Yahoo Finance Airline meal price controversy could drive up costs for Aussies, expert warns
Qantas and Virgin may face similar pressures to provide 'special' meals, which one international carrier says has blown out costs.
Amid moves to charge extra for special dietary requirement meals on flights in Europe, an Aussie expert has revealed that the increasing demand for these meals may push local airlines to pass on the costs to the consumer here too.
Flight attendants from German airline Lufthansa recently suggested charging extra for inflight meals with special dietary requirements, claiming that now the carrier offers 11 different options - including vegetarian, gluten-free, low cholesterol and halal - crews often have to prepare up to 190 special meals per flight.
The airline's crew members went on a two-day strike last week - which affected 100,000 passengers - and called for a limit to the number of special meals that could be ordered per flight. They also suggested the airline charge more for the meals to discourage customers from ordering them.
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The crew members said the increase in the number of 'special' meals caused confusion and extra work because they needed to be distributed ahead of the meal service and matched up with specific seat numbers.
Dr Mark Humphrey-Jenner, associate professor of finance at the UNSW Business School, told Yahoo Finance that distributing special dietary requirement meals made the job of flight crew "more complicated" and inevitably increased the costs of providing meals.
Humphrey-Jenner said the large variety of meals would “absolutely” cause a headache for airline staff, although logistical improvements had been made to improve the simplicity of the service.
“With cost and confusion and the general difficulty that airline staff face providing different meals, this does increase costs,” he said. “There's no way of sugar-coating it. This can make the staff's jobs more complicated.
“It means you might need slightly more staff than before, or staff are less rested and the job is more difficult than it was beforehand. This impacts the bottom line and staff resourcing.”
Humphrey-Jenner said there were extra costs in providing meals with special dietary requirements because airlines, or their catering companies, had to source more ingredients, which pushed up the price.
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However, he said it was important to also consider diversity, equity and inclusion because most customers would expect meals to cater to ethical or medical diets such as vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free.
“It does raise the question of what are the appropriate accommodations an airline should be expected to make for customers with dietary requirements,” Humphrey-Jenner told Yahoo Finance.
He said customers generally wouldn't accept paying more for a meal to accommodate a medical condition that was “beyond their control” and would feel they were being unfairly targeted, which could ultimately damage an airline's branding.
When contacted by Yahoo Finance, both Qantas and Virgin Australia did not want to comment on whether they would consider increasing prices for meals with special dietary requirements based off international activity, but broke down their meal offerings.
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Qantas says all food included in ticket price
Qantas said all food was included in the ticket price, while its in-flight menu showed there were many options such as diabetic, gluten- and dairy-free, vegan, Jain (strict Indian), kosher, halal, Hindu and meals for babies and children.
It said the airline was a full-service carrier that didn't charge for food onboard.
“While we provide a broad selection of meals to suit most dietary requirements, we understand that some customers may have individual needs ... we are unable to cater for,” Qantas states on its website.
“Unfortunately, our dietary required meal options cannot be combined with other categories.
“For those customers that wish to bring their own food to ensure their specific dietary requirements are met, we aren’t able to refrigerate or heat your meals onboard.”
Qantas added that special requests must be made 24 hours in advance, or 36 hours in advance for kosher, while homemade meals needed to meet local security-screening requirements.
Virgin Australia doesn't charge more for special meals
While economy-class ticket prices for Virgin Australia, which operates domestic and short-haul international flights, don't include meals, the airline said it had an on-board menu that included vegetarian, vegan, low-sugar, gluten-free and halal options.
According to the price list, specially tailored meals do not cost more, while regular bread toasties, gluten-free options, and vegetarian snacks are all priced at a standard $5.
When food is ordered and paid for on the flight, airline staff are able to check what options are available that meet customers’ dietary requirements.
