Six years after it jettisoned complimentary catering on its European flights and made passengers pay for all food and drinks, British Airways is introducing two new complimentary snack options for Economy passengers on short-haul flights.
The improved snack offering comes just a couple of years after British Airways started to offer a free miniature-sized packet of crisps and a bottle of water in response to critical feedback of the buy-on-board service that was introduced during the disastrous tenure of former CEO Alex Cruz.
Due to space constraints caused by BA’s decision to install ‘space-flex’ lavatories, which effectively halve the size of the rear galley on short-haul Airbus A320 series aircraft, the airline had to swap out packets of crisps for even smaller packets of pretzels which had resulted in a drop in passenger satisfaction.
From August 9, British Airways will again replace the complimentary snack offering with a choice of banana cake or a sultana flapjack for passengers sitting in Euro Traveller on all short-haul flights departing London Heathrow and London Gatwick.
The airline will continue to proactively offer water, and on select routes, the airline has brought back the choice of free tea and coffee. At present, free hot drinks are only available on flights to and from Amman and Cairo, as well as Budapest and Larnaca, as part of an extended trial, but a wider rollout is expected soon.
British Airways will continue to offer a wider selection of snacks as part of its buy-on-board service and there are no plans to make alcoholic drinks complimentary.
Last month, BA improved the passenger experience on long-haul flights with the addition of Jude’s ice cream as a mid-flight snack, alongside the return of sparkling wine as a pre-flight treat for passengers sitting in World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy).
On Tuesday, the airline said it was further improving its catering on long-haul flights by introducing a full hot meal secondary meal across all cabins on flights to and from Delhi and Mumbai.
Chief executive Sean Doyle has set his sights on unravelling some of the most blatant cost-cutting measures introduced by his predecessor, including attempting to improve strained relations with employees across multiple divisions of the airline.
Trying BUT failing whilst they continue to deliver; zero functioning customer service channels, fly overly densified aircraft, fail to load the advertised menu for those who’ve paid for it and continue to totally fail to communicate with customers except with marketing eg. NO notice cancellations then ZERO support online, in person or on the phone, Followed by months of wait and straight lies to retrieve costs, let alone compensation.