Decline of the In-Flight Meal Leaves Airline Caterers Hungry

Spending on food by major U.S. airlines has dropped by nearly 30% since the end of 1999, forcing big catering firms such as Gate Gourmet International and LSG Sky Chefs to slash operations and cut thousands of jobs to survive the drop in demand for their services.

"You could just see the air going out of the balloon," said John Whisnant, Gate Gourmet's senior vice president of marketing and business development. "I don't think we see the hot meal coming back in coach."

And even with the cutbacks, carriers are "still putting tremendous pressure on us to lower our costs," said Travis Tanner, LSG Sky Chefs' chief operating officer for the Americas.

Blame it on the airline industry's four-year financial crisis that has landed three major carriers -- United, Delta and Northwest -- in Bankruptcy Court. Saddled with huge losses and desperate to reduce spending, the airlines have eliminated the trays of Salisbury steaks, lasagna and fish fillets that coach passengers on domestic flights once took for granted -- and stand-up comedians routinely mined for punch lines.

Except in first class and on long international flights, where meal service is still the rule, airborne dining has been reduced to snack boxes, sandwich wraps and salads costing $3 to $5 -- and then only if the flight is at least two or three hours long. If not, it's just peanuts and pretzels.

At American Airlines alone, "by eliminating complimentary food we were able to save $30 million in our food and beverage budget each year," said Tim McMahan, a food planning and development manager at American, a unit of AMR Corp.

Surveys consistently show that price and convenience are travelers' main concerns when choosing a flight, as evidenced by the surging growth of low-cost airlines, which have never offered much more than snacks. That's another key reason the old-line carriers have had few qualms about eliminating the complimentary meal.

A Zagat survey of U.S. airline passengers in November showed that only 2% cited "bad or no food" as their chief complaint -- "probably a sign that fliers have given up any expectation of finding decent food in the air," the company said.