operating costs,she adds. "Considering the already low mar-gins that these companies operate in, theincrease in fuel prices will be apparent intheir bottom line."How apparent remains to be seen. But in

the ever-changing forecasts by the Interna-

tional Air Transport Association (IATA), theend of the year will look profitable, but notnearly like the previous year. Latin America is poised to be the only

region in the world to deliver profits for a thirdconsecutive year, reports IATA. Regionaleconomies have continued to grow and coun-tries have opened up important trade linkswith the United States and Asia. Consolida-tions completed or in the works show promisefor continued growth. But the US$100 mil-lion region wide profit projected by IATAthe first week of June is down from theUS$900 million Latin American carriersreported in 2010.Some of that outreach to the United States

occurred recently. In mid-April, Colombianairline Avianca announced that it wouldoperate four flights per week from Bogota toOrlando, the fifth U.S. city in its route system.Avianca plans to operate a 120 passengerA319 to the Florida city. The new gateway des-tination will not only give passengers fromOrlando convenient travel operations to sev-eral South American cities, but also to Colom-bian destinations such as Cali, Medellin,Cartagena and Bucaramanga. "This new opportunity also seeks to cap-

italize synergies with our partner airline, ElSalvador-based TACA, which has been serv-ing this destination for a couple years," saidRolando Damas, Managing Director NorthAmerica and Asia for the AviancaTaca part-nership. "Together we provide comprehensivetravel solutions towards the growing LatinAmerican markets."The partnership between the two airlines

is still only a partnership and not a completemerger. “So far we’re still working like two differ-

ent companies,” said Ximena Páez On BoardService Manager for South America andEurope at AviancaTACA. “And our on boardservice experience is different.” Before the end of the year, another city

pair from Latin America to the U.S. will openup. In mid-June, the Panamanian airline Copaannounced that it would begin daily 737-700service (12 in First Class and 112 in the maincabin) between Panama and Chicago's O'HareInternational Airport. It will be the sixth des-tination in the United States served by Copaand the service will start December 15. On-board meal service for Copa will

include complimentary meals and beverages,including wines and spirits. The airline hasa 12-channel inflight entertainment systemin English, Spanish and Portuguese. Also in June, Copa began service to Canada

with its new route to Toronto.

REGIONAL REPORT

Guardedgrowth

Lamb rack with rosemary-scented olive oil, alongwith creamy polenta and tomato a la Provence on

TAM. Photo by Gladstone Campos.

Several airlines in Latin America are involved in dynamicconsolidation and fleet acquisition, but fuel prices in theregion are an especially heavy burden By Rick Lundstrom



Brazil opening upThe economic powerhouse of Latin andSouth America is still Brazil. To build to theinevitable demand for air travel in a nationthat will soon bring the Summer Olympicsand other attractions to its cities, the Brazil-ian carrier TAM announced this year that itwill order US$3.2 billion in new 777-300s andA320s; 34 aircraft in all to strengthen itsdomestic and international markets. Theaircraft will be delivered between 2016 and2018. Two 777s will be added to the fleetwhile the airline plans 32 aircraft in the A320family, including the A320neo, which it out-fitted with aerodynamic wingtips and fuel andcarbon saving feature. Tam’s proposed merger with the Chilean

carrier LAN was under anti-trust review atpress time. At the June 7 meeting of theOneWorld Alliance airlines, LAN’s CEOEnrique Cueto told reporters that he hopedto have the regulatory hurdles cleared up bythe end of July, however he admitted that theprocess could continue to the end of the year.TAM is also one of the few airlines in the

region to report a number of importantchanges to its food service operations. This

year, TAM signed on two new culinary con-sultants in Chefs Javier and Sergio Torres.This year, the chefs selected a European culi-nary theme of "Flavors of the Mediterranean."The previous year, the airline used chef HelenaRizzo of the Sao Paulo restaurant Mani.Throughout the year the new service will

add more than 500 dishes in a selection ofentrees, main courses and desserts that willbe developed for all classes.The sampling of the entrees is familiar to

any Mediterranean foodie. In First Classshrimp in pesto sauce will be served withlime and radicchio; filet mignon will be com-bined with bread crust and herbs, compli-mented by an emulsion of mustard and veg-etables. A rack of lamb with rosemary scentedolive oil will be served with creamy polentaand tomato a la Provence. From Spain, acrema Catalana will be served for dessert. In Business Class, sea bass will be served

with zucchini marinated in basil-scented oliveoil and mushroom risotto; chicken fillet aremade with a crust of black olive and pinenuts; hake fillet is seasoned with tarragon-scented olive oil, served with wild and whiterice and string beans. Dessert is a yogurt rasp-

berry and almond cake served with pistachio. In Economy Class, TAM is offering a let-

tuce pumpkin and zucchini and olive salad;beef casserole with carrots and rosemary,served with mashed potatoes and zucchini ora chicken fillet and demi-glace sauce withthyme served with sesame rice and vegetables;and milk pudding with spices served with acaramel syrup. TAM is also spicing up its beverage service

with a specially developed tea by blenderCarla Saueressig. The tea, colored TAM-redwas made with a combination of herb andfruit flavors from the Amazon, accented byvanilla and floral flavorings."It translates the coziness, comfort and

pleasure of flying TAM," said a release fromthe airline.Other changes on board are distinctly more

high-tech. In February, the airline announceda successful pilot project with Internet con-nectivity OnAir's system will be on 26 air-craft, giving passengers the chance to browsethe Internet and send e-mail and text messageson Blackberry and other smart phones. Thenewly connected aircraft are scheduled to startflying in the second half of this year.

REGIONAL REPORT

Chicken filet with demi-glaze sauce with thyme, served with sesame rice andvegetables; and milk pudding with spices, served with caramel syrup on TAM



The struggle to communicateeffectively with customers andstaff is not a new one for air-lines. As air travel becomes moreaccessible to men and women

around the world, and new routes continueto open up, passenger demographics on air-lines across the board are filling out a broaderspectrum than ever before. There is no longersuch thing as an ‘average’ passenger with‘common’ needs or likes or expectations.Diversity is everywhere and this does notexclude airline staff, which are on the frontlines when it comes to passenger interaction. Complaints, comments, ideas and valuable

suggestions on how to improve airline servicefrom booking through to baggage claimabound in this rant-friendly era of blogs andforums and mobile apps. The real questionis: how are airlines taking advantage of pas-senger surveys, social media and internalfeedback to make the skies a friendlier place?According to a report published by the

International Air Transport Association (IATA)in December 2010, many airlines, especiallymature carriers, already have a plethora of pas-senger statistics at their fingertips that, if orga-nized and analyzed efficiently, could give themincredibly accurate insight into their own cus-tomers. “The most accessible information

resides within the data-bases of frequent flier pro-grams (FFPs),” says thereport. “Further data isheld in other operationaldivisions of the airline,especially central reservation systems (CRSs),customer management systems (CMSs) andcustomer feedback systems (CFSs).”The article goes on to say that “Properly

managed, these resources can be used to pro-vide airlines with an intimate understandingof their customers. Data can be used to seg-ment passengers, observe their behavioral pat-terns and reach out to them with relevant,targeted promotions,” with the effect of enhanc-ing loyalty and revenue through improvedcustomer service. Most airlines, however, haveIT systems that were simply not set up to per-form these kinds of tasks. They were developedinstead to track tickets, coupons and flights.This means that the data with useful customerservice applications is often ignored or sim-ply lost in a stream of information more crit-ical to operational functions. Of course, many companies have developed

solutions that offer this sort of data manage-ment at a cost to airlines, but during time ofmarket instability it may be difficult for air-lines to invest in a long-term IT solution thatis still a relatively passive means of collectingfeedback and doesn’t guarantee any clearshort term benefit.Key Survey Enterprise Data Management

is a Boston-based technology leader in onlineforms and survey software. For several years,American Airlines has contracted with KeySurveys to help gather customer feedbackand conduct employee performance man-agement processes. “We pull a couple of random samples each

month – who have flown in the last week ortwo,” William Mitchell, AA’s Managing Direc-tor of Customer Research said in a case studyon the Key Surveys website “And we invitethem to do a survey about their mostrecent flight; we tell them which flight,which section, we want them to eval-uate. These samples are up to 25,000

people at a time, and our response rate is any-where between thirty to forty percent.” In order to collect the most tangible data

from passengers, Americas Airlines and KeySurvey develop questions that ask passen-gers only whether a specific service or pro-tocol was fulfilled, as opposed to asking themhow they felt about the experience. Ques-tions like “were you greeted promptly by anagent at the time of check in?” illicit simplepositive or negative responses, making itmuch easier to group and interpret the result-ing data. The human resources departmentat American also uses Key Survey to moni-tor employee satisfaction and determine theeffectiveness of ongoing performance dis-cussions with management.Leveraging the prevalence of mobile phones

and the use of wireless Internet connectionsamongst its group of frequent fliers, Air Francehas recently launched Air France Connect, a

TRACKING PASSENGERS

PAX International looks at different waysthat airline passengers provide useful feed-back and what must be done in order to findand make use of it efficiently By Maryann Simson

airlinemeals.net currently hosts 21,975

photos of food from 597 airlines

Closing the loop

“THE CUSTOMERREALLY WANTSTO BE HEARDAND HE WANTSTO COMMUNI-CATE IN A MAN-NER THAT HE IS USED TO”Shashank Nigam, Instructor of Commer-cial Strategy for IATA, Brand StrategyLeader at Airline Capital Associate Inc.and Founder and CEO of SimpliFlying


And how was your meal?


proactive free service designed to keep pas-sengers informed of any factors that mightinfluence their trip. The service allows AirFrance to get in front of potentially upsettingdisturbances such as a delay, change of board-ing gate or even delayed baggage delivery byobtaining a mobile number from passengersat time of booking and using it for calling, tex-ting or emailing up to date information to themas it becomes available. Rolled out February1 in eight languages, the courtesy updateshave been touted as a success by the carrier,which says that text messages are perceived bycustomers as a communication channel welladapted to their needs. Air France also recentlyallowed its Facebook ‘friends’ to vote for theirfavorite movies on the social networking site.Four winners were chosen to and will beshown onboard in September.Like Air France, Alaska Airlines is cur-

rently using a questionnaire application onFacebook to learn which of its many meal boxvarieties (supplied by Oakfield Farms Solu-tions) they like best.

PAX International recently caught up withShashank Nigam Instructor of CommercialStrategy for IATA, Brand Strategy Leader atAirline Capital Associate Inc. and Founderand CEO of SimpliFlying – an airline brandconsulting company, with headquarters inSingapore and offices in Toronto and NewYork. “The customer really wants to be heardand he wants to communicate in a manner

that he is used to,” Nigam said in an inter-view. “It is very important when customerfeedback mechanisms are in place and visi-ble to the customer.”Nigam points out that a gesture as seem-

ingly small as making a manager’s businesscard available at the check-in desk (a commonpractice at Virgin America) can go a longway towards enhancing the passenger’s per-ception of the airline and its willingness to lis-ten. “It means that that they are openly sug-gesting for you to take a card and feel com-fortable sharing feedback. At the same time,even if this person doesn’t end up giving anyfeedback he still gets the impression that theairline is taking responsibility by namingpeople who are in charge.Twitter, Facebook and the multitudes of

active aviation blogs and forums online havecreated a new way for airlines to gain insightinto their public image as well as to respondto passenger comments. eezeer.com is fast-becoming a popular web destination for seri-ous aviation critics. The website is a self-pro-claimed web and mobile social network fea-turing tweets and location-verified reviewsrelated to travel. The eezeer mobile applica-tions is a free download for iPhones andandroid devices and allows travel critics to postmediated real-time reviews of airlines air-ports and hotels. Mobile app users can ratea flight, airline, hotel or other aspect of travelanywhere from -5 (very poor) to +5 (excel-

lent) and those tweeting on eezeer can ratethe same things, but are allowed a smaller scaleor just -1 (poor) 0 (neutral) or +1 (good).Unlike many other forum environments,

airlines, airports and hotels can use eezeer asa new customer service platform where theyare encouraged to improve their reputationand address concerns. Brands that are eezeermembers may “flag” a suspicious review forinvestigation if they believe it to be false.Overall, when it comes to enhancing air-

line brand through good customer service,Nigam stresses the importance of what he calls“closing the feedback loop”. Essentially, hesays, the first thing that an airline must do ispromptly collect any feedback to avoid lossof relevance with passage of time. When feed-back is negative they must rectify the situa-tion and then, most importantly of all, theymust “close the feedback loop.” To illustratethis point he references a Virgin Atlantic pas-senger who complained about the food, waschallenged by Sir Richard Branson to improveit and turned out to be a culinary expert,who did just that. Virgin used the example bril-liantly as a public relations project and suc-cessfully enhanced their position as a very cus-tomer service oriented carrier.“I think that airlines need to embrace these

accidental spokespeople as their own. If youare taking the feedback seriously then make surethat the complainant knows it has been actedupon, make sure the world knows it.”

TRACKING PASSENGERS

PAX International readers may well be familiar with the website air-linemeals.net. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the site was cre-ated in 2001 by a man named Marco Hart who happened to betraveling a lot between his home in Amsterdam and Istanbul. Hismother asked him what he was eating on the plane and the cam-era-happy Hart took pictures to show her. Those photos and a bitof spare time soon led to what is now the biggest online collec-tion of airline food photos anywhere in the world. As of June 13,2011, the website hosted 21,975 photos of food from 597 airlines.

“I never expected it to be this popular,” he recently told PAX Interna-

tional. “I didn’t start it to become popular, I started it for fun.”

And fun it is. The site is indexed by several criteria making it easy to

find photos and comments by airline, class of service, time of meal flight

number and more. Hart guesses that the popularity of his site has some-

thing to do with the fact that human beings, and seemingly aviation enthu-

siasts in particular, take great pleasure in sharing their photo and opin-

ions, and yes, complaining.

Though he doesn’t know for sure if airlines watch his website and use

it as a means of collecting feedback, Hart does recall learning that Conti-

nental Airlines once took images posted on airlinemeals.net of its own food

and published them in an internal manual for employees to show them where

they were going wrong in the preparation meals and tray set-ups.



Delta is $1 for every snackbox sold to the AmericanCancer society in May

Delta rolls out the welcome mat for 45 million passengersthis summer with the first steps of a $2 billion investmentin the cabin and on the concourse By Rick Lundstrom

Big improvements

INFLIGHT SERVICE

Delta Air Lines, which now car-ries more passengers than anyother airline in the world, has setabout trying to please as manyas possible wigth long list of

improvements completed and in the works. Less than two years into its complete

merger with Northwest Airlines it is in themidst of a US$2 billion investment that isalready taking shape. The airline is preparingfor a summer filled chockablock with pas-senger bookings, operational updates andcustomer service features that will be visiblethroughout the airline’s extensive hub system. Since last summer, Delta has been at work

enhancing its aircraft cabins with a numberof changes. Twenty-five percent of its inter-national 777s and 767-400s now have flat-bedseats. In June, its new Economy ComfortClass could be found on 160 aircraft addingfour additional inches to the seat pitch. Morethan 2,000 premium seats have been addedto the airline’s fleet of regional aircraft. Delta is betting that a few of the enhance-

ments will pay off in ancillary revenue. TheEconomy Comfort Class section is priced atbetween US$80 and US$160 per seat basedon the length of the flight. Many of the world’sairlines are taking the same approach as tighteconomies have forced business travelers outof the front cabin, but some companies havebeen willing to compromise by allowing themto declare an upgrade to a premium economyseat on their regular expenses.One of the most recent applications of

the newly enhanced cabins took flight inearly June, when Delta re-launched its non-stop service between Atlanta and one of theworld’s most important business markets --Shanghai, using a 269-passenger 777. Deltaoriginally launched the flight in 2008, butsuspended the service due to economic con-ditions. This summer, Delta will operate 47flights per week out of locations in China. Other opportunities for Delta will soon be

presenting themselves. On June 10, the UnitedStates Department of Transportation approveda “Trans-Pacific Alliance” between Delta andVirgin Australia. The new agreement willallow the airline to develop routes linkingthousands of cities in the United States with

Pacific destinations in and out of Aus-tralia. The two airlines pledged to havethe partnership fully up and runningby the end of the year.On the technology side, wireless Inter-

net is now the norm on 2,200 flights. Pas-sengers have the chance to plug in personalelectronics on one of more than 8,100 poweroutlets. Mobile apps are now available foriPhone, Blackberry and Android units. Theairline also has the first online baggage track-ing capabilities for airline customers. In the past year, Delta has opened two

new premium Sky Club lounges in Indi-anapolis and Philadelphia and renovated SkyClubs in its important hubs at New York-LaGuardia, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Pauland its home city of Atlanta.

Good to EATFinally, but not least comes the changes in itsfood service offerings on the ground and inthe air. Over the summer, the airlineannounced a number of changes to its buy-on-board EATS program and a significantplans to upgrade the food serving at an impor-tant concourse at Minneapolis/St. Paul Inter-national Airport (see related sidebar).“We work hard to keep our menu items

fresh and stay current with what our cus-tomers expect,” Megan Ireland, General Man-ager of Inflight Service at Delta, tells PAXInternational. “At Delta we regularly test newitems to gauge customer response. From timeto time we also host customer surveys on thedelta.com blog. All this direct cus-tomer feedback isincredibly impor-tant to us.”That feedback

has put a numberof name-brand prod-ucts in the Delta cabinfor sale this summer.Delta is working closelywith suppliers like pre-mium meats manufacturerBoar’s Head, Ben and Jerry’s

ice cream and confectionery supplier Wrigley’s.The additions are selling for between US$2

for Wrigley’s gum products and $2.50 for Benand Jerry’s Vanilla and Cherry Garcia brandice cream. In addition, Delta has added a chil-dren’s plate with fruit and celery and carrotsticks with ranch dressing for US$4.50 and twoalcohol offerings -- a Jack Daniel’s TennesseeWhiskey and honey blend and a Margari-taville Margarita Mix, both retailing for US$7.The additions take their place among the

regular full meal offerings that Delta hasbeen incorporating into its EATS programsince its inception. Morning flights this sum-mer will have a BLT wrap sandwich, snack barand yogurt and a fruit and cheese plate. Onlunch and dinner flights there will be a chickensalad sandwich, Black Forest turkey slidersusing Boar’s Head meat products and a fruitand cheese plate. Delta also offers a selection of snack boxes

for sale. During the Month of May, the air-line has pledged a US$1 donation to the tothe American Cancer Society for each snackbox sold.

An egg saladwrap, part ofDelta’s EATS

program



Cibo Express Gourmet Food HallsCibo Express® Gourmet Markets offersfreshly prepared products and bottledbeverages for before or during flight.Chef Michelle Gayer, owner of the SaltyTart Bakery has developed a line of"black label" sandwiches that featureartisanal meats and cheeses, com-bined with products from a local bak-ery, Rustica.Custom Burger™: Custom Burgeruses farm-sourced meats with a menucomposed by Chef Erick Harcey.Lucy's Asian Kitchen®: An Asianoffering with products made to orderby wok in front of guests.Tagliare®: Offers pizza by the slice orby the pie using fresh ingredients.World Bean®: The Twin-Cities basedDogwood Coffee Company will be thepurveyor of coffee for Worldbean and therestaurants in the group. Worldbean willalso feature a seasonal assortment ofwhole-leaf teas.

The Minnesota mixThe locavore movement will take shape in a big way with planned enhancements at an important Delta Concourse at Minneapolis/St. Paul International AirportThough the area’s reputation as a culinary center may not have the cacheof coastal cities, passengers passing through or leaving from Min-neapolis/St. Paul International Airport will be able to sample food ser-vice offerings with a local flare as plans for Concourse G move aheadas planned.

Some approvals by the airport’s management the Metropolitan Air-port Commission were still to be done at presstime.

“The atmosphere at MSP will be distinct from any other airport,” Deltapromises in a May 16 announcement of the improvements. “Inspiredby local flavors and Minnesota’s vibrant culture.”

Making it work will be Delta Air Lines and its concessionaire OTGManagement, which the airline is working with on improvements in NewYork Kennedy and LaGuardia. Over the past year, the partners have been

working with local restaurateurs on more than a dozen “chef-driven restau-rants.” In addition OTG is planning to offer the OTG Media Bar, an outletwhere travelers can rent iPad’s loaded with content for their trip.

“Our investment will be substantive, as to ensure the quality of theconcepts and fulfill the potential of the opportunity,” said Rick Blatstein,CEO of OTG Management in New York.

Work on Concourse G is scheduled to begin in January of next yearand will be completed in 12 to 18 months. “However, noticeableimprovements will be seen as each phase is completed,” said Blatstein.

Like the restaurant concepts and features launched recently at SanFrancisco International Airport, Delta’s experience at MSP will be builtaround flavors of the region. Ingredients will be sourced from the samelocal suppliers and farms that the concept chefs are using.

One eatery that is sure to stand out is the Minni Bar™. The easy-going cafe offering a menu of globally inspired sandwiches will be puttogether with the help of Chef Andrew Zimmern. The Chef, who has hisown television show Bizarre Foods on The Food Network, is respectedfor his knowledge of world cuisine. He will oversee a menu that featuresauthentic global flavors combined with locally inspired ingredients.

Mimosa will have a brasserie style and Provencal cuisine

The Minnesota Beer Hall will have more than 40 brands on tap

Mill City Tavern™: This offering will feature products from Midwestern farms and artisan pur-veyors. Chef Russo is a James Beard Award nominee for Best Chef.Mimosa: A raw bar and brasserie inspired by Provencal cuisine. Chef Russell Klein's Meritageis one of the most well-known French restaurants in Minneapolis - St. Paul.Minnesota Beer Hall™: OTG Management has teamed with Chef Erick Harcey of Victory 44on a pub offering 48 beers on tap, a selection of signature cocktails, and classic food staples anytime of the day.Twinburger™: It is the home of the Jucy Lucy, a famous South Minneapolis cheeseburger thatfeatures cheese stuffed inside the meat patty. Shoyu™: A concept of Chef Koshiki Yonemura Smith, Shoyu, is a modern Japanese restaurantwith fresh ingredients and traditional technique. The noodles and dumpling wrappers will be pre-pared fresh daily in front of travelers moving through the concourse.Vero™: Vero features thin-crust, artisanal pizzas. The individually sized pies will be baked at nearly700 degrees with a fresh twist on toppings and combinations.Volante™: A modern Italian restaurant, Volante, is overseen by Chef Doug Flicker the outlet willfeature three seasonal menus. Chef Flicker's owns Piccolo restaurant in the Twin Cities.

Restaurants planned for Minneapolis/St. PaulInternational Airport



EVENT PREVIEW

By Rick Lundstrom

Together, again Three events meet under one roof,as IFSA, APEX and AIX convenethis fall in the Emerald City

With registration for this year’sInternational Flight ServicesAssociation Conference andExhibition just days away inJune, organizers were tally-

ing exhibitor sales and preparing to sharethe Seattle Convention Center with two part-ner events for the second straight year. “Exhibit sales are a key indicator of how

brisk registration sales will be,” said IFSA Pres-ident Vicky Stennes. “Given that we are cur-rently 15 percent ahead in exhibitor sales, weanticipate very robust registration numbers.”Together with the fall Aircraft Interiors

Expo, and Airline Passenger Experience Asso-ciation Convention, this year’s IFSA event is a“one-stop shop” industry show, said Stennes.When the three groups meeting together for thefirst time last fall in Long Beach, Californiathere was a 65 percent increase in airline atten-

dees, a longstanding priority for show organizers. The three events will kick off September

11 with the first day of APEX, which will runthrough September 15. The two other eventswill be held September 12-14.The IFSA exhibition hall activity will be

accompanied by a number of seminars andeducational sessions and speakers from the air-lines and culinary world. This year, the chef ’scompetition will put contestants throughtheir paces directly on the exhibition floor. Dur-ing the two days, there will also be severalproduct demonstrations now in the works. “The excitement of a live competition will

ensure that the chefs will receive heightenedexposure and provide a memorable experi-ence for attendees,” said Stennes. Keynote speakers for the three days are:

Brad Tilden, President of Seattle’s home towncarrier, Alaska Airlines, set for September 12,

Dr. Victor Gielisse, Vice President of the Culi-nary Institute of America, who is set for Sep-tember 13 and Simon Talling-Smith, Execu-tive Vice President of British Airways willtake to the stage September 14. Also taking shape were two other new fea-

tures: an Asia Educational Track set for the after-noon of September 12 and an EducationalSession set for the morning of September 13.The Asia session is developed for attendees

that currently do business in the region andare looking to expand their reach. “Atten-dees will experience a sample of what IFSA’s2012 Asia Pacific Conference in South Koreawill have to offer,” added Stennes. The education sessions are a joint effort with

APEX. The sessions offer time with a cross-sec-tion the inflight food service and inflight enter-tainment and connectivity industries. Severalpresentations are in the works for the event.



Keynote speakers set for IFSA fall Conference and Exhibition

IFSA Chef’s Competition gets a new twist

The International Flight ServicesAssociation (IFSA) kicked offthe New Year with an announce-ment that it has secured AlaskaAirlines President Brad Tilden asone of three keynote speakersset for its fall Conference Sep-tember 12-14 in Seattle.Tilden – who will give the keynote

September 12 -- has been withAlaska Airlines since 1991 and waspreviously the Alaska Air Group’sChief Financial Officer and Execu-tive Vice President of Finance.Alaska Airlines is the eighth-largestcarrier in the United States, with afleet of 117 aircraft and sales ofapproximately US$3 billion. On September 13, the keynote

speaker will be Dr. Victor Gielisse,the Associate Vice President ofBusiness Development at theCulinary Institute of America. ChefGielisse comes with a long list ofcredentials. He has worked inculinary endeavors in the Nether-lands, Germany, Switzerland andSouth Africa before touching downat the CIA. He has owned anaward winning restaurant Actuellein Dallas and has served as chair-man of the American CulinaryFederation. He was coach andadvisor to the American CulinaryFederation Culinary team USAand judged culinary events aroundthe world. He is the author of Cuisine

Actuelle and In Good Taste, A Con-temporary Approach to Cookingand Modern Batch Cookery. He hasbeen recognized as one of The 50New Tastemakers in the UnitedStates and was named BestSeafood Chef in America byRestaurant and Business magazine. In addition to being one of the

most important training groundsfor restaurant cooks in the coun-try, the Culinary Institute of Amer-ica is a partner with United Airlines.Chef Gielisse worked for severalyears with United after forminghis consulting firm, Culinary FastTrac and Associates collaboratingwith the carrier’s former corpo-rate executive chef Eric Kopelow

on the carrier’s menu and products. An airline man will be the

Keynote speaker September 14.Simon Talling-Smith, the ExecutiveVice President of the Americas forBritish Airways will bring his exten-sive commercial and customerservice experience to the podium. When he was based in London,

Talling-Smith was in charge of han-dling the operations of the airline’s14,000 flight attendants and itscatering services. He has alsomanaged British Airways’ brandand products portfolio and wasinvolved in a series of customer ser-vice improvement programs andhad a hand in developing the com-pany’s website.

The Chef’s Competition held each year during the International Flight Services

Association’s annual conference and trade show has long been a prestigious

occasion for the association, airline caterers, their star chefs and judges alike.

Unfortunately though, the afore-mentioned participants were often the only

individuals able to witness the exciting spectacle of the ingredients being

revealed, the chefs’ almost frantic preparations and the final presentations

before judging.

This year the event will be different and much more of the action will take place

right on the tradeshow floor as a new man takes the helm of the contest planning.

“Diego DeAstis has many years of experience both as an invaluable member

of IFSA and providing inflight food products as Vice President of Direct Food Ser-

vices, Inc.” said Mike Fishburn, Chair of the 2011 IFSA Conference Planning Com-

mittee and Procurement Manager at British Airways. “He has served on the IFSA

Planning Conference Committee for the last two years and has been playing an

integral role in the planning of the competition and marketing of the event.”

By necessity, the 2011 Chef’s Competition will still have elements that can-

not be watched by tradeshow attendees. Certain aspects will be carried out at

the LSG Sky Chefs’ Seattle kitchen, but final preparations and judging will take

place live on the IFSA main stage and should allow for a far more engaging expe-

rience for attendees.

“I have had the opportunity to watch the competition before and the chefs

really did a wonderful job. I was intrigued by how they worked and thought to

myself, why don’t we let the show attendees see the great things these chefs

do on the floor?” DeAstis told PAX International. “People like to see a chef be

creative and cut and cook and plate the food and run around the kitchen. I think

people like that and I think they are going to like what they see at IFSA.”

Also at IFSA:

GoPicnic makes fourth IFSA appearanceGoPicnic will showcase great new items from its brokeredmanufacturers, plus GoPicnic's new Hickory Farms co-brandedmeal and an allergen-free meal that is free of the top eight mostcommon allergens.

“GoPicnic is expecting to see the natural and organic prod-ucts to play an even bigger role at IFSA in 2011,” says GoPic-nic President Julia Stamberger. “Airlines are looking to use gro-cery and retail data to see what sells rather than using the judg-ment of one or two decision makers.”

GoPicnic says that over the years IFSA has helped them to buildstronger relationships with clients and caterers, stay up-to-dateon current trends and showcase its many capabilities.

Sous-vide is here to stayExhibiting at IFSA for the 15th time in Seattle will be Cuisine Solu-

tions. The New-Jersey-based supplier will be showcasing some of

its sliced cooked proteins. The sous vide method allows for Cui-

sine solutions to slice meat (beef, turkey and chicken) while raw and

then cook under vacuum so there is no handling after the meat is

cooked until the customer opens the pouch.

With this method, the meat retains more natural juices and fla-

vor since it is sliced before it is cooked. The company anticipates

that its booth will be a favorite and that IFSA will generate leads

and provide a forum to communicate with customers in both air-

line and rail catering.

Simon Talling-Smith of British Airways

Brad Tildeof AlaskaAirlines

Dr. VictorGielisse ofthe CulinaryInstitute



model that we put in San Francisco is cur-rently down here in Los Angeles.

PAX: What did Flying Food do to suc-cessfully prepare for the first day of service?Curry: This was a real challenge, becausewe were given less than six weeks to make surethat we got all our paperwork in order, all ourlicenses all of our permits for the airport andall of our employees decaled and authorizedthrough U.S. Customs and U.S. Border Patrol.So it was a six-week process and during thatprocess what we did was to take multiple dryruns down to San Diego to see how long it wouldtake us to get down there and what the pitfallswere, what our alternate routes were going downthere and what are own risks were. Our truckshave to hit scales near San Clemente and wehave immigration check points coming backfrom San Diego. We also have to deal with Cus-toms and Border Patrol and the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture. British Airways is an inter-national flight and it has international trash andwe had to come up with Standard OperatingProcedures and sign a 20-page complianceagreement to ensure that we secured thisinternational trash from San Diego County allthe way back to our kitchen at LAX.

PAX: California has earned a reputationfor terrible traffic.Curry:We had four alternate routes leavingLAX to get back to San Diego. We’ve triedthem all and given ourselves enough time.

PAX International: Could you give usa rundown on how you are serving BritishAirways for their new service out of SanDiego to London Heathrow?Jim Curry: San Diego is a new locationfor Flying Food Group, and we are currentlytrucking down the food and the beverage —everything that pertains to this flight from ourkitchen at LAX. That’s a 125-mile trip and it’sroughly three hours going down. We’ve had experience doing this over-the-

road catering since I’ve been here, but notto the extent that it was a customer who hada daily flight out of a remote location like SanDiego. We’ve dealt with military charters forOmni, World, and North American in River-side, California, Victorville, and Point Maguand also down in Miramar and North Island.

PAX: Was it difficult to convince BritishAirways that service like this could bestarted and maintained?Curry: This was after we began servicingHawaiian Airlines out of SFO in Septemberof last year. We currently truck from SFO toOakland and San Jose and Sacramento.Sacramento is around 20 miles shorter thanour trip to San Diego. During the tenderprocess, British Airways asked if we wouldcare if they contacted Hawaiian to get theirrecommendation on how we’re doing out ofSan Francisco for the Sacramento market andthey got rave reviews out of San Francisco— that it was working perfectly. So that

We’ve had to do some precision timing forwhen we produced the food, when we loadedit into the truck for transport to San Diego.Once there, we transfer it into our two cater-ing trucks already stationed in San Diego. That came into play the first day, when we

faced some challenges but still were readytwo hours before the aircraft came in. So allof our hard work and preparation worked outperfectly.

PAX: Did British Airways come to FlyingFood Group with any particular require-ments?Curry: In Los Angeles we always had veryhigh quality and our standards are very highfor BA. In 2010 we won the award for air-line caterer of the year for British Airwaysworldwide. Another thing we had to draw fromis we had no facility in San Diego. British Air-ways felt so comfortable with our plan andhow we proceeded with the plan and all ourbackups. That’s how we won the business.It’s a 250-mile roundtrip. We have an over-

the-road 24-foot refrigerated truck. We followall the HACCP requirements involving BritishAirways. The food must stay in temperaturefrom the time it leaves the kitchen to the timeit’s put in the aircraft. And we have to take tem-peratures all through the process. That’s partof the standard operating procedures. Wetreat this flight separately from any other flightwe do out of LAX. After we transfer it downto the airport, we have two catering trucks sta-tioned there and it’s transferred from the refrig-erated truck to the two catering trucks. Thesecurity company seals it, and then we caterthe aircraft from there. It’s two and a half mealservices for an 11-hour flight to London.

PAX: Who worked on the project from Flying Food Group?Curry: It was my job to make sure this wasdone, and my Operations Manager AlfredoCastellanos and my Account Manager JimRoberts headed this up for me. And obviouslythey did a great job in getting this done. You have to step out of the box. People

don’t want to step out of the box and say‘yes we can do this.’ A lot of people thoughtwe were crazy — ‘you’re driving 125 miles.’But this innovation gives Flying Food Groupa presence in San Diego going forward andcreative forward progress is what FlyingFood Group is all about.

INDUSTRY Q AND A

Flying Food Group’s longtime customer, British Air-ways, began daily service from San Diego to Lon-don Heathrow June 1. The caterer and the airline willcontinue that long association, but with a new added

service – daily catering from the FFG kitchen at LAX -- morethan 120 miles from the San Diego airport.

Jim Curry, General Manager of the LAX unit of FlyingFood Group and his team had less than two months to planand execute the new service. He talks about how it was donein this issue’s Industry Q and A. repeated from intro

Hittingthe road

Jim Curry, General Manager of Flying Food Group’sLAX unit talks about the caterer’s unique service forBritish Airways in this issue’s Industry Q and A



WHAT’S HOT!

Headphone productsCompany Name: Asian Pioneer Global MerchandisingCompany Location: Madrid, SpainDescription: Asian Pioneer offers awide range of headphoneproducts to suit every airlinecustomers’ needs. They providein-ear, clip on, noise canceling,single pin, double pin foldableand more. With its ownheadphone factory in China, thecompany guarantees quality anddelivery time.

Miller Genuine Draft 64 LemonadeCompany Name: Miller Brewing CompanyCompany Location: Milwaukee, WIDescription: Miller Brewing Co. launches MGD 64Lemonade, a light, crisp refreshing beer withnatural lemon flavors and only 64 calories.The thirst-quenching beer is a limitedsummer release and fits perfectly into theconsumer needs categories of super lightbeer and lemon flavored beverages. It hasonly 2.4 grams of carbohydrates and isavailable in 12oz cans and bottles.

Trolley ice bucketCompany Name: Asian PioneerCompany Location: Madrid, SpainDescription: Conveniently fitted for standard trolleys and galleys, this ice bucket by Asian Pioneer can sit conveniently on the top of trolleys during service. When thelid is open, it provides additional spaceto carry napkins and sliced lemon. It has acapacity of three litrers of ice and can be storedeasily inside airplanes’ standard units.

Refreshing ginger aleCompany Name: GoPicnicCompany Location: Chicago, ILDescription: GoPicnic is launching its newbeverage ‘Q Ginger’ ginger ale foradults in June this year. Made withlots of real ginger, the refreshing drinkis lightly sweetened with organicagave, rather thansugar or highfructose corn syrup. The beverage islaunching this summer at WilliamsSonoma nationwide as well as selectrestaurants and cocktail lounges.

Liquid concentrated basesCompany Name: Unilever Food SolutionsCompany Location: Nutley, NJDescription: Unilever Food Solutionsintroduces new KNORR liquidconcentrated bases for everycooking solution. Created withhigh-quality ingredients for greatflavor, color and aroma, theproduct has earned the MasterChefs’ Institute™ Seal ofExcellence. It is gluten-free,containing no artificial colors orflavors and is shelf stable, evenafter opening. Easy to dispenseand measure, the delicious liquidbase dissolves in water, no mixing required.

Electronic cigarettesCompany Name: SkyMaxCompany Location: Isernhagen, GermanyDescription: SkyMax offers a safeand satisfying alternative tosmoking traditional, tobacco-filled cigarettes. Fumidus looksand tastes like a cigarette, but it does not ignite or burntobacco. Instead, it produces avapor that looks like cigarettesmoke and mimics the taste,and can be inhaled like a

conventional cigarette.Fumidus contains no toxictars, chemicalcompounds orcarcinogens.



ASSOCIATION NEWS

ITCA PREPARES FOR NEW CHAPTERIN ANNUAL EXHIBITION

U P C O M I N G E V E N T S

The International Travel CateringAssociation’s (ITCA) announce-ment in early June that it has soldits annual European event to thecompany that each year holds

the Aircraft Interiors Expo came after a springof reassessment that looked at participationlevels and financial realities.

ITCA and Reed Exhibitions announcedjointly June 7 that the new event – called theWorld Travel Catering Expo, incorporating theITCA name would be held March 27-29 inHamburg in conjunction with the annualAircraft Interiors Expo.

The re-branded event marks a new direc-tion for ITCA that began in 1980 when theInternational Flight Catering Association firstorganized in London. Since then, yearly eventshave taken place in European locations fromSweden to Italy and Portugal to Germany.

For organizers, the move comes after sev-eral exhibitions that ended in financial losses.ITCA President Stephen White and otherorganizers were also caught in a period of belttightening by the industry and continuedlosses of important exhibitors.

“It became obvious that we as an associ-ation could not have continued financially for-ever,” White tells PAX International. “TheBoard had to make a strategic decision toensure the survival of the tradeshow.”

White praised Reed Exhibitions, the neworganizers of the event, which specializes intrade shows across many industries. With

the company’s marketing skills and a singleEuropean show incorporating the ITCA nameinto the event, he said visitors would seemuch the same as in year’s past.

A spring decisionAfter the most recent ITCA Exhibition in Nice,White said he learned that a number of largercompanies would be exhibiting at AIX in 2012.At a March strategic workshop with seniorexecutives from airlines, railroads, caterersand suppliers, the group concluded that ITCAand AIX was overlapping in many ways andparticipants could be saved time and expenseby visiting both events, held concurrently.

Other aspects of ITCA’s operation willalso remain the same. The group will continueto hold its yearly Middle East exhibition inDubai, its HACCP workshops and the Mer-cury Awards.

“This will now enable the ITCA Board toconcentrate on revamping the Associationand I am determined that a new vibrantAssociation will emerge offering value andsupport to our members,” White said.

ITCA and the International Flight ServicesAssociation both work with Reed Exhibitionson annual events. This fall, IFSA’s yearly Con-ference and Exhibition will be co-located withthe Airline Passenger Experience AssociationConvention and another Aircraft InteriorsExpo held each year in the United States.

“IFSA has continued to explore strategicpartnership opportunities with ITCA during

this past year with a joint task force.” said IFSAPresident Vicky Stennes. “While the acquisitionof the ITCA European event by Reed adds anadditional layer to the landscape, IFSA willcontinue to seek mutually beneficial synergieswith organizations such as ITCA and others.”

Scheduling and planning for next year’sevent in Hamburg was already taking placeat Reed Exhibitions, which yearly holds 460events around the world.

John Hyde, Exhibition Manager at ReedExhibitions, said plans call for an additional2,900 square meters of space over three hallsto be devoted to the World Travel CateringExpo. With the acquisition, Hyde said theAIX now would now able to tout the eventas a one-stop shop “offering the completepassenger experience.”

So, far, Hyde and White said response to theannouncement has been heavy and positive.

“We were inundated with messages eitherfrom previous exhibitors from the ITCAevent, or people who had been interested inwanting to come to the ITCA event in the past,or actually, companies not yet exhibitingwithin ITCA or were not yet providing ser-vices to airlines,” Hyde added.

“Many changes have been made in thelast fourteen months and they will continuefor probably another fourteen,” said White.“ITCA as an Association has been hugelysuccessful over the last 30 years, but times dochange and we are reacting to those changesas fast as we can.”

By Rick Lundstrom

2011International Flight Services Conference and Exhibition September12-14, Airline Passenger Experience Association September 11-15,Aircraft Interiors Expo/Americas September 12-14, All are at theWashington State Convention Center, Seattle. For more information Con-tact IFSA at (404) 252-3663, e-mail [email protected], for APEXcall (212)297-2177, e-mail [email protected], for Aircraft Interiors Expo call44 (0)208 910 7126 or e-mail [email protected].

Cruise Shipping Asia November 16-18, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. Formore information [email protected]. Or call 609-759-4700.

GuestLogix User Group Conference October 3-5 at the the HiltonHotel in Toronto 145 Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.For more information email Dan Thompson, Director of Marketing andCommunications for GuestLogix: [email protected] or contactMelissa Paquin at [email protected] or 905-281-0555 ext. 114

ITCA Dubai Exhibition 2011, October 25-27, Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre for more information, contact ITCA at +44(0)1483 419449

2012Cruise Shipping Miami, March 12-15, Miami Beach Convention Center. Formore information [email protected]. Or call 609-759-4700.

Aircraft Interiors Expo, and World Travel Catering Expo, March 27-29, Hamburg. For more information call 44 (0) 208 910 7126or e-mail [email protected].

Marine Hotel Association Conference & Trade Show, April 15-17,Peabody Hotel, Orlando. For more information, contact the associationat (415) 332-1903.


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