Breaking Travel News

American Launches New ‘Food on Board’ Program

On Feb. 1, 2005,
American Airlines will begin selling snack boxes at $3 and a sandwich or
wrap at $5 in the main cabin on select domestic routes longer than three
hours and on transcontinental and Hawaii flights. The new program is part
of AA’s ongoing Turnaround Plan that stresses “Fly Smart: Give Customers
What They Value” and is a direct result of collaboration among employees
and feedback from customers and flight attendants. The new service will provide food options on about 500 daily non-
transcontinental flights—approximately 300 more flights than currently
offer food service. In addition, the new program will be offered in place
of existing main cabin food service on approximately 120 transcontinental
and 40 Hawaii flights. The move will help the carrier save $30 million
annually, while still providing customers with the option to have food on
board on more than 600 domestic flights.

In September, American tested various food concepts. Survey results
supported the idea of selling food in flight and contributed to the design
of the new program, with more than half of passengers surveyed being
“positive” or “very positive” about the opportunity to purchase meals on
board. A large majority of passengers who purchased the $3 snack box said
the snacks were a good value for the money. More than half of respondents
who made the $5 snack box purchase believed it was a good value.

“We are committed to giving our customers options, so we will provide the
opportunity to purchase food on more flights,” said Lauri Curtis, Vice
President-Onboard Service. “This will especially benefit our flights out
of our mid-continent hubs at DFW and Chicago.”

American will offer a $3 morning snack box from 6 a.m. to 9:59 a.m. and a
$3 afternoon snack box from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. The morning version will
contain a Kellogg’s(R) Nutri-Grain Muffin Bar, Ocean Spray(R) Craisins(R),
New York Style(R) Brand(R) Mini Bagel Chips, rondele(R) cream-cheese
spread and Peerless(R) Starlight Mint. The afternoon box will contain
Pepperidge Farm(R) Distinctive Crackers, Sparrer’s(R) gourmet beef salami
slices, cheddar cheese, Delyse(R) Orchard Fruit Mix and Oreo(R) cookies.

In addition to the snack box, customers traveling on select
transcontinental and Hawaii flights will be offered a freshly prepared
breakfast sandwich or wrap for $5. On morning flights, a breakfast
croissant sandwich with turkey, cheddar cheese, sliced hard-boiled eggs
and raspberry butter will be offered. After 10 a.m., customers can
purchase a turkey wrap. The wrap consists of a roasted red-pepper
tortilla, spread with spinach cream cheese, lined with Romaine lettuce and
filled with turkey, red bell pepper and corn.

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Initially, only cash will be accepted for transactions, but American is
investigating the ability to accept credit and debit cards in the future.
First Class meals and alcoholic beverages will remain complimentary.
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