Air India carries food stock from India and serves its passengers on return journey

Guwahati: The chief official of Air India, Chairman and Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola, has said it on Wednesday that the flag carrier airline of India, use to carry foods and beverages from India to serve its passengers on international trips. The reason for the airline service provider keeping stock of food bought in India to the international trips and then serving the same to passengers on its return journey to India has also been made clear by Kharola.

Kharola stated that as the airline is running under huge losses; it has opted for this way to cut expenses on buying food items. It has also been stated by the Airlines authority that as the food items bought in India come for a rate much cheaper than the ones bought in other international destinations, hence, they can cut quite some expenses by carrying food stocks from India.

Air India carries food items stocked from India to its international routes like that of Stockholm, Copenhagen, Birmingham and Madrid, and also use the stocked foods for serving the international passengers on their return trip to India. The Indian cities sell such food items for a rate three to four times cheaper than the ones found in the foreign cities and that is one reason that compels Air India to carry food stock s from India.

Kharola also added, “The food is taken from here in India in chillers and then it is heated whenever it has to be used… Catering costs for us are around Rs 600 crore to Rs 800 crore a year. Catering in India is 3-4 times cheaper as compared to catering in the West.”

Not only this, but Air India also has plans of serving food carried from India on its flights returning from the Gulf region as well and this will start in the next few months.

To retain the edibility and good quality of the foods carried from India, Air India carried the food in its freezers and then warms these up before serving. Moreover, as a move to cut cost and bear with the losses, Air India decided to not to serve non-vegetarian food to economy class passengers on its domestic flights and this started in July 2017.

Kharola said, “There are some flights like the ones going to Gulf, Singapore and even some parts of Europe, where it is possible to upload the food here (in India) only. Some work is going on in that direction.”

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