Most recently, Finnish carrier Finnair started selling business class-style airline meals in supermarket in an attempt to keep its catering staff employed as well as offer its customers a taste of travel in Covid times.
The “Taste of Finnair” scheme, which started on October 15, was a hit: around 1,600 meals were sold in the first few days at the supermarket near the airline’s hub in Helsinki.
Kimmo Sinoven, store manager at the site, reported “positive feedback” from customers making the packed plane meals “one of the best-selling products in [the] store.”
“I think everyone has a bit of wanderlust these days and we can now satisfy that need a bit,” she added.
Indeed, with travel restrictions in force across most of the world throughout summer - the high time for travelling - many people were left yearning for more.
“Taste of Finnair” currently offers dishes such as beef with teriyaki-radish sauce served with grilled spring onion and rice, or smoked Arctic char with chanterelle risotto for €12.90 (£11.70) each.
Marika Nieminen, Finnair Kitchen Vice President said: “We want to offer the opportunity for a Finnair experience and everyday luxury at home, now that travel has been restricted in many ways.
“So many of Kitchen’s employees are temporarily laid off and we can now create new work and employment for our people.”
Finnair was not the first airline to try making the flight-dinning experience more accessible to their customers while aircrafts are still grounded.
Earlier in the year, Thai Airways launched an entire cafe on the grounds serving up their in-flight meals and Singapore Airlines launched a highly popular pop-up dining experience on its A380 aircraft at Changi Airport, alongside a home-delivery service for first class and business class meals, while Qantas sold a collection of fully stocked bar carts from retired 747s.
Sadly Britons have yet to get the opportunity to enjoy takeaway plane food but maybe airlines here will follow this trend.
Ryanair sandwich, anyone?
Feature Image Credit: Pikrepo.com