Aer Lingus to outsource catering

Mebuntu · 08-10-2019 9:45pm #1

According to RTE this will happen in time for Summer 2020.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/1008/1081956-aer-lingus/

kevinandrew · 09-10-2019 12:27am

Probably a wise business decision in the long term, not too many airlines handle their own catering anymore.

Not sure launching before a busy summer schedule is wise though, it hardly ever goes to plan and is easily the worst time of year to begin implementing big changes to the operation.

MrMusician18 · 09-10-2019 12:32am

Hopefully they'll get rid of the obscene amount of single use plastic they use on their long haul.

Their food is woeful anyway.

kevinandrew · 09-10-2019 2:03am

MrMusician18 wrote: »

Hopefully they'll get rid of the obscene amount of single use plastic they use on their long haul.

Their food is woeful anyway.

The plastic use is "under review" but knowing Aer Lingus that could last a decade!
Ever since plastic was declared the root of all evil, their social media has been bombarded by people complaining about the excessive use of plastic in meals. Unfortunately, the irony appears lost of most of them as they happily sit on an ageing A320 on their way to Malaga.
As for the food itself, I actually don't think it's bad for an airline. The meals up front are very, very good and are regularly praised for their portions and quality while the pre order meals are decent enough and the economy stuff is inoffensive airline grub. Even on short haul they have some of the better meal options, I'd take the hot breakfast or chicken and stuffing sandwich over British Airways' stale M&S leftovers or Ryanair's cardboard panini any day!

MrMusician18 · 09-10-2019 10:58am

kevinandrew wrote: »

The plastic use is "under review" but knowing Aer Lingus that could last a decade!
Ever since plastic was declared the root of all evil, their social media has been bombarded by people complaining about the excessive use of plastic in meals. Unfortunately, the irony appears lost of most of them as they happily sit on an ageing A320 on their way to Malaga.
As for the food itself, I actually don't think it's bad for an airline. The meals up front are very, very good and are regularly praised for their portions and quality while the pre order meals are decent enough and the economy stuff is inoffensive airline grub. Even on short haul they have some of the better meal options, I'd take the hot breakfast or chicken and stuffing sandwich over British Airways' stale M&S leftovers or Ryanair's cardboard panini any day!

Yeah, air travel isn't particularly sustainable, but there is no excuse for the company making things worse.
I was on one of their TA services (down back) for the first time in years there recently for work and the amount of single use plastic was outrageous. Compared to other carriers, they've gone all in on disposables. While it's been a while since they had metal spoons in economy, they did have normal reusable plastics on their TA services. But AL is all about cheap service, but not necessarily a a low price so their review will last as long as it remains in the public eye. AL are happy it seems to put x hundred tons of contaminated plastic waste into the disposal chain.

As for the food being inoffensive, their hot wrap things that they give you for breakfast must be one of the most vile things created by man.

At least a lot of other airlines use reusable plastics. A

trellheim · 09-10-2019 12:56pm

Condition of outsource to TUPE over ? Pensions was the first thing that came to mind.

boccy23 · 09-10-2019 3:26pm

Was surprised that this was not already outsourced TBH.

goingnowhere · 09-10-2019 5:32pm

All the SH is already outsourced

Most of the LH is outsourced, the entire Economy service is prepackaged except for the pre purchased economy meals and business which is internal

L1011 · 09-10-2019 6:20pm

goingnowhere wrote: »

All the SH is already outsourced

Most of the LH is outsourced, the entire Economy service is prepackaged except for the pre purchased economy meals and business which is internal

Does every meal get a personal chef, going on the number quoted it'd be close to...

lfc200 · 09-10-2019 9:34pm

goingnowhere wrote: »

All the SH is already outsourced

Most of the LH is outsourced, the entire Economy service is prepackaged except for the pre purchased economy meals and business which is internal

Really 250 people for that amount of work?

Tenger · 09-10-2019 9:35pm

boccy23 wrote: »

Was surprised that this was not already outsourced TBH.

It’s been on the radar for a looong time. I was there (EI, not their catering Dept) in the early 2000s. I remember the statement from Willie Walsh circa 2002; “why is an airline making breakfasts?”

Mebuntu · 11-10-2019 8:48am

Willie Walsh comments on the outsourcing:

https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/in-the-greater-interest-that-aer-lingus-invests-in-aircraft-rather-than-buildings-iag-chief-willie-walsh-38582649.html

California Dreamer · 11-10-2019 9:15pm

MrMusician18 wrote: »

Hopefully they'll get rid of the obscene amount of single use plastic they use on their long haul.

Another win for the tree hugger brigade!!!! :rolleyes::rolleyes:

c montgomery · 11-10-2019 9:30pm

I was flying to a climate protest in New York last month and couldn't believe the amount of plastic used to wrap a scone, 3 layers of the stuff! Disgrace
AL get your act together

Noxegon · 11-10-2019 9:36pm

c montgomery wrote: »

I was flying to a climate protest in New York last month

Shouldn’t you have taken a sailboat?

L1011 · 11-10-2019 10:04pm

The "variance is loss" setup that must have been why they have only two different types of little bag of cutlery does lead to an insane amount of waste

Get a breakfast and you'll end up with two spoons, multiple sugars, salts and peppers etc. Two seperate bags, another plastic bin bag (inside a plastic bag) to put it all in and so on. Presumably it saves them money compared to loose stocking everything.

They used to make a big thing out of pulling the cardboard sleeve off the tea to aid recycling and all! Can't be done on the current cups I think.

IE 222 · 11-10-2019 11:45pm

There is a lot of food legislation and standards they need to adhere to also. Food needs to be protected and stored safely. Grems and bacteria will thrive easily and spread like wildfire inside an aircraft.

In all my flights I've never seen crew wearing proper PPE for food handling hence the need to cover the food and cutlery ect. itself. Some foods react differently when airborne which requires them to receive additional packaging ect. Packaging costs money and is very time consuming so it's not done for the joy of it.

IE 222 · 11-10-2019 11:56pm

L1011 wrote: »

The "variance is loss" setup that must have been why they have only two different types of little bag of cutlery does lead to an insane amount of waste

Get a breakfast and you'll end up with two spoons, multiple sugars, salts and peppers etc. Two seperate bags, another plastic bin bag (inside a plastic bag) to put it all in and so on. Presumably it saves them money compared to loose stocking everything.

They used to make a big thing out of pulling the cardboard sleeve off the tea to aid recycling and all! Can't be done on the current cups I think.

Unless all the waste is brought back to base I'd imagine this is a serious headache. Countries differ with recyclable goods ect and others probably won't take food waste for fear of contamination or have strict disease prevention measures in place unless it's been sent for incineration. Its probably easier and may only be possible to put everything into general waste with exception of the obvious items such as cans and plastic bottles. Haven't seen the new cups but perhaps there biodegradable.

HTCOne · 12-10-2019 5:15pm

c montgomery wrote: »

I was flying to a climate protest in New York last month and couldn't believe the amount of plastic used to wrap a scone, 3 layers of the stuff! Disgrace
AL get your act together

Like the English pensioners living in France/Spain/Portugal who voted for Brexit, hilarious!

Aer Lingus to outsource catering

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