Soft French toast. Dry turkey sandwiches. A dish that might be chicken tikka masala?
To the chagrin of many frequent flyers, these dishes have come to define the United Airlines dining experience during the pandemic.
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Andrew Nocella, United’s chief commercial officer, said it may be a while before passengers see noticeable improvements in the Chicago-based airline’s menu offerings due to economies of scale and supply chain issues.
“This is one of those things that we haven’t come back with very well,” Nocella said while speaking at the Skift Aviation Forum in Fort Worth.
The United chief executive – who has taken a hands-on approach to improving United’s menu – also revealed that the airline spends around $2 billion a year on food alone and serves around 165,000 meals a day in premium cabins.
He also pointed out that it takes United eight months to completely change a menu — one reason why United’s dining options have had a slow recovery.
At the start of the pandemic, carriers had to cut back on dining options as travel demand was virtually nonexistent. While some airlines, such as Delta Air Lines, have managed to revive their pre-pandemic dining quality, United has struggled.
As a result, United has drawn the ire of its frequent flyers, who have joined industry blogs and social media platforms such as Reddit and Xformerly known as Twitter, to post photos of soggy scrambled eggs or unseasoned pasta.
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United’s food was so poorly received that Nocella said the airline didn’t have anything from the menu on board at a Polaris event in New York.
However, Nocella noted that United has made some progress in improving its menu. As the airline changes Polaris by region, Nocella said United has also revised its menus.
United launched a new Polaris menu for routes to London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR) on September 1, and Nocella said the new menu was received much more warmly by passengers.
“The scores are off the charts,” Nocella said. “And we’ll talk about it more in the future, because we have a lot more to say. But we’ve changed the wines, and we’re about to change the bread, and all new entrees.”
It’s unclear when United will be able to roll out these menu changes across the board, but Nocella said passengers should be able to taste some improvement on board.
“I think if you fly United today, the dining experience is dramatically better than it was a year ago,” he said.
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