"Hungry fliers chow down"

Saturday, March 15, 2003

Hungry fliers chow down
Void and stomachs filled: Food providers step in as airlines cut back.
By Kirsten Tagami
The Atlanta (GA) Journal-Constitution


It was 2:20 p.m. and Mylene and Brandi Mort hadn't eaten since breakfast.

The mother and daughter from Pittsburgh had gotten only pretzels on their
flight to Atlanta, a stop on their way to a vacation in the Bahamas.

"We're starving," said Brandi, walking through the food court on Concourse A
at Hartsfield International Airport.

The Morts settled on smoked chicken and havarti sandwiches from Plane
Delicious, a 1 1/2-year-old Hartsfield concessionaire specializing in tidy
gourmet sandwiches designed to be eaten on an airplane.

As cash-strapped airlines cut back and even eliminate in-flight food
service, airport food providers are coming up with creative ways to fill the
void. They are providing spill-proof carry-on bags, prepackaged meals that
travelers can grab on the run, gateside service, and delicacies to make even
the folks in first-class envious.

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is bringing back a concept it tested
a couple of years ago on an American Airlines concourse. "Gate Eats" lets
customers order and pay for a meal without leaving their departure gate. A
waiter uses a hand-held computer device to transmit orders to an airport
kitchen, and when the food's done, a runner brings it to the gate.

Pat Gleason, vice president of concessions at D/FW, thinks it is an idea
whose time has come.

"There's not been a lot of food on airplanes for five years, but now there's
less than ever," he said.

Travelers at Reagan National Airport in Washington can go online to preorder
take-along restaurant food. Carry-on Cuisine was started by airline software
company Cardinal Technologies and Sabre Holdings Corp., which owns
Travelocity.com.

So far, Carry-on Cuisine has been tested only at Reagan National, but the
company expects to announce two new airports within the next few weeks, said
Earl Furfine, CEO of Cardinal Technologies. Hartsfield isn't one of them,
although Furfine has approached two of the airport's restaurants ---
Houlihan's and Atlanta Bread Co. --- about setting up such a service.

On the West Coast, a Santa Monica, Calif., caterer has carved out a niche
among finicky eaters in the Los Angeles/Orange County area who don't mind
paying up to $30 for an in-flight meal. SkyMeals LLC serves such items as
seared ahi tuna and quail egg salad in lightweight, refrigerated containers
for passengers preparing to fly. Customers order by phone and the meal is
delivered to their home or office.

At Hartsfield, food outlets have reported sales growth since the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks, despite the drop in passenger volume.

Plane Delicious opened two days before the attacks and promptly shut down
for a week as all air travel was suspended.

The owners thought at first that their timing could not have been worse. But
the idea took off. Sales at the original Concourse A location were up 17
percent in December 2002 from December 2001.

More than half of customers save their sandwiches to eat in flight,
according to the company's market research. The $6.95 cold sandwiches are
designed to be consumed in a plane's cramped confines, said Guy Thomson,
vice president of Proof of the Pudding, which co-owns Plane Delicious with
Atlanta marketing firm BrightHouse.

"You've got a sandwich that's not messy and doesn't give off a lot of
smell," he said. "If you go in there with a Philly cheese steak sandwich,
the whole plane knows it."

Plane Delicious has added two quick-stop kiosks at Hartsfield and plans to
branch out to other airports in the future, said Bill Miller, chief
operating officer of BrightHouse. The company also plans to broaden its
menu. One item in the works is a "muffin cup," a muffin that can be eaten
with a spoon.

Brown-bagging may work better for both customers and airlines than in-flight
food sales, something tested recently by Delta Air Lines, as well as
Northwest and America West, said Robert Mann, an airline analyst.

Customers get exactly what they want, and airlines can focus on what they do
best: transporting people from one spot to another, he said. Selling food
onboard means guessing in advance how many passengers will want the chicken
Kiev or the beef tenderloin, and paying for spoilage.

"Then you have to deal with people who wanted something and they're out of
it. It's a highly unlikely-to-succeed business model," Mann said.

Nevertheless, Delta was pleased with its test and plans to "incorporate a
food-for-sale program in the near future," said spokesman John Kennedy. He
said it's too early to give any details. Delta also has looked into gateside
food delivery, among other ideas, he said.

Food made up 2.3 percent of operating expenses for major U.S. airlines
during the second quarter of 2002, down 9 percent from a year earlier,
according to the Air Transport Association.

The push for in-flight food sales came primarily from the leading airline
food-service companies, which see the idea as a way to recapture lost
volume. The biggest, LSG Sky Chefs, said its revenues have fallen 30 percent
since the terrorist attacks, and it has cut staff by almost one-third. Gate
Gourmet, which supplies Delta from a large flight kitchen near Hartsfield,
also has cut staff.

Even if in-flight food sales take off, they're likely to face tough
competition from carry-on sales at airports.

Ben Golden, a financial services adviser from Cumming, said he would take
his own food on board even if Delta offered a meal. He picked up one of
Plane Delicious' most popular sandwiches --- black pepper smoked turkey and
sprouts on multigrain bread --- before a recent flight to Chicago.

LIGHTER FARE: Struggling airlines are serving meals on fewer flights. At
Delta, Atlanta's largest carrier, meals are offered only :

   > On international flights
   > To first-class passengers on flights of 700 miles or more (or about two
hours.)
   > To coach passengers on flights of 1,750 miles or more (about four
hours.)
   > Beverages and snacks are served on all domestic flights

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