Companies began to sell their stocks to the population. From trays to business class pajamas. A real phenomenon.
Posted today at 19:54—
Who would’ve believed that? Airline meal trays are selling like hot cakes to customers short of flight hours.
KEYSTONE
How do we recognize those who are truly nostalgic for air travel? They even lack the meal trays! This is not a joke. In these times of pandemic, given the reduced number of flights and the constraints limiting on-board service, more and more suppliers are starting to sell their trays to the population forced to stay grounded. And it works!
Thai Airways started the trend in April, offering a range of take-out boxed meals, from famous sautéed shrimp to minced beef cheeks in cumin sauce. The Indonesian company Garuda, for its part, started selling the food outright in trays. The objective, of course, being to succeed in selling the stocks which were left on their hands. In Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific offered its meals to airport staff.
Dumplings and schnitzel
The phenomenon is not uniquely Asian. In Israel, the company Tamam Kitchen, which provided flights from Ben Gurion airport (El Al, Turkish Airline, etc.) had to lay off most of its 550 employees. But their boss, Amir Shutzman, then posted an advertisement online urging people to buy the frozen meals once intended for passengers. Result: he was able to re-engage some of the staff, thanks to deliveries of dumplings and breaded cutlets at unbeatable prices: five meals for 50 shekels (13 fr. 50). Tamam notably supplies a factory whose cafeteria had to close because of the pandemic. According to the CEO, his typical customers buy first out of nostalgia, then out of solidarity, finally out of taste. In that order.
In the United States, the firm GNS Nuts, which supplied American Airlines and United, began to sell a stock of 13 tons of nuts by putting online its “luxury packages” usually served to passengers traveling in business class or in first.
Rush for pajamas
The nostalgia is very real. In Australia, the Qantas company has decided to sell 10,000 pajamas for business class travelers. Everything was gone in a few hours! Another successful offer: small packets at 25 Australian dollars (16 Fr. 50) containing pajamas, twelve Tim Tam chocolate cookies, lemon grass and ginger tea bags and smoked almonds.
Even more surprisingly, in July Songshan Airport in Taipei organized a “flight to nowhere”: some 7,000 candidates registered in the hope of being among the 60 lucky ones who were able to come to check-in, then board a plane which simply remained on the ground. Given the immense popular success, Taiwanese airlines then had the idea of setting up flights of several hours to… the same airport from which the plane had taken off. Finally, the Australians of Qantas had the idea of chartering planes for flights allowing passengers to admire Antarctica.
Posted today at 19:54-
