PAX International magazine

N E W S A N D A N A LY S I S F O R T H E P A S S E N G E R S E R V I C E S E X E C U T I V E

F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 1 2 | V O L . 1 6 , N O . 1 | w w w . p a x - i n t l . c o m

Brandsin the cabin

AdvertisingOnboard

REED EXPOSINTERVIEW p.16 BRANDED

AMENITIES p.32 p.44 CATERINGEQUIPMENT p.54SOFTWARE

UPDATE

WTC&OS EXPO HAMBURG

Germanyin Focus

DOUBLE ISSUE

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PAX International

26 Pearl Street, Mississauga, Ontario L5M 1X2, CanadaTel: (1 905) 821-3344; Fax: (1 905) 821-2777website: www.pax-intl.com

P U B L I S H E R

Aijaz Khan

E-mail: [email protected]

E D I T O R I A L O F F I C E S

Rick Lundstrom, Editor in Chief PAX International723 Jefferson Street, NEMinneapolis, MN 55413, USATel: (1 612) 378-0862Fax: (1 612) 378-0852E-mail: [email protected]

Maryann Simson, Managing EditorTel: (1 905) 821-3344 x31E-mail: [email protected]

Lauren Brunetti, Associate EditorTel: (1 905) 821-3344 x21E-mail: [email protected]

A R T D E PA R T M E N TPatrick Balanquit, Art DirectorE-mail: [email protected]

A D V E R T I S I N G O F F I C E S

Deepa J, Subscription & Conference ManagerTel: (1 905) 821-3344 x35Fax: (1 905) 821-2777E-mail: [email protected]

PAX International is published six times a year

(January/February, March/April, May, June/July/August,

September/October, November/December) by PAXInternational, 26 Pearl Street, Mississauga, Ontario

L5M 1X2, Canada. International Distribution.

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views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily

reflect the views and opinions of the publisher or

editor. February/March 2012, Vol. 16, No. 1. Printed in

Canada. All rights reserved. Nothing may be reprinted

in whole or in part without written permission from the

publisher. © PAX International magazine

EDITOR’S LETTER

THE BIG SHOWI

n 1997, PAX International traveled tothe International Flight Catering Asso-ciation Annual Conference and Exhibi-tion in Bruges, Belgium with whatcould only be called an empty maga-

zine: a bound copy with a rudimentary lay-out and absolutely no stories, just page afterpage of paragraphs containing only X’s andlots of promises that we would show upsoon with something else.

It was there when we first informed theindustry on the launch of PAX, which wouldappear in standard magazine format shortlyafterwards, at the Inflight Services Associa-tion’s annual event in Vancouver. If therewere another IFSA event this spring, we wouldbe marking it with our 15th year in publica-tion. Nothing is planned to note the anniver-sary at this point. We’ll knuckle down and hoeour row through this one.

Since our launch, to say the least, much haschanged. The world’s two travel-catering asso-ciations have both gone through name changes,and what has come to pass is a yearly event inHamburg, Germany taking in the previousInternational Travel Catering Association andteaming it with the Aircraft Interiors Expo.

So, it seems only fitting that we shouldcome to this event with a new publishingconcept and more planned for 2012. This isour first year with a double-issue, both witha different focus to meet the demands ofWTCE and AIX. Layouts of the late 1990shave given way to new designs and demandsof online and electronic publishing thathave changed completely the way peopleget their information. We plan to expand ourelectronic offerings this year, using ourestablished website and subscriber base tobetter inform the industry in a more timelyfashion.

But even with those changes a few thingsstay the same. This recent offering took alarge effort and we want to thank the manysources and loyal advertisers who helped usout in recent months as we badgered themthrough the holiday season. We wish luck tothe organizers of this massive event as we allgather again in Hamburg to learn what we canto make the year ahead a successful one.

Rick LundstromEditor-in-Chief, PAX International

Want more? Visit us online to check out our current e.Newsletter, read recent print issues.

www.pax-intl.com

6 | PAX INTERNATIONAL | FEBRUARY/MARCH 2012

ContentsF E B R U A R Y / M A R C H | V O L . 1 6 , N O . 1

REGIONAL REPORT 18 THE NEW AIRPORT AT BER

A major airport opening has airlines in Germany jockeying for position on the world stage

24 DELIVERING THE GOODSGermany is home to some of the leaders in airline catering and supply

BRANDED PRODUCTS REVIEW30 SIMPLE, BUT NOT EASY

From trendy to classic, two longtime suppliers talk about the power of brands and theirimportance to airlines

32 BRAND IN THE BAGPAX International discovers the ups and downs of packing amenity kits with established brands

THE BRAND ALTERNATIVE36 BEYOND THE BRAND

Big names and well-known products aren’t nearly as necessary as providing the passengerwith something simple, tried and true say several companies that get their inspiration fromconsumer tastes

40 LOW-COST COMFORTTo fill amenity kits and cabins with comfort items some airlines forego name brands andpremium pricing for something simple and practical; and they are finding a number of offerings

ADVERTISING42 MILE HIGH MEDIUM

Airlines from Florida to India are turning cabins into a bold advertising canvas to enhancerevenue, while companies that sponsor the displays seek to reach an important demographic

TECHNOLOGY44 TESTING THE TASTY WATERS

From the concourses to the cabin, technology is placing more meals in front of more travelers

46 SHIFTING SANDSAs software developers create solutions for airline catering systems, they are finding anindustry that diverse in its needs and quickly changing

WINE REPORT48 WINE A LITTLE, YOU’LL FEEL BETTER

PAX International talks to airline wine experts about the 2011 grape harvest and how it willaffect the landscape in 2012, plus trends in consumption on ground an in air

EQUIPMENT62 GET YOUR HANDS ON THIS

PAX International explores Cascades’ anti-bacterial hand towel, a new product set toimprove hygiene onboard

54 EQUIPPED FOR TAKEOFFPAX International investigates just what kinds of specialized equipment come into playwhen food takes flight

ADVERTISING FEATURE58 TRUTH BE TOLD

Rougié separates fact from fiction on the topic of foie gras and how it is produced

EVENTS COVERAGE 16 TOGETHER AT LAST!

Aircraft Interiors Expo and World Travel Catering and Onboard Services Expo Event DirectorJohn Hyde chats with PAX International about what visitors and exhibitors can expect to see,hear and take away from this year’s newly co-located events running from March 27-29, 2012

52 ENTRIES UP FOR BACARDI CRUISECOMPETITIONGrowing in popularity with each contest and now in its seventh year, the Bacardi CruiseCompetition is the only one of its kind in the industry

63 A GLOBAL VOICEThis year’s Marine Hotel Association Conference and Trade Show continues its internationalappeal, with more stands and a events geared toward its far-flung clientele

64 READERSHIP AWARDS PART OF ITCA DUBAI GALAPAX International readers honor the best in food service from around the world

ON THE COVER: CPET containerfrom DIFMarketing GmbH

8

42

703 EDITOR’S COMMENTS

8 NEWS

14 NEW FACES, NEW PLACES

66 WHAT’S HOT

70 ASSOCIATION NEWS

63 ADVERTISER’S INDEX

63 CALENDAR

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NEWSAIRLINE

United rebranding and upgradingMarch saw the first steps of a comprehensive re-branding of United Air-lines’ premium cabins with new configurations and upgraded food serviceand amenities.

The first of the changes took place March 3, on the airline’s Asia Pacificroutes. There, first class customers experienced the United Global First brandin aircraft with a three-class configuration and a new layout of lie-flat bedsand priority services. In the second quarter of this year, the airline plans tobring in new equipment, including new bedding, and skin-care amentiesby a company called Philosophy. Many of the changes will follow Conti-nental’s BusinessFirst.

Among the improvements in food service will be a total of four entrée choicesand an expanded selection of wines picked by Sommelier Doug Frost.

On routes within North America and Central America, United BusinessClass adds a number of new products including cookies and sconesmade from scratch, and warmed cinnamon rolls on breakfast flights. Ontranscontinental lunch and dinner service, United plans to serve ice creamsundaes with toppings.

On United Express flights of two hours or longer, the airline plans to dis-tribute complimentary snack boxes.

United Airlines is spending US$550 million to upgrade aircraft interiors.The fleet of A319s and A320s will be be outfitted with larger overhead bins.The airline is also adding satellite-enabled internet service and on-demandinflight entertainment on its transcontinental routes.

SAS improves short-haul economy serviceScandinavian Airlines has brought back complimentary tea and coffeeservice on all European routes, including flights to Denmark, Sweden andNorway, the carrier announced at the end of January.

“This reintroduction is in line with our new strategy, 4Excellence andis one of the first steps toward an improved product offering. We alsobelieve this will increase our already all-time high customer satisfaction,”said Rickard Gustafson, CEO of SAS.

SAS currently operates a three-class service with Business, EconomyExtra and Economy on European routes, a two-class cabin on intra-Scan-dinavian routes and an all Economy Class service on routes in Denmark,Norway and Sweden.

SWISS introduces new culinary concept for business classpassengers in Europe Swiss International launched a new “SWISS Traditions,”culinary concept for Business Class passengers on Europeanservices, on February 22.

The new program brought aboard a series of Swiss culi-nary dishes, traditions, and coincided with cultural events,said a release from the airline.

Passengers will be treated to classic and popular Swissdishes, which will be prepared from original recipes using high-quality regional ingredients, such as a typical mushroomrisotto of Canton Ticino, or a Bündnerplatte featuring Can-ton Grisons’ famous air-dried beef.

The new concept will also coincide with well-known Swissnational and cultural events. Every eight weeks the carrier willfeature a new event on selected flights. The cycle began withFebruary’s focus on Basel’s loud and colorful “Fasnacht” car-nival, for which passengers were offered local specialties, suchas Basler Mehlsuppe (flour soup), Käsekuchen (cheese tart)and Basler Läckerli mousse.

In April, the focus will be on Zurich’s annual “Sech-seläuten,” while the summer special will showcase the Can-tonal Yodelling Festival and the Wrestling Festival. Also forthe second half of 2012, the new program will celebrate cul-tural highlights, including the “Castagnata” in Ascona andGeneva’s “Escalade.”

Each event will be marked with typical culinary fare, alongwith appropriate illustrations and an accompanying brochure.

The new “SWISS Traditions” concept will complement theexisting “SWISS Taste of Switzerland” in-flight culinary pro-gram, which will now be in First and Business Class passengerson long-haul flights from Switzerland.

The United GlobalFirst cabin now in the works

Every eight weeks, SwissInternational will feature a new,classic Swiss dish


NEWS

Cathay Pacific Airways announced in lateFebruary that the first of its Premium Econ-omy Class experience would be availablefor flights departing from April 1.

In addition to a new seat and entertainmentsystem, Cathay Pacific has designed the new

Premium Economy experience which fea-tures a quieter, more spacious cabin withbetween 26 and 34 seats per aircraft. The seatpitch will be 38 inches – six inches more thanEconomy Class – and the seat itself will bewider and have a lower recline. It will have alarge meal table, cocktail table, footrest, a10.6-inch personal television, an in-seat poweroutlet, a multi-port connector for personaldevices and extra personal stowage space.

In the air, passengers will receive an envi-ronmentally friendly amenity kit with a den-

tal kit, socks, eyeshade and earplugs, pluslarger pillows and noise-canceling headsetswill also be provided. Premium Economypassengers will be welcomed aboard with juiceand champagne, and enjoy an enhancedonboard meal selection.

On the ground, Cathay Pacific will give pas-sengers in Premium Economy Class Prioritycheck-in at dedicated space t in the airport.The in baggage will increase from 20 kilogramsto 25 kilograms or two pieces of baggage from23 kilograms to 25 kilograms each.

Cathay Pacific begins first Premium Economy flights

Malaysia Airlines beefs up IFE choicesMalaysia Airlines has increased the content ofits inflight movies, TV programs and songslibrary on its 737-800, 777-200, 747-400 andA330-300 aircraft.

Starting 2012, Malaysia Airl ines hasincreased the in-flight entertainment (IFE)choices. The airline has doubled its content ofHollywood movies from 30 to 60 and audio CDselections from 200 to 400. Also increased istelevision content from 94 to 170 programs and

international movies from 24 to 36.“We want our customers to enjoy world

class IFE experience during their journeys withus. The increased content also means thatthey will be able to watch something new everytime they travel,” said Malaysia Airlines’ Headof Customer Experience, Dato’ Mohd SallehAhmad Tabrani.

The airline plans to extend this upgradelater this year to cover the contents of Going

Places, its monthly travel magazine; Select,its in-flight entertainment guide; and Tempta-tions, the in-flight sales catalog.

Malaysia Airlines 737-800 fleets are equippedwith the audio and video on demand systemby Panasonic XSeries on selected routes. Thesystems enables passenger to control, view andlisten to the IFE at their leisure. Its new Airbus330-300 fleet has the latest Panasonic eX2™in-flight entertainment system that can be pro-grammed to route specific while the 747-400and 777-200 fleets are currently equipped withs3000i from Panasonic.

Cathay Pacific will belaunching its PremiumEconomy Class next month

AIRLINE


Helios Market, Product and ProductionDevelopment BV will be acquired by deSterHolding BV, a subsidiary of gategroup, forapproximately CHF27 million (US$29.4 mil-lion) the company announced in February.

“The addition of Helios will expand theability of the combined companies to bringinnovative approaches to new customers andgeographies and will provide synergies in mar-keting, manufacturing and supply chainsolutions,” said a release from gategroup.

“With this acquisition, we will leverageHelios’ reputation for customer focus, flex-ibility and speed to market with the marketing,production and supply chain strength ofour industry-leading brands deSter and Har-mony to create truly world-class offerings,”said gategroup CEO, Andrew Gibson.

Helios’ product lines include disposable andre-usable onboard equipment, plastic, metal,china and glass service ware and passengeramenity kits. The company, which is basedin Amsterdam, operates an asset-light busi-ness model with manufacturing outsourced,but with control of all supply chain logistics.

“Being reunited with deSter and Har-mony within gategroup is like coming home,”Jons Hensel, Chairman of Helios said. “Every-one at Helios looks forward to taking our col-lective innovation, delivery and customer

service capabilities to the next level.”Hensel was involved in the development

of deSter in an earlier form. Approximately15 years ago, Hensel and partners foundedHelios as an independent company.

“We are extremely excited to have Jonsand his team join the company and accel-erate the growth of deSter and Harmony inthe coming years,” Gibson said.

Helios is a family-owned company thatbegan operating under its present name in1999 with the merger of BASIC and DISCBV. The company began a meal solutionsassociation with Supplair BV in 2001. Shortlyafter, the company opened an office in HongKong and in 2007, began serving the high-speed rail market.

Helios’ revenue for 2011 was more thanCHF70 million (US$76.35 million) with anEBITDA margin above gategroup’s and astrong return on invested capital based onHelios’ unaudited financial statements, saidgategroup. With Helios, deSter’s and Har-mony’s combined annual revenue will exceedCHF250 million (US$272.6 million).

The transaction is subject to customaryclosing conditions and approvals, includingclearance by competition authorities ifrequired. The purchase price will be fundedin part from cash and a debt facility.

gategroup takes full ownership ofSkygourmetIn mid-February, gategroup announced it has exer-cised its call option with India Hospitality Corp.(IHC) and acquired the remaining 26 percent ofthe Indian airline catering company Skygourmet.

The company says it is increasing its staketo provide maximum flexibility to run Sky-gourmet as a fully owned and integrated busi-ness of gategroup.

“We appreciate IHC’s support during the past15 months to help familiarize us with the Indianbusiness environment, and we are eager tomove forward in developing this importantasset,” said gategroup CEO Andrew Gibson,in the February 14 announcement of the move.

Gate Gourmet, gategroup’s subsidiary, entereda joint venture agreement with IHC in Novem-ber 2010. Skygourmet operates airline-cateringactivities in Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mum-bai and Pune, while Gate Gourmet operates anairline catering facility in Goa. Further expansionof the network is under development.

In other news, Skygourmet and Travel FoodServices (TFS), a leading Indian provider oftravel food and beverages, are finalizing astrategic partnership to manage newly devel-oping buy-on-board services for India-basedairlines. “TFS brings the local experience andexpertise to augment what we bring from aglobal platform,” said Herman Anbeek, gate-group Chief Commercial Officer.

Delta renovations beginwith international fleetThe first of Delta Air Lines’ renovated 747-400s took to theskies in late January on a route from Tokyo Narita to Detroit.

The new interior has a fully reclining seat in Busines-sElite and new slimmer seats in economy class. Modifi-cations on all of the big jets will be completed this yearand put in service on routes across the Pacific and Atlantic.

The BusinessElite cabin has 48 seats with a personalpower outlet, a 15.4 inch monitor and an IFE system with300 movies, 88 hours of television programming, 100hours of HBO and Showtime and 5,000 music tracks.Zodiac Aerospace is the supplier for the BusinessElite seat.

Also on the 747s is Delta’s Economy Comfort cabin with 42 seats.The new mid-range economy cabin is now on 160 Delta aircraft andis located in the first few rows of the back cabin. In Economy Class,

the new slim-line seats give passengers an additional two inches ofseat pitch and also have adjustable wings, height and tilt, a USB poweroutlet and a nine-inch touch screen, which offers the same line of choicesas BusinessElite.

AIRLINE

CATERING

NEWS

gategroup subsidiary deSter to acquire Helios

Lie-flat comfort on Delta’s747-400 fleet


Sales up in Do & Co for first three quartersAirline and event caterer Do & Co recorded€361.82 million (US$482.57 million) for the firstthree quarters of its 2011-12 fiscal year andearnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of€37.17 million (US$49.5 million), the companyannounced in early February.

Airline catering sales grew 7% from the pre-vious year, producing sales in the first three quar-ters of €269.54 million (US$359.51 million), log-ging a EBIT for the sector of €17.59 million(US$23.46 million), a 21.9% increase overthe previous year for the first three quarters ofthe fiscal year, which ended December 31.

“Belt tightening by some of our airline cus-tomers is accompanied by higher frequenciesat other clients and our successful acquisitionof new customers,” said the February 9 report.“This trend can be observed at almost all ofthe Do & Co locations worldwide.”

One of the carriers that Do & Co is work-ing extensively with is Turkish Airlines, which

SATS and partners agree tojoint stakes in Beijing firmsSATS announced in mid-February that it has enteredinto a joint venture with two airlines and an airportsholding company for a new agreement involving Bei-jing Aviation Ground Services Co., Limited (BGS) andBeijing Airport Inflight Kitchen, Limited (BAIK).

As a result, China Eastern Airlines Corporation Lim-ited and China Southern Airlines Company Limited willeach own 30% of BGS and BAIK, while SATS’ share-holding will be diluted to 28%, with the 12% balancebeing held by Capital Airports Holding Company.

Before the new agreement, SATS held a 40% equitystake in both JV companies while Capital AirportsHolding Company owned the remaining 60% stake.

“We are very pleased that China Eastern and ChinaSouthern will be coming onboard as new shareholdersof BGS and BAIK,” said Tan Chuan Lye, SATS’ Acting CEO.“Both airlines are our existing customers at Changi andare leading carriers in the Chinese aviation market. WithSATS’ continued presence in Beijing, we hope to lever-age on our strong relationship with both airlines todeepen our presence in China.”

The deal is subject to the approval of the Chineseregulatory authority.

NEWS

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CATERING

is in the midst of developing an onboardchefs program.

“We plan to have a total of 200 chefsonboard TK,” said Wilfried Kainz ManagingDirector at Do & Co Restaurants & CateringAG. “Thus we can assure high competenceand service quality for our passengers. All chefsare trained professionals who have attendedour culinary academy in Istanbul.”

Turkish Airlines comes off a year which wasmarked with high growth in 2011. Recent esti-mates have placed the airline as the fourthlargest in Europe with a fleet of 177 aircraftto 190 cities around the world.

“We expect that TK will benefit from its geo-strategic position, high domestic demand, andabove average growth potential in the Cen-tral and Easter Europe region,” said Kainz.

Elsewhere in the caterer’s system, Do &Co completed its majority purchase of KyivCatering; and work continues a new kitchenin the Ukrainian capital that is expected to openthis year. The company has also taken overthe catering for Austrian Railways.


Nobu Matsuhisatakes to sea on CrystalMaster Chef, Nobu Matsuhisa will beaboard the Crystal Serenity this May asExecutive Chef in Silk Road and theSushi Bar, his specialty restaurants onCrystal Cruises.

The chef plans to give cooking instruc-tions, personally prepare dishes, take pic-tures with guests, and sign autographs dur-ing a 12-day western European/Mediter-ranean voyage departing May 24.

Passengers may request a special“Omakase” dinner, with sake and sakechampagne pairings chosen by SakeMaster Fumio Hazu, the man behindNobu’s exclusive “living” Hokosetsu sake.

The chef will give a personal cookingclass for 10-12 guests, sign copies ofhis two cookbooks and also overseesake tastings and hors d’oeuvres servingby Hazu.

Nobu’s Japanese-Peruvian fusion hasbeen served complimentary on boardevery Crystal Symphony and CrystalSerenity sailing since 2003 and 2008,respectively. Matsuhisa personally trainsall chefs, designs all menus, and sched-ules in-person ship visits every year forongoing refinement.

Six Silversea voyages feature wine expertsWine experts, Lyn Farmer and RichardNurick will host an enrichment programon six Silversea cruises this year.

The first of the series with Lyn Farmertook place in early February on a 19-dayvoyage around Australia on the SilverShadow. The next is planned for May whenthe Silver Whisper departs out of MonteCarlo on a 12-day sail to Southampton.Other trips will be in August on the SilverCloud from London to Monte Carlo, Franceand in December from Buenos Aires toSantiago, Chile on the Silver Cloud.

Nurick’s first voyage will be in July onthe Silver Whisper from Southampton to Lis-bon, followed by August from Lisbon toSouthampton, also on the Silver Whisper.

En Route a brandbattle winner“We sit very proudly amongst some other win-ners this evening such as Heinz, McDonald’s,Weetabix and Hellmann’s!,” said the e-mailfrom En Route with news that the companyhas won a bronze medal in the Design Effec-tiveness Awards in late February.

The UK company received the honor forthe My, Myself & My brand, which was devel-oped through its work with a company called1HQ in the midst of an economic downturn.The products were put together in a visuallystrong packaging to capture the eye.

“1HQ created the Me, Myself & My brand– a nod to the insight that, once settled on boardtheir flight, passengers enter a self-containedbubble,” said a description of the program. “1HQused a bold, confident logotype and strong, sim-ple visuals and colors to reflect the brand’s dis-tinctive personality, create impact and helpwith easy product identification.”

On the package were games and puzzlesto alleviate in-flight boredom.

The first Me, Myself & My products werelaunched in December of 2009. The brandachieved more than six times its sales target.It can now be found on British Airways,Ryanair, BMI and Emirates flights.

Stolichnaya to be servedon Austrian AirlinesSPI Group has announced recently thatStolichnaya brand premium vodka is nowavailable on-board all Austrian Airlines flights.

Do & Co Airline Catering will supplythe premium vodka across the airline’s91-aircraft fleet. Stolichnaya premiumvodka is the top selling brand in the SPIGroup portfolio and one of the world’sbest-selling premium vodkas.

“The partnership with Austrian Airlines isa natural fit for Stolichnaya as both set aprecedent for high quality in their respec-tive markets,” said a release from SPI Group.

Industry support for both partners hasbeen shown through the Best BusinessClass Catering Award 2011 and the StaffService Excellence Europe 2011 awardedto Austrian Airlines, as well as the goldmedals for Stolichnaya Premium vodka atthe World Spirits Awards and at the Inter-national Spirits Challenge.

Guestlogix probesAsian passenger retailin new studyA new study by Toronto-based Guestlogix paints a pic-ture of a more prosperous and independent Asian trav-eler now taking to the skies with a desire to spend.

The report: The Retail Store at 35,000 Feet: How NewTravel Trends in the Asia-Pacific Region Create NewOpportunities for Airlines analyzes recent travel trends outof the region. In the first eight months of last year the reportnotes that Asian travel abroad increased 6% from the pre-vious year bringing the overall travel numbers to 90 mil-lion passengers spending an estimated US$86 billion.

“Whole countries like Tanzania are designing andredesigning their tourist promotion campaigns specifi-cally tailored to the Asia-Pacific community and shift-ing from the go-to tourist countries, namely Britain,Germany, the U.S., Italy, France, Spain and the Scandi-navian countries,” said the report.

Traveling Asian tourists are on the move armed withlaptops, smart phones and tablets. Evidence also pointsto a traveler from the region that is freer with money.Thai travelers on average outspend Australians, Japan-ese and Americans. Growing educated middle classesin emerging nations have increased in nations such asChina to 23% of the population, notes the report.

“To be sure, per capita spending power for many ofthese individuals remains below Western standard,” thereport says. “But even so, the opportunity for Westernretailers, hoteliers and airlines to attract and build first-time loyalty for this new and rapidly expanding upwardlymobile population segment will never come again.”

In the changing world of inflight retail the opportu-nity for sales at 35,000 feet may be found in whatGuestlogix calls a “branded onboard store.” Though nota new ideal, the concept would take a different form air-line by airline. Some of the advancement involves tech-nologies that have moved ahead of the specialized point-of-sale devices to complete transactions.

“But rather than being viewed as a stand-alone prod-uct, the inflight connectivity is an enabler, providing for aseamless and managed onboard buying experience deliv-ered right into the hands of airlines’ passengers via per-sonal devices and smart phones,” said the report.

This brand of onboard retailing is still in its youth,but airlines like Delta and American are transitioning withthe adoption of cashless cabins.

Embracing new technologies and methods is one ofthe keys to successful sales to Asian travelers. A recentstudy, pointed out in the Guestlogix study shows that 48%of Asians surveyed use social media such as Facebookand Twitter as opposed to 10% in the United States.

Many, the survey found, valued access to inflight Wi-Fi and AC power adaptors, presumably for their portablemobile devices, said the report.

NEWSCRUISE LINES SUPPLIER NEWS


New appointments atKraft World Travel RetailSeveral personnel changes occurred at KraftWorld Travel Retail in January. Sanjay Karadi,the Business Development Manager for the Mid-dle East, took a new position with the Kraft Mid-dle East organization.

Lucas Roberts, who previously headed upthe company’s Indian Sub-Continent and Ocea-nia cluster, is now Business Development Man-ager, Middle East and India Sub Continent. Hewill move from Melbourne to Dubai in early 2012.

Finally Rajiv Malhotra, previously respon-sible for South East Asia business, has beenappointed Senior Business Development Man-ager, South East Asia and Oceania. He willcontinue to be based in Singapore.

Anne Bauer namedPresident of Racket GroupAnne Bauer has been named President andCEO of Racket Group in Kansas City, Missouri.

Racket Group is privately owned by theHoagland family, which also operates businessesin cattle and citrus growing. Racket was estab-lished in 1891.

Joe Hoagland will remain Chairman of theBoard of Racket Merchandise Company. His son,Dirck Hoagland has taken over daily managementof two cattle ranches and the commercial feedlot.

Bauer has been with the company for 14years. She was responsible for opening RacketGroup’s offices in Europe and worked as EuropeanSales Manager for several years. She returned tothe United States to become the company’s Direc-tor of Sales. Last year, Racket’s overall salesincreased nearly 30% under her leadership.

Goeke namedgategroup SVPDoug Goeke has been named gategroup’s GroupSenior Vice President and President of its NorthAmerica region.

He took over the new position January 1. Hehas served as President and Managing Director forGate Gourmet Canada since November 2010.

Goeke continues to have oversight of Canada andwill direct responsibility for all of the Gate Gourmet’sU.S. operations. He is also a member of the gate-group Executive Management Board.

Goeke joined gategroup as the Chief Financial Offi-cer for Gate Gourmet’s North America region in 2003. Previously, he held progressivelyresponsible financial positions with The Lincoln Electric Company and earlier worked withthe international accounting firm Arthur Andersen LLP.

Food safety expert joinsFlying Food GroupDr. Paul Hall has joined Flying Food Group (FFG)as Vice President of Food Safety and Quality.

Hall will lead an expanded FFG Food Safety& Quality Assurance team at FFG’s network of18 U.S. kitchens and one in Shanghai.

Hall has a background in food safety andmicrobiology. He has worked with Kraft FoodsGlobal, Con Agra Foods, Anheuser BuschCompanies and Ralston Purina.

Sue Gin, FFG Founder and CEO, said, “Pauland his expanded team add another layer ofprotection for our customers.”

Hall is a Fellow and past president of the Inter-national Association for Food Protection, andpast president of the American Society forMicrobiology. His awards include: Kraft FoodsSuperior Achievement Award for Listeria FoodSafety Initiatives, International Life SciencesInstitute’s Movers and Shakers Award for Pro-moting Global Food Safety, Outstanding Lead-ership Recognition Award from the Universityof Georgia Center for Food Safety.

New to Zodiacsales teamZodiac Group announced in a recent com-pany newsletter that Eileen Song has joinedthe company’s Galley Equipment Sales teamat its Singapore offices.

Song has spent seven years in sales andcustomer service experience in the aero-space and hospitality industries. She recentlygraduated with a degree in Aviation IndustryManagement with Distinction at RMIT Uni-versity in Australia.

Her experience includes a period as SalesExecutive at Leki Aviation PTE Ltd. in Sin-gapore. Leki Aviation specializes in the sup-ply and distribution of aircraft parts, interi-ors and components to the global Aviationindustry.

PEOPLE NEWS

Doug Goeke was previouslygategroup’s managing director for Gate Gourmet Canada

Candiani takes overServair Air ChefServair has appointed Marco Can-diani to the position of General Man-ager of Servair Air Chef.

Candiani began his career as aconsultant at T&MSI Consulting. In1992 he became Logistics Managerof CO.E.S. SpA (Compagnie Edil San-itaria), an Italian company specializ-ing in hydrothermal sanitary installa-tions. Candiani joined Salvesen Cav-alieri Logistica SpA in 1997 beforetaking the position of DevelopmentManager in the Italian subsidiary of theKuehne Nagel group in 2001. Hisduties included overseeing supply forCarrefour hypermarkets. He was thenappointed as Director of Retail & Con-sumer Operations for logistics man-agement and key account supply forsuch companies as Sephora, Car-refour, Danone, and Carslberg.

MarcoCandiani

joinedServair AirChef latelast year

Eileen Songpreviouslyworked withLeki Aviation

Nico Vandecaveye appointedManaging Director for deSterNico Vandecaveye joined gategroup’s deSter brand asManaging Director, February 1.

He is responsible for deSter sales, operations and finan-cial performance worldwide. He is based at the company’sheadquarters in Hoogstraten, Belgium.

Before joining deSter, Vandecaveye was Vice Presidentof Sales at Georgia-Pacific in Brussels. Georgia-Pacificmanufactures tissue, pulp, paper, packaging, buildingproducts and related chemicals, and Mars Inc., a globalfood manufacturer.

New appointments at NewrestJean Paul Llanusa has been appointed Vice-PresidentAmerica & Polynesia at Newrest on January 1, replacing JeanLouis Chicon.

Llanusa is a chartered accountant and spent 15 yearswith the Sodexo Group, first as Country Director of Adminis-tration and Finance, then Director of the Africa Zone andCentral America Zone. He was later appointed Deputy ChiefExecutive Officer of the CIS Group. Llanusa is based in San-tiago, Chile:

In other changes, Pierre Brugère, currently responsiblefor all Inflight Sales and Marketing activities took over as headof the company’s On Board Sales and Marketing in January.

Pascale Perez, formerly responsible for development ofthe rail business, has decided to temporarily step down fromher responsibilities within Newrest Group International forpersonal reasons. She will remain a member of the ExecutiveCommittee and will act as a consultant to the Presidents inrelation to international development.

Mitchell named Linstol Sales ManagerCraig Mitchell was recently named a Sales Manager at Lin-stol UK. He will be responsible for sales, client relationshipsand customer service in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Mitchell has a degree in hos-pitality management and hasworked for hotels in the FarEast. He later moved toDubai where he worked insales and marketing inthe airline supply industry.

He has spent 12 yearsworking in the Middle East

and Africa.

PEOPLE NEWS


Please contact:F.S.P. GmbHOstermayerstr. 5446446 Emmerich/Germanyphone: 0049-2822-7160fax: 0049-2822-71625email: [email protected]

Visit our stand at WTC&OS Expo in Hamburg, Germany Hall 3 booth 3B50

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ideal choice for environmentaclly concious airlines.

Our famous non-skid traymats are available with a high quality non-skid coating, that can be applied a

variety of different papers including SM 60 or 80, airlaid white or colored, OS 70 and Toptex.

F.S.P GmbH is the top supplier of paper

products to airlines large and small in every part of the globe

Craig Mitchellhas worked in

hospitality inAsia and theMiddle East


PAX International: There is a lot of spec-

ulation in the industry about how Reed

came to be the organizer of the world’s

largest travel catering and onboard ser-

vices annual trade show, formerly part

of the International Travel Catering Asso-

ciation (ITCA). Can you set the record

straight for us about what exactly hap-

pened and where it all stands now?

John Hyde: We felt that airline catering –which is obviously a crucial part of the onboardpassenger experience – was under-represented

at Aircraft Interiors Expo. We looked at vari-ous ways of incentivizing more food and bev-erage exhibitors to attend Aircraft InteriorsExpo but our research demonstrated that thissegment of the cabin interiors market tends tohave a different set of airline procurementpersonnel from those who traditionally attendAircraft Interiors Expo and that exhibitorspreferred it to be a separately branded event,although they were very interested in seeingit co-locating with Aircraft Interiors Expo.

Following negotiations, we acquired theevent from ITCA but decided to give it a newname and harmonize the branding with ourAircraft Interiors Expo event. We also engagedwith a number of key exhibitors to ensure wesecured their buy in to the event. PAX: Do you have separate teams work-

ing on WTCE and AIX, or is Reed treat-

ing them as one large event? How eas-

ily will delegates be able to move

between shows?

Hyde: We are certainly not just treating WorldTravel Catering & Onboard Services Expoand Aircraft Interiors Expo as simply onelarge event. Both events contain areas thatrequire tailored marketing to visitors. Forexample the World Travel Catering & OnboardServices Expo is not just about an airline’sonboard services, so we are also reaching outto rail operators and cruise and ferry opera-

tors for whom thisevent is equally valu-able. However thereare obviously many

synergies with the twoevents. We have allo-cated additionalresources within allthe key areas – sales, marketing, event man-agement and operations - to ensure that bothevents receive the attention they deserve.PAX: Industry members have been ask-

ing for one major show to attend for a

long time now. Has the feedback been

positive regarding the newly co-located

Hamburg events? Any exhibitors/dele-

gates feel it is not a good idea?

Hyde: So far the feedback has been goodand I think the fact that World Travel Cater-ing & Onboard Services Expo was 95% soldbefore the end of 2011 demonstrates both theneed for this event and exhibitors’ trust in Reedto deliver in this sector. It is also the first

time for several years that industry heavy-weights Gate Gourmet, Servair and LSG SkyChefs are all exhibiting at the same travelcatering and onboard services exhibition.PAX: What sort of numbers are you expect-

ing to see for both shows individually and

combined in Hamburg in 2012?

Hyde: We anticipate similar visitor num-bers attending Aircraft Interiors Expo as lastyear when 7,900 visitors (*pre-ABC Auditfigure) attended from 89 countries. The num-ber of airlines that attended was 144. In termsof square meterage we are 100% sold outand the show will cover over 16,600 squaremeters. The number of exhibiting companies– just over 500 – is the same as in 2011.

In terms of World Travel Catering &Onboard Services Expo we cannot speculateon possible visitor numbers as this is the firsttime we’ve run the event. We currently have180 exhibiting companies participating cov-ering 4,300 square meters.PAX: Do you expect the financially unsta-

ble Euro-zone will affect the show at all?

Hyde: In previous years we have faced downthe threats of everything from economicdownturns and rocketing fuel prices to air-space closures due to ash clouds. Of course,any global or local economic events that havean impact on travel operators can ultimatelyaffect our exhibitors and visitors – but because

INDUSTRY Q&A

Aircraft Interiors Expo and World Travel Catering and Onboard Services ExpoEvent Director John Hyde chats with PAX International about what visitorsand exhibitors can expect to see, hear and take away from this year’s newlyco-located events running from March 27-29, 2012 By Maryann Simson

In early 2011, it was announcedthat Reed Exhibitions hadacquired the ITCA’s annualEuropean trade show, but haddecided to re-name the eventand harmonize the brandingwith Aircraft Interiors Expo Last year’s Aircraft Interiors

Expo drew 7,900 attendeesfrom 89 countries

Togetherat last!


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Aircraft Interiors Expo is the ‘mustattend’ event of the cabin interiorscalendar it has been remarkablyresilient to economic challengesand we have maintained virtuallythe same levels of exhibitors andvisitors over the last three events.PAX: You have a conference

scheduled for March 26 for AIX.

Who are some of the speak-

ers and what can the industry

learn from attending it?

Hyde: Our speaker line up includesPeter Lewalter, Head of Cabin Interiors and IFEat Lufthansa. The conference will begin witha look into the future provided by well-knowndesign and innovation consultancy Seymour-powell – this will give industry a valuableinsight into our changing tastes and lifestyles– highlighting the critical trends shaping pas-sengers’ travel expectations in the future.

This is a joint conference with WorldTravel Catering & Onboard Services Expo;leading speakers from the travel catering andhospitality world include Arnaud Masson,Head of Onboard Services for Eurostar Inter-national, who will be joining a panel discus-

sion entitled ‘Offering choice, mak-ing money – what are the future ser-vice options your customers willwant to buy into?’PAX: Are there any informa-

tion/conference sessions

planned for WTCE?

Hyde: Yes one of the dedicatedstreams of the conference is gearedtowards topics relevant to WorldTravel Catering and Onboard Ser-vices Expo visitors and exhibitors(and is going to be chaired by your

editor Rick Lundstrom). Subjects covered willinclude ‘A New vision for comfort – lessons fromthe hospitality industry’ and ‘Meeting chang-ing expectations of friendliness and service.’PAX: Are there any talks currently about

combining AIX Americas or the Asia events

with inflight service associations as well?

Hyde: Aircraft Interiors Expo Americas hasrun successfully with a co-location with bothIFSA and APEX in the past. This year APEXand IFSA have opted to return to Long Beachbecause they felt this location worked betterfor their members. We, in turn, feel that Seat-tle works better for Aircraft Interiors Expo

Americas exhibitors as it is at the heart ofNorth America’s airline supply chain. We con-tinue to talk to both APEX and IFSA as impor-tant associations which are complementary toAircraft Interiors Expo’s offering. PAX: What are you most excited about see-

ing or being a part of in Hamburg this year?

Hyde: The co-location of both these eventsmeans that we really feel we are at the forefrontof innovations taking place across the wholeof the passenger experience now. Some of thetrends I’m going to be looking out for are thegrowth of what’s on offer for regional airlineoperators, the latest in the world of inflightentertainment and connectivity and what foodtrends are inspiring travel operators.PAX: What one piece of key advice would

you give to a new exhibitor or delegate

for Hamburg 2012?

Hyde: For exhibitors it would be to makethe most of the marketing and PR support onoffer to maximize your visibility both beforeand during the events. For visitors we highlyrecommend that they take the time to look atboth shows at the Hamburg Messe – there maywell be valuable ideas on show in one that couldcross over into a complementary area.

INDUSTRY Q&A

John Hyde, AircraftInteriors Expo andWorld TravelCatering andOnboard ServicesExpo Event Director


As the first of the summertourists take to the Europeanskies in June, Germany’s capi-tal city will be greeting theincreased traffic while the city’s

airlines begin and allocation of dozens ofnew aircraft and will mark the changing ofthe season with a new airport.

Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandtwill be the first significant airport opening inthe country in 20 years when Franz JosefStrauss Airport in Munich opened and tookits place with Frankfurt and Düsseldorf as huboperations for Lufthansa German Airlines.

“The new airport, unlike its smaller pre-decessors TXL (Tegel) and SXF (Schoenfeld)

gives Lufthansa new chances to significantlyincrease the number of flights. This enablesLufthansa to offer numerous additional con-nections within Europe and the Middle East,”said Christina Semmel, Manager of Corpo-rate Communications North America forLufthansa. “The new airport will cause Berlinto become even more attractive as a tourist,business and congress destination.”

The outlook for travel within Europe wasstill murky and uncertain as the new yearstarted, so it is difficult to predict a robust yearfor the continent. In a year 2011 that wasmarked by significant cost cutting, the 35members of the Association of EuropeanAirlines will be facing fuel and taxation could

be also met with decreased demand anduncertain political climate. AEA member-ship could be posting losses of €1 billion to€2 billion (US$1.3 billion to US$2.6 billion)for 2012 according to preliminary projec-tions at the beginning of the year.

“This forecast is heavily dependent on aswift and effective political solution to the sov-ereign debt crisis,” said a December 8 releasefrom the Association of European Airlines. Tohelp alleviate some of the pressure on airlinesin the continent, Ulrich Schulte-StrathausSecretary General of the AEA, said that reg-ulators can help airlines alleviate fuel costs by

REGIONAL REPORT

REPORTREGIONALA major airportopening hasairlines inGermanyjockeying forposition on theworld stage

Construction at Terminal 5 of the new Berlin InternationalAirport Willy Brandt

By Rick Lundstrom

CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

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Tasteful ideas

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moving closer to a Single European Sky envi-ronment and resolving conflicts around theemission trading debate.

That has not stopped airlines in Germany(one of the few countries on the continentthat has not suffered greatly from the eco-nomic turmoil) from making big plans, secur-ing new catering agreements and bracing forthe inevitable buzz that comes when switch isthrown on a new major airport for the first time.

In at the start of the year, Lufthansa wasplanning 38 destinations within Europe andto the Middle East out of BER. Fifteen addi-tional aircraft, A319s and A320s, will be sta-tioned in the capital city. Employee countwill be increased from 500 to more than4,000. Part of the airline’s €60 million (US$79million) investment will be a new maintenancehall for Lufthansa Technik.

Elsewhere, the city’s namesake airline wasstarting 2012 with a new part owner, hold-ing the promise of continued expansion.

“The partnership with Etihad Airways

will enable airberlin to tap new markets,especially in Asia, the Middle East, the Indiansubcontinent and Australia,” said SilkeManitz, a spokesperson for airberlin. By thespring of this year, additional opportunitieswill open up as airberlin is expected tobecome a full member of the oneworld air-line alliance. The launch of its new serviceto Etihad’s headquarters city of Abu Dhabiwill open up additional route opportunitiesbeyond the Middle East. However, this sum-mer, airbelin plans to add nonstop routes to

Poland and Los Angeles once BER is open. “With a separate pier for airberlin and

our partner airlines, we can offer first-classcomfort with short access routes and mini-mal transfer times,” said Manitz.

Even as it forged new partnerships, the pastyear has seen airberlin begin to evaluate itsplans. In August it launched a program called“Shape and Size” that includes, among otherprovisions a reduction in the airline’s orders forthis year and next year. Deliveries of 19 aircraft,including new 737s and A320s scheduled forthis year and next year have been postponedto 2015 and 2016. Still. the airline plans to takedelivery of 31 aircraft over the next two years.

On the carrier’s long-haul flights, airber-lin has made a number of improvements toits two-class fleet. New seats from Contour Pre-mium Aircraft Seating are being added tobusiness class while the airline has selectedZIM Flugsitz GmbH seats for its economy classcabin. In the course of converting the cabins,airberlin will be adding the RAVE inflightentertainment system from IMS. Manitz saidthe airline likes the system for its simple inte-gration with a plug and play monitor and portsfor USB, headphones, and personal devicesin addition to an 8.9-inch LED screen.

“In contrast to traditional onboard enter-tainment systems, RAVE does not need acentral server and is therefore clearly more reli-able than conventional solutions.” said Manitz.

On to food serviceWhen airberlin’s flagship lounge opens atBER it will be decorated to capture the atmos-phere and culinary traditions of the GermanNorth Sea resort of Syft. It will also be underthe management of gategroup as part of abroad based contract renewal that wasannounced at the end of January.

The caterer and services provider valuesthe new agreement, which will continue to theend of 2016 at between CHF70 million toCHH80 million (US$76 million – US$86million) per year. The contract will cover

REGIONAL REPORT

Berlin-Brandenburg Airport is scheduled to open June 3, 2012 in the southeastregion of the capital city and will handle all air traffic from its location.

The capital city is seeing tremendous growth that is outpacing other airports inthe country. In 2010, Berlin reported 22 million passengers and a year-on-yearincrease of 6.4 percent. This makes Berlin the third largest airport for passenger move-ment in Germany.

When it opens, BER will have an initial capacity of up to 27 million passengersper year. The airport can be expanded to accommodate up to 45 million passengers.

At the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport, there will be 39 food & beverage outletsand approximately 20 service outlets.

A food court with seven restaurant areas will cover an area of 2,000 squaremeters where passengers will be able to choose from a wide and varied range of foodand beverages..

Also planned for the new airport will be a number of landside restaurants and bars.Restaurants will be built in the arrival zone and distribution level that that connectsthe terminal to the railway station. Among the outlets planned are books and news-papers, bank, pharmacy and supermarket.

Airport Code: BER

Construction at the new terminal at Berlin International Airport Willy Brandt

Some airberlin orders of737s were rescheduledto 2015 and 2016 as aresult of the carrier’sShape and Size program


CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18

22 | PAX INTERNATIONAL | FEBARUARY/MARCH 2012

catering operations at 10 European airports including air-berlin’s hub operations at Düsseldorf. Also, gategroup com-panies potsmstudios and Performa will design, build andmanage the new airberlin lounge at BER. The new contractplaces airberlin among gategroup’s top 10 customers inannual revenue to the company.

“We are delighted to continue our long association withairberlin and proud that the airline recognizes our strongfocus on quality, performance and wide-ranging portfolioof products and services,” said gategroup’s CEO Andrew Gib-son, in the January 25 announcement of the new contract.

Plans for catering the new airport were still in formationat press time in January. Three caterers, LSG Sky Chefs, GateGourmet and Sky Catering Kitchen serve airlines in the city.“LSG Sky Chefs is currently preparing its presence in Berlinto deal with the expected increase in demand,” said Semmes.

Starting in October of last year, Lufthansa selected ChefMario Kotaska (member of the airline’s Star Chefs group)to design menus for its domestic and intra-European flights.Now, for its long-haul operations to and from the UnitedStates, Lufthansa will work with the Mandarin Orientalhotels to create menus for its first and business class cabin.

In addition to working with new Star Chefs, Lufthansais increasing cooperation within Germany to harmonize andcoordinate some of its short-haul service with its low-costcarrier subsidiary Germanwings. The carrier is in its 10thyear of service and will be adding two new A319s this year,bringing its fleet to 32 aircraft.

Of particular emphasis will be operations in Stuttgart.By the summer of this year, Germanwings is expected to takeover all the European currently operated by Lufthansa outof Baden-Wurttemberg airport in Stuttgart. The first ofthe changes was scheduled for February with the Lufthansaservice from Stuttgart of London/Heathrow. Four moredestinations will be added by summer. Later, Germanwingswill be launch service from Stuttgart to Venice, Catania,Dubrovnik and Bremen.

REGIONAL REPORT

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As the economic powerhouse ofEurope, Germany is a largeand visible presence on theinternational stage. So per-haps it’s natural that this

nation should be home to some of the lead-ing suppliers and caterers to the interna-tional travel market. Or maybe the real rea-son is more down-to-earth, as KlausEnglisch, Managing Director of D|F Mar-keting GmbH suggests.

“When Germans say we can deliver some-thing, we’re going to deliver. It always worksout somehow. You have lots of hassles in air-line catering, but you still have to be at a cer-tain time in a certain place or they won’thave food onboard.”

So, as the industry prepares to gather inthe port city of Hamburg in March, PAXInternational sought comments and back-ground on a number of German companiesthat are shaping the industry. From small tolarge, diverse to specialized, some have beenfocused on the inflight catering industryfrom the beginning, while others have madetheir way via a long history in the country.

IDB Deutschland’s Irish connectionIrish Dairy Board (IDB) started as a coop-erative of Irish farmers in 1961 and hassince become a major international sup-plier of dairy products. The company’sportfolio consists of retail consumerproducts under the Kerrygoldbrand as well as por-tioned butter forthe food

service business. IDB Deutschland GmbH,a German subsidiary of IDB Dublin, sells anddistributes Irish dairy products under thebrand Kerrygold.

The company first became involved inthe inflight supply market in the 1990s, saysMarketing Manager Patricia Kief. “Lufthansawas looking for unwrapped butter portionsfor environmental reasons,” Kief says. “Aftertheir in-house efforts were unsuccessful, theyfound the right supplier with IDB Deutsch-land.” The company supplied the airline witha unique frozen butter portion customizedwith the Lufthansa crane logo—Kief says theability to produce customized butter por-tions is one thing that sets the company apart.After Lufthansa, other airlines including Con-dor, Hapag-Lloyd, Eurowings and Swiss Inter-national also signed.

Besides butter portions, IDB Deutschlandsupplies a bread spread for sandwiches, whichthe company developed in collaboration withairberlin. In addition to airlines, the companyalso supplies leadingship chandlersthrough main portsin the Baltic andMediterranean, as wellas in North America.

“The Kerrygold Butter is portioned anddistributed from our site in Neukirchen-Vluyn,” Kief says. “The butter is made of‘meadow milk’—the mild Irish climate enablescows to graze on open meadows and enjoy thebest possible feed, namely fresh, rich grass,leading to the creamiest milk for outstand-ing butter with excellent taste, appetizingyellow color and good spreadability.” This isa completely natural product, Kief says, freefrom artificial colorings, flavoring or otheringredients. “The uniquely golden color of Ker-rygold butter occurs naturally and gives adistinctive flavor to the butter.”

In the process of building an internationalcustomer base, IDB Deutschland has acquiredthe required IFS and BRC certifications,which fulfill customer requirements. “If thereare any special needs, our team will take careof those,” Kief adds.

Achenbach: from soup to saladAchenbach started in 1954 making concen-trated soups in Frankfurt. Today the productrange has expanded greatly and includes soups,salads, a dressings range, pâtés, terrines and otherhors d’oeuvres, and a wide range of premiumproducts for the catering industry offeringcomponents for every part of a menu, fromamuse-bouche to dessert. Ninety-five employ-ees produce the 200 items in Achenbach’sstandard range in addition to more than 1,500food specialties for-mulated to cus-tomer specifi-cations andrecipes.

REGIONAL REPORT

DeliveringthegoodsGermany is home to some of the leaders in airline catering and supply By Andrew Brooks

Berry goodness in a natural eggshell dessertfrom Gut Springenheide

Achenbach made its first foray into airline supply in the1960s, with high quality salads and terrines, says ExportDirector Katrin Moos-Achenbach. The first customer was LSGLufthansa Services, which at the time wasn’t yet associatedwith Sky Chefs, and other caterers and airlines came onboardafter that. “Today Achenbach is supplying to most majorcaterers in Europe and elsewhere, but also directly to airlinesand their caterers around the world,” says Moos-Achenbach.Cruise lines are also prominent on Achenbach’s customer list.

Airlines prefer good tasting, high-quality food which iseasy to handle and safe as well as reasonably priced, Moos-Achenbach says. “The products vary from menu cycle to menucycle. Our product development chefs are constantly cre-ating new ideas for attractive products to meet the demand.”Because the food has to be palatable for the widest possi-ble range of customer palates, the company tends not toemphasize foods that have a specific national or ethniccharacter—although at the end of the day it’s the customerwho determines which product will ‘fly’.

“Any experienced chef can do what we do with qualityraw material,” Moos-Achenbach says. “But it’s the know-howof innovative tasteful food specialties accumulated overthe past decades, plus flexible, customer oriented service andworldwide reliable delivery that make Achenbach a preferredsupplier in the industry.”

When asked about future plans, Moos-Achenbach saysthat the creation of innovative and new food specialties forthe catering industry will remain Achenbach’s prime dri-ver. Given current economic conditions worldwide thecompany doesn’t plan to expand, she says. “‘Nothing ismore consistent than change,’ so we’ll try to be consistentin creativity and reliability, setting trends for our industry.”

Coolike provides a soft touchSanitation supplier Coolike started with an idea born on a1980 flight from Singapore to Manila. German passengerGuenther Regnery was served a hot towel, an indulgence hefound very refreshing, and it made him wonder whether tow-els packaged in a hygienic sachet might find a good recep-tion in the travel market. He bought his first machine,started production, and was pleased to find that the pack-aging was also the perfect vehicle for advertising messages.

Today, Coolike’s refreshment and comfort as well ascleaning towels are firmly ensconced in multiple markets,including air, sea and rail travel, hotels and catering. The com-pany remains family owned, with a staff of 100 looking afterproduction, printing and design, marketing, lab research,quality management, logistics and warehousing.

“We’re proud to say that our first airline customer wasthe highly prestigious German airline Lufthansa,” says BiggiWeisser, Sales for Export and Airlines at Coolike RegneryGmbH. “Already in the early 80s Lufthansa passengers wereprovided with our towels, and from that time we’ve had aclose relationship to the airline.”

Today more than 100 international, private and corpo-rate airlines are members of Coolike’s customer circle.

Coolike also works with cruise and rail lines, Weisser says,and has a good customer in Deutsche Bahn, with its pre-mium Oshibori Wellness towels found on selected Inter-cityExpress trains and in DB lounges.

REGIONAL REPORT


Brand benefi t

Kerrygold is synonymous with excellent product quality. The mild Irish climate enables the cows to graze on open meadows and enjoy the best possible feed – namely fresh, rich meadow grass. This results in an excellent quality milk, and contributes to the unique pack for economy class infl ight catering.

in minidishes

infl ight catering

Take advantage of the brandpotential!

For further information contact:Tel.: 0049 2841 88 80 320

[email protected]

Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter portions


“To many people Coolike refreshmenttowels belong to the special air travel feeling,just like a glass of tomato juice and a friendlyand versed flight attendant,” Weisser says.“Our towels are well known for the fine qual-ity of carrier materials as well as for the pro-fessional design and print of the packages,also for the wide selection of fine scents.Innovative product ideas and applicationsare part of our strategic marketing andproduct management. Since we launchedour structured non-woven towel with a well-balanced price/performance ratio, this itemhas become most popular when higher quan-tities are required. The original Coolike cot-ton towel is still a top seller, especially for VIPand first class airline service. Private airlinesfavor the Oshibori Wellness towel with aloevera for its special hot/cold application.

With the brand new Bachflower line, firstpresented at Word Travel Catering and OnboardServices Expo in Hamburg, Coolike attends toa novel lifestyle trend in Germany and is thefirst to offer valuable Bachflower mixtures incombination with refreshment towels.”

Another popular product is Coolike’s AirRefresher, which has become a standout in thesanitation line; Weisser notes that it’s popu-lar with both, the airline crews and the pas-sengers. Coolike also makes a range of aircraftcleaning and sanitation products containingready-to-use wipes and liquids.

“From the feedback we get from customers,we can tell that they appreciate our reliabil-ity, flexibility, product innovation and thequality of our service and our product,” shesays. “We offer a well selected, complete rangewith short lead times and professional orderprocessing, based on many years of experience.”

D|F Marketing GmbHbuilds a better containerD|F Marketing GmbH has two lines of busi-ness: food and food equipment, says KlausEnglisch, Managing Director at D|F Market-ing. “On the equipment side we’re very strongin CPET (crystalline polyethylene tereph-thalate) plastic meal dishes. The tempera-ture range goes from -40°C [-40°F] to +240°C[+464°F]—you can freeze and heat the plas-tic and it doesn’t break.” Of the four compa-nies worldwide that produce CPET, two areunder contract to D|F Marketing.

The company supplies US Airways andDelta Air Lines in the U.S., as well as KoreanAir and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, but the workis just beginning. “There are still a lot of air-lines flying around with aluminum, whichwe’re trying to change because aluminum pro-duction is so eco-unfriendly—and the bot-

tom line is that it’s not even cheaper anyway.”CPET is flexible, so it doesn’t break dur-

ing transportation and stays in its original posi-tion, Englisch says. “If you transport emptyaluminum casseroles and the box folds downor is hit with something, then you deform thecasseroles and they don’t go back into theiroriginal shape. Think about how many alu-minum items you waste because they’re bentor they look too untidy to serve to passengers.So you throw them away. With CPET that isn’tgoing to happen.”

On the food side, D|F Marketing doesn’twork directly with brands. “We create food forfrozen sandwiches, for example, or for instancewe just sold a three-cheese calzone to Deltawhich flew for the first time in January,”Englisch says. “In that particular case we weresending samples back and forth to Atlanta—it took about 12 months to get to the right lookand taste.” D|F Marketing landed the con-tract at the end of November and started pro-duction of 350,000 pieces, which were shippedto a major North American carrier by Pour-shins for a January boarding deadline.

The company has a few production facili-ties under contract, each with a different spe-cialty, whether it’s cold snacks, hot snacks,soups, and dressings on up to ice creams. “Wejust had a presentation for US Airways,” Englischsays. “They said ‘bring wrapped sandwiches,heatable sandwiches, heatable soups.’ Sometimesthey’ll send us recipes they have in the U.S. andwe’ll try to cook them in our production facil-ities. If we get the right taste we freeze them andthey go to Pourshins for shipping.”

SkyMax beats the bottleSkyMax was founded in 2009 and the com-pany’s first customer, German airline TUIfly,bought SkyMax’s first product, Shatler’s pre-mixed cocktails. The company is now highlydiversified, also selling IFE headphones, For-tis watches, Shop watches, “light glass” andFumidus electronic cigarettes.

But the real breakthrough product for Sky-

Max has to be its Sky-Tender beverage servicecart, which was developed in collaborationwith German aviation electronics company Air-Eltec Luftfahrttechnik. Sky-Tender is a fullyautomated beverage trolley that can provideup to 20 different drinks including tea and cof-fee, fruit juices, soft drinks or mixes, as well asbeer and wine, at the touch of a button. Thecart was trialed in December in Europe in anaircraft cabin mockup, where cabin crewswere able to test the unit’s functionality. In-flighttesting is due to begin this summer.

The revolutionary thing about Sky-Tenderis that it works with syrup bags, eliminating theuse of cans and bottles. The possible weightreduction ranges between 20 and 60 kilograms(44 and 132 pounds ), a huge economy forany airline. The reduction of waste products alsolowers the waste fees airlines are charged.

Beginning in the second half of 2012 mar-keting the Sky-Tender will be the company’smain focus. When PAX International spokewith Managing Director Oliver Kloth, Sky-Max was in negotiation with 23 different air-lines around the world for placement of theunit, in Europe, Asia, Australia and NorthAmerica. Kloth says he hopes to make the firstdelivery in November.

SkyMax also supplies “G.skyGlass”, a verylight glass laminate composed of a high-strength interlayer and extremely thin panesof glass. The product is about half the weightof conventional glass and has very high scratchresistance. While it’s almost as light as poly-carbonate, its properties are much better, Klothsays. In aircraft cabins it can be used for par-tition walls, doors, shower cabins or mirrors.

Growth is good for SkyMax these days. Atpress time the company was about to move intoa new office three times larger than its currentone, and had adopted a new warehousing sys-tem as well. The growth comes on the heels ofthe opening of a new office in Rio de Janeirolast year to cover the Latin American market.

REGIONAL REPORT

The creation of innovative and new food specialties for the catering industry is Achenbach’s prime driver


CABIN INTERIORSGalleys & Equipment

DRIESSEN

Innovation from the Pioneers of IntegrationExperience us live atAIX Hamburg 2012 - Hall 7 Stand 7D50

Everybody deserves a Hybr ite

The wannahave equipment by Driessen


Where the egg comes firstAt travel catering gatherings in Europe and the Middle East, visitors tothe trade floor can expect to find a little theater in the stand of GutSpringenheide, whose novel take on the ancient egg has sustained the Tuskyfamily’s Munsterland business from its beginnings in 1844.

At the stand, luscious filled eggs in their natural shells – colored anddecorated — are heated and dispensed. Pancakes, and omelettes — fluffyand light — can be found there, along with tortillas and the company’striangle-folded crepes with savory and sweet filling. Recipes from othercountries are given a German spin.

“Due to our historical background, we were able to gain essential exper-tise in all matters regarding the further processing of eggs in their nat-ural shell,” said Barbara Tusky, Sales Director for Gut Springenheide.

The company has been supplying airlines since 1993 and has amasseda range of more than 500 products. “Some of our products are inspiredby traditional German recipes, developed in combination with regionalproducts,” said Tusky. “But our company is also working according to cus-tomer wishes. Therefore, our product range includes products withMediterranean, Asian or Oriental taste.”

Examples include Gut Springenheide’s latest offerings, an Herbal Roll withConfit of Tomato. “All lovers of Mediterranean cuisine will be delighted,” Tuskyenthused. “It is characterized by it hearty flavor and appetizing appearance.”

Paper essentialsDespite efforts to the contrary, airlines will continue to rely on paper prod-

ucts. To help them fill their needs, while at the same timeimprove their environmental footprint, Emmerich, Germanybased FSP has developed products that are structured like linen,compostable, non-skid and flame retardant.

“All people working here are working with paper productsfor more than 15 years, Evelyn Billion, the company’s ExportManager said of FSP. “So there is very big experience.”

The company’s TD 55 is compostable. There is the woodfree SM 60 and 80 lines and the OS 70, which is high-gloss.For airlines looking for a soft, high quality napkin, FSP man-ufactures a paper product that is structured like linen. TheTOPTEX material is non-allergenic and can be used for tow-els, non-skid traymats and napkins. Finally, for airlines seek-ing a flame-retardant material for headrests and pillow cov-ers, the company makes a PP product. “We are always look-ing for new materials and new products,” said Billion.

Emmerich straddles the border between Germany and theNetherlands where it is 70 kilometers from Düsseldorf Air-port and 70 kilometers from Amsterdam Schiphol. But thecompany is looking far beyond its home country and its air-lines supply roots in the year ahead.

“We have strong partners all over the world, who helpsus,” said Billion. FSP has branched its services into the railmarket and is also looking to make inroads to the cruise linesthis year.

Exporting ingenuityEvidence of Germany’s influence in the airline catering indus-try can be found from the skyscrapers of Hong Kong to theteeming cities of India and on to the sizzling deserts of theMiddle East. It is those places where i+o Consultants have beenlending expertise and organizational skills to a wide varietyof airline catering applications.

“Every region has its own culture to prepare traditionalfood,” said Torsten Brendel, Senior Business Unit Managerfor Catering at i+o. “We live and learn with every project.”

The company spends long periods of time with customers.Turnkey projects can last from 2 to 2.5 years, said Brendel.This time is beneficial for the company’s clients. During themonths and years that can take place during tendering andprocurement, Brendel says that i+o can help a caterer gen-erate up to 25% costs savings. “Compared to suppliers or oper-ators, we treat the building as one unit with all the interfaces,not only one special area or package,” said Brendel. “So theclient has one contact person with the overall approach andextensive experience.”

The company involves itself in a variety of ways. At theEmirates Flight Catering unit in Dubai and the OberoiFlight Catering units in Kolkata and New Delhi, i+o was alead consultant. At Cathay Pacific Catering Service in HongKong, the company was involved in refurbishment planningfor the 12-year-old unit. While at the new Doha InternationalAirport Catering unit set for construction, i+o is a special-ist consultant.

The company is composed from a team of specialists withvarious years of experience. The longtime engineers are oftenteamed with younger engineers from different fields and a vari-ety of disciplines. “The combination of long-term experiencedpeople and new university know-how gains a really big addedvalue to the client,” said Brendel.

REGIONAL REPORT

Specialist in setting your on board dining table

Hamburg stand 2B30

Telephone +31 30 692 33 64

[email protected] www.sola.nlTHE NETHERLANDS


Thank you to all participating facilities for working together with QSAI Airlines towards common goals:

Confidence that passengers are diligently protected against food safety risk, receive high quality food and that the industry tackles legal requirements.

Clarity on how to get that confidence by allowing Airlines and their in-flight caterers to share experience, expertise and goals; creating industry consensus on standards and audit methods.

Efficiency through one quality management system for all Airlines at the same catering facility. Confidence with fewer audits, costs and resources.

For more information on QSAI, contact Kate Richardson at [email protected] or visit www.qsaiinternational.com/joinus

Cruising safely to

excellence

2011 Platinum Award Recipient

Saudi Airlines Catering Company – JED

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PBM

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CTU

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JED

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YHZ

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KIX

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AMERICAS ASIA EU, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

Announcing the 2011 QSAI Award Recipients

Each year QSAI Participating Airlines present Awards to in-flight catering facilities that demonstrate Programme excellence. Award recipients have consistently satisfied QSAI benchmarks and are leaders in delivering safe, quality in-flight food.

QSAI. An effective & efficient way to improve food safety, quality and your confidence.

Announcing the 20

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For the passenger it maystart with somethingas innocuous, and atthe same time famil-iar as a cup of their

favorite brand of black coffee. But behind the scenes and

months before the passenger got onboard, choices were pondered, pack-aging ideas rejected and what couldvery well be a long list of options werefinally narrowed down to a selectionof products that were tasty, uniquelypackaged and, most importantly pricedin combination at a rate that was accept-able to the airline customer.

February’s announcement that Star-buck’s coffee will now be served on Alaska Air-lines probably came as a surprise to few andhas in a large way closed a circle that wasfirst drawn more than two decades ago.

A Seattle-based brewer and a Seattle-based airline with a preference for local prod-ucts seemed an ideal match. With the Feb-ruary 1 announcement, Alaska joins itsregional carrier Horizon Air which was thelaunch customer for the Starbucks coffee inthe air 22 years ago when the ideaof a chain of coffee houses in theUnited States was thought of bymany as a bit quirky.

Starbuck’s joins the airline’s list oflocal brands: among them Beecher’scheese, Tim’s Cascade potato chipsand Alaskan Amber beer.

But even 22 years later, quirkystill works on an aircraft productselection for sale, says Denise Poole,CEO of AMI Group. “Each airlinehas a little different take on whatthey are trying to do,” she said.

If there’s a common thread thatruns through product selection Poole said itis a search for a combination of popularnational brands teamed with products whosenames sit at eye level on the shelves of trendy

grocery outlets like Trader Joe’s and WholeFoods in the United States. Airlines oftenthink of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream stocked nextto Food That Tastes Good products. M&M’scandies and Pringles potato chips teamedwith Sahale Brands and Harry & David prod-ucts from Oregon. All at the same time try-ing to find the alchemy that brings in a pricepoint of US$5 to US$7 which has become

something of a “sweet spot” for buy on boardsales, Poole added.

Across the ocean, Oakfield Farms SolutionsEurope has been finding new customers

from its newly opened offices in London,under the management of Lorenza Maggio.Since opening in early 2011, Oakfield Farmshas picked up contracts and secured snackbox placements with from bmi, Thomson Air-ways and easyJet.

It was the company’s success developinga meal box of both fresh and chilled productsfor Virgin Atlantic Airways’ breakfast andafternoon tea second services, where the Paul

Platamone, the company’sVice President of

Worldwide Opera-tions, encountered an

airline with a keen eyeon not only the brandsit boards, but also on thebrand that itself judi-ciously maintains.

Virgin Atlantic has aBrand department thatwas needed to participatein all decisions. “Branddesigned the way they

wanted the structure of thebox to look and the material

it was to be made out of,” Plata-mone said.

The attention to details continued. A fruitpot was evaluated for its cup and lid combi-nation and where the pressure sensitive labelswould be placed. “Eyes were on how theirbranding effort was going to appear in frontof the passenger, number one, and numbertwo on how to capitalize on incorporate cer-tain aspects of the ‘green element.’”

But if airlines in the United Kingdom andEurope are walking the walk on environ-mentally sustainable products on board, theyare also sophisticated in how best to sell to theonboard passenger. With years under theirbelts honing duty free sales, they have anadvantage in finding ways to make buy-on-board food service work, said Platamone.

When an Oakfield Farms’ ambient snackpack products, which carry the name Yum-ble Bumble Snack Company, replaced alongtime fixture product on easyJet, Plata-mone said he was impressed with the effec-tive use of cabin space by the airline. Drawerspace was meticulously evaluated and runthrough a business matrix for optimumefficiency.

Another example he mentioned was anec-dotal and occurred on a short Aer Lingus flighthe took from London Heathrow to Dublin.

“They did a full buy-on-board service,including food and duty free. With hot offer-ings – and it’s just part of the inherent processof what takes place over there.”

BRANDED FOODS

Simple,but not easyFrom trendy to classic, two longtime suppliers talk about the power of brands and theirimportance to airlines By Rick Lundstrom

Alaska Airlines announced that

it would be going local with Starbucks

Coffee onboard

Buy on board brands advertised on seatbacks on easyJet

Gut Springenheide GmbHWeiner 152 • 48607 Ochtrup • GermanyTel. +49 (0) 25 53/10 22 • fax 10 25E-Mail: [email protected]

Delicious egg specialities... made with the fi nest ingredients free from artifi cial fl avours and additives.

Hall B4, Stand 4F10


ew are immune to theallure of a luxury brand.Possessing an object madeby a prestigious fashion orcosmetics purveyor canmake one feel classy, glam-

orous and special. No cost is spared in the pro-motion of many of these high-end productsthrough the media. The television advertise-ments, billboards and magazines portray themen and women who buy the product asworldly, successful, desirable and happy.

Airlines across the globe have been takingadvantage of the pull of these brands in the cabinfor many years, in an attempt to make passengersfeel special. We see today, that many items inthe cabin bear a brand name. Everything frombrand name seat fabrics to electronics andheadphones, coffee, snacks and even tablewarehave taken to the skies in one place or another.While these efforts to impress and surprisepassengers can be spotted all around the air-craft, one is most likely to see high-street prod-ucts in first and business class area, as part ofan amenity bag offering.

Fitting in“Naturally, one must align the name brandwith the passenger demographic,” says AnitaGittelson, Executive Vice President of Brand

and Corporate Development at WESSCOInternational, a well-known player in thepassenger comfort sector. “What WESSCOdoes is try and match brands with airlines. Forinstance, a cutting edge brand for a cuttingedge airline, or an established luxury namefor a more established airline.”

Placing brands in the cabin has its chal-lenges. One, according to Gittelson, is that eachparty has a clearly defined image that they areinclined to maintain at all costs.

“We concentrate on the mission state-ments and demographics of both the airlineand the brand,” Gittelson explains. “Forinstance, Delta expanded its internationalflights, including flights to Athens direct.An international brand, such as the Greekbrand KORRES, became a perfect fit. Someairlines, particularly those in Asia, do a maleand female kit to avoid the issue of partial-ity to male or female passengers. There wasa time when one of our airlines was lam-basted for putting a razor and shave creaminto a unisex kit.”

At the World Travel Catering & OnboardServices Expo in March, WESSCO plans toreveal several new brands that it will be offer-ing to its airline customers. Though not atliberty to reveal which names her companywill be presenting, Gittelson says that her

team is eager to gauge reactions at the showin Hamburg.

“Brands are unique,” she says. “And eachbrand we deal with has its own way of want-ing to be presented, as well as manufactured.There are no routine ways of doing businesswith brands from the travel industry.”

New movesPAX International also caught up withBernard Mills, newly hired Brand Managerat Watermark Products, a UK-based ameni-ties and onboard service products specialistwith offices around the globe. He revealed thatthe brand recognition created by general-ized advertising on the part of a cosmeticsbrand could certainly be beneficial to airlines.

”Ultimately, effective advertising is aboutcreating brand recognition and a sense ofconnection between the customer and thebrand. For a luxury product, advertising is allabout communicating a sense of exclusivityand luxury about their product,” he shares.“Conversely, a poorly executed campaigncould raise some eyebrows.”

The same is also true for the reputation ofthe carrier. In certain cases it is the brand thatis reluctant to place its product onboard. Anairline with an image problem, howeverunfounded, or values that do not align withthe brand, could derail plans to bring theproduct into service. Also, the demandinglogistical considerations that come part andparcel with the time-sensitive airline indus-try supply chain can be dissuading.

“For many new brands, moving into theairline supply business is an entirely new dis-tribution channel, which carries a lot of riskbecause they do not have the same level of con-trol that they would have on their retail envi-ronment,” Mills explains. “Some brands havevery strict guidelines about how the brand isrepresented, and this can ultimately up coststhrough the use of specific materials or fin-ishes and other specification costs. We under-stand that it is absolutely about protecting thebrand image and ensuring that what goes infront of the passenger is consistent with thebrand, but the really great partnerships arethose where the brands works collaboratively

AMENITY KITS

Brand in the bag

By Maryann Simson

F

WatermarkProduct’s uniqueamenity kit for Air

New Zealand

PAX International discovers the ups and downsof packing amenity kits with established brands


with the airline and respects the limitationsof airline budgets, seeking creative solutionsthat exceed customer’s expectations.”

Regional differencesChopard, Ferragamo, Rimowa and L’Occitaneare just a few of the many luxury brands thatFORMIA offers to its airline customers. YvesAlavo is FORMIA’s Executive Director, over-sees the company’s marketing activities. Hesays that he has seen clear airline brand pref-erences based on region. “Airlines nowadaysstrongly distinguish their brand image bythe branded product they select for theironboard amenity. We have seen in manyinstances that the cultural identity factor (thedesire to use local brands) has played a strongerrole in the choice of brands, followed by thebrand recognition or retail presence in theregion and finally brand image.”

Regarding multi-national ad campaigns,he says it is far more likely than not, that abrand’s promotional efforts will benefit air-line partners by beginning the brand engage-ment before travel and even helping airlinesto screen brands for compatibility. Goodexposure for a brand is clearly beneficial to

an airline offering it as part ofan amenity kit. Conversely, thisposes the question of how onepartner in that relationship mightbe affected by any negative presssurrounding the other.

“It depends on what type ofPR we are talking about,” saysAlavo. “Airlines always have theoption to take the product offboard if they want to. Howeverthe impact is more likely to affect the brandthan the airline. We need to keep in mind thatinflight amenities are an ancillary business forairlines and the biggest impact good or badpress has is on the brand’s retail activities.”

In terms of logistics, Alavo said he feels thatglobal brands with sizable production capac-ity and retail networks are in a good positionto supply airlines, especially those having aclear strategy towards the travel and hospi-tality markets.

At the World Travel Catering & OnboardServices Expo FORMIA will be entertainingvisitors with a forum on the pursuit of hedo-nism as a new wave of luxury that they feelreflects the majority of luxury consumers, such

as first class travelers. According to FORMIAthe forum will be presented and moderatedby a renowned trend-watcher.

Traveling targetAlthough the company is relatively new, theteam of experts at Plane Talking Productshave been around the passenger service indus-try a long time.

“The major advantages in having the mostwell-known, popular, exclusive internationalbrands onboard are the perceived monetaryvalue of these brands to the passenger, par-ticularly if the latest fragrance of ‘wonder’product is offered onboard, and the valueand credibility for the airline being associated

AMENITY KITS

Chopard is just one of the many luxury brands that FORMIA offers to its airline customers


with these brands,” says Martin Piperat Plane Talking Products, going onto echo an earlier comment fromMills. “The downside can be that thebrands are usually inflexible in termsof where they will allow their brandto feature onboard. For example,some oppose their brand being placedin restrooms. They are usually verystrict about the size and shape of theproduct and will not readily changeit to fit racks or other allocated spaceonboard. Finally, the price can behigh due to formulations, intrinsic‘cost’ of the brand and historic man-ufacturing locations.”

Planners at Plane Talking productsare experimenting with a new con-cept. They appreciate that some air-lines and their passengers will alwayswant the most popular internationalbrands onboard, however, accord-ing to Piper, they also believe that itis very important to consider thepractical inflight benefits of a prod-uct being offered.

“We work with many brands to

develop travel-specific products whichcan enhance the journey experienceand the well being of the passengeronboard; whether that be meetingskin care needs inflight, productsthat encourage or improve bloodcirculation or products that combatthe effects of jetlag,” Piper explains.“These brands are usually more will-ing to offer a true partnershipapproach with airlines, often cus-tomizing or developing exclusiveproducts for use onboard.”

According to Piper, many airlineshave moved away from traditionalfragrance and skincare brands and arebeginning to select more lifestylebrands, otherwise defined as brandsthat attempt embody the values andaspirations of a group or culture forpurposes of marketing. Piper saysthis trend could be taken even furtherby allowing passengers to log onto anairline’s website and select their ownamenity bag components before theirjourney, as opposed to making thatdecision for them.

AMENITY KITS

DIFFERENTstroke

Bayart Innovations got its start as a small family tex-tile producer in the late 18th century. Over the manyyears since then, the company evolved with the timesto specialize in soldier’s uniforms and then householditems. About 20 years ago, Bayart was asked to pro-duce a blanket for Air France, thus breaking into theairline industry. Still the maker of blankets for AirFrance today, Bayart Innovations has focused itsattention on airline supply and expanded its range ofproducts to include additional textiles, headsets, mealservice items and amenity kits for adults and children.

When it comes to branding, Delphine Liagre, Mar-keting Director at Bayart, says she believes firmlythat agreements between the kit supplier and thebrands within should never be exclusive.

“When a brand has an exclusive deal with anotheramenity supplier, it means they cannot work with any-one else. So as soon as there is exclusivity with one sup-plier, only that one is able to answer the request of anairline that wants to have the brand. To me this is unfair,”says Liagre, adding that if she had the opportunity foran exclusive deal with a top name fragrance or cosmeticshouse she would not want it. “Our job is not making cos-metics, but rather it is putting them inside our creation.I can understand one airline not wanting another airlineto have the brand, that kind of exclusivity makes sense,but for suppliers I do not believe it is good practice.”

Instead of chasing exclusive deals with popularinternational brands, Bayart Innovations has gone anentirely different route. The company recently beganworking with Parisian art students.

“I proposed that these talented young people makesome drawings for me and gave them the chance tobe on our children’s kit or a pouch,” she reveals. “Thiskind of recognition is a dream-come-true for them, tohave their name on a product that thousands will inter-act with internationally. We cannot re-invent raw mate-rials or established brands, so we try to be different.”

Bayart Innovations recently began working with Parisian art students.


Though logistics and fluctuat-ing markets may give airlinesfits when selecting productsfor buy on board purchase,

the keys to making passengers dig into theircache of travel cash may be one of the easieraspects of today’s snack sales programs nowfound on airlines around the world.

At least three companies, one in the UnitedStates and two in the United Kingdom, are set-ting out to show their customers that their

products, developed in house after extensiveresearch, are the simple answer for potentialairline customers who may be over-thinkingtheir snack and meal box strategies.

The products are simple in concept,French fries made with potatoes cooked inrapeseed oil, a staple porridge that is nowenjoyed by passengers zipping their wayacross the European countryside on Eurostar,and the handful of snack combinations thatlongtime industry observers such as JuliaStamberger, CEO and President of Chicago-based GoPicnic Concept Labs say that no buyon board program can do without: hummusand crackers, salami and cheese, and chipsand salsa.

“We created the products. We tested them,”

she tells PAX International. “We put them inhundreds of markets. We can tell you whatworks and what does not.

“If you want to put it in your own pack-aging, great. If you want to create somethingthat no one else has seen before, fine. But whenyou are picking through products, trust inwhat is actually selling well in the retail mar-ket rather than thinking just because peopleare getting on your flight and are your pas-sengers they are somehow different when

they make other decisions.”US Airways made its decision to go with

one of Stamberger’s core products when itselected the company’s GoPicnic Gardensalsa, and Late July brand multigrain tortillachips for its MarketPlace onboard menu offood, drinks and snacks. Though the carrierfirst touted the all-natural makeup of theproducts for the US$3 snack combination, it

was at least as much a case of hard consumerresearch that led to the selection. In theannouncement of the selection, GoPicnicsited Food Technology Magazine findings thatMexican-themed meals are a weekly event formany American consumers, and their pop-ularity has not waned.

“Our goal is to tailor onboard snacks tomeet the needs of today’s fliers,” said HectorAdler, vice president of US Airways, in theDecember 2010 announcement of the newsnack offering.

The chips and salsa combination is still partof the US Airways MarketPlace lineup, thoughthe price has risen to US$4, according to air-line’s website. Along with it is a wide selec-tion of well-known brands such as PepperidgeFarms baked goods and Walker’s shortbreadto Stirrings cocktail mix.

GoPicnic Concept Labs works with morethan 60 companies, many well-known brandsthat are household names for its customerbase in North America. The company hasmade a commitment to supplying productsthat are healthy and satisfy a wide range ofdiet requirements. It has half-dozen glutenfree options to with its line of vegan and

kosher snacks and products free of sevencommon allergens. GoPicnic products can befound everywhere from gift boxes of shelf sta-ble products to airport stores to researchflights to the Antarctic.

Another division of the company, GoPic-nic Brands is where potential customers canfind its line of branded products: CopperCowbell Cheeses, Sweet Perry Orchards Fruitand Nut Mixes and Professor Zim ZamsExtraordinary Sweets. Not surprisingly, GoPic-nic makes extensive use of social media andonline sellers like Amazon.com to gauge con-sumer interest as a low-cost way to promotethe products.

“We get a huge amount of customer feed-back that trickles back to us,” said Stamberger.

One example is the company’s Jelly Jets,which are gummy airplane-shaped candy

THE BRAND ALTERNATIVE

A buy on board essential: GoPicnic says chips andsalsa are one of the steady strong sellers

GoPicnic’s gummy Jelly Jets proved so popularfrom its offering on Delta, the company beganselling them online

BEYONDTHEBRANDBig names and well-known products aren’t nearlyas necessary as providing the passenger withsomething simple, tried and true say severalcompanies that get their inspiration fromconsumer tastes By Rick Lundstrom


that are part of its Professor Zim Zam’s line.The Jets were exclusively sold on Delta AirLines for approximately six months. Passen-gers who encountered the product on a Deltaflight began flooding the company’s websitewith requests – enough for GoPicnic to offerthe product for sale online.

“And when we updated our peanut butterand crackers meal, we put Professor Zim Zam’sJelly Jets into that meal as well, instead ofanother product that we had,” said Stamberger.

Crunchy simplicityShelf-stable products are GoPicnic’s stock intrade. Across the ocean, a company new to thetransportation sector is developing productsadapted to the restrictions and rigors of theairline cabin and giving customers some-thing that is simple, but rarely attempted inairline food service.

Green Gourmet was started by a founderwho was a champion of the vegetarian cause,said the company’s Marketing ManagerBarry Jordan. Since then, at the request ofcustomers, the Gloucestershire based firm hasbranched out adding fish, meat, poultry andbakery products to create a diverse selection

that can be found in schools across theUnited Kingdom.

The travel sector now makes up approx-imately 25 percent, or about £2.5 million(US$3.8 million) of Green Gourmet’s sales peryear, says Jordan. The company made its firstmove into the travel market supplying anoven baked toastini snack that was a hit whenit was tested at Alpha Flight Catering. Thecrispy snack maintained its texture underflight conditions, and was able to satisfy con-

sumer preferences for a crunchy bite withoutthe need for a grill or toaster: something fewschools — and even fewer airline cabins —have access to.

Green Gourmet has now developed aline of bakery products under the brandDeli Q. Late last year it launched the first ofa new line, again, giving potential customersa taste of something that has never beendeveloped fully for air travel. With the GreenGourmet It’s Just… line of products, pas-sengers can now snack on French fries heatedup in approximately 15-20 minutes onboardthe aircraft. With the product boarded in afrozen state, “It’s Just… My Bag of CrispyFries” can be used for inflight snack serviceand back-catered.

The product is packed in a fully branded,innovative bag with “It’s Just… My Bag ofCrispy Fries” written on the side. The prod-uct itself is made with selected potatoescooked in rapeseed oil. Since its introductionin November, Jordan estimated that Green


Green Gourmet’s crispy fries are boarded frozen and heatedto crunchiness on board an aircraft


tomers with British Airways, Monarch andEasyJet marketing a product which is simpleand satisfying, but also nutritionally trendyand sufficiently “oatie,” which the companyinsists on its splashy website is “the bestbreakfast.”

“The challenge in the airline sector is per-suading airlines to move away from the tra-ditional cooked breakfast to view other moreinnovative and healthy options,” said TomMercer, Managing Director of MOMA Foodsin London. “The cooked breakfast is notsomething they look forward to in a foil trayon their flight. Passengers want somethinghealthy and nutritious that tastes great.”

In addition to the airlines, the MOMA

porridge line is now on Eurostar trains. Whilethe rail sector is a challenge to crack, Mercersaid he nonetheless sees tremendous potential.

MOMA develops two main products, saidMercer, its Bircher Muesli and its porridge.The former is a mix of whole grain jumbo oatsand low-fat yogurt teamed with fruit. It is avail-able in 235g, 150g and 90g sizes. Its porridgeline cooks in three minutes in hot water.

“The porridge is stylishly branded and

we have worked hard to get the right blendof oats, giving, what I believe, to be the bestinstant porridge out there,” said Mercer.

In addition to relying on its website toget out the message, MOMA Foods prod-ucts are sold at retail locations in Selfridges,Waitrose and Ocado, which have selected theBircher Muesli line. If they haven’t yet triedthe product, visitors to this year’s WorldTravel Catering and Onboard Services Expoin Hamburg will again have the chance to sam-ple this new entrant.

“Our aim is to meet as many people as pos-sible, explain what we do and let them sam-ple some delicious breakfast,” said Mercer.

So what works?Though each of the three companies hasdeveloped a different line of products, whatemerges from their comments is that knowl-edge of the consumer marketplace is vital towatch by airlines picking a selection foronboard service and sales. Much more impor-tant than traditional approaches, says GoPic-nic’s Stamberger, who spent years in those tra-ditional arenas while working at United Air-lines.

“A lot of carriers are still treating onboardfood for sale as if it was onboard food froma catering and provisioning standpoint,” shesays. “In other words, the decisions on whatto put on board are not guided by retail salescriteria.”

Those attitudes need to change with thenatural evolution of inflight sales, which has

moved from the development stages andimproved practices in which products areprovisioned and ways both cash and foodare handled. Instead of looking at buy-on-board as merely a break-even service pro-vided to passengers, airlines can realize notonly profits, but also large profits.

Simplicity and familiarity, with a line ofproducts that are developed outside the con-straints traditional airline practices is anotheranswer to reaching the passenger.

“We’re not telling them what to expect,”Stamberger stressed. “We’re not creating anypatterns in terms of what their expectationshould be. Introducing something that isconstantly new on flights where they do notknow what to expect and asking them torespond to it. That will never create some-thing that that is a profitable and reliableopportunity.”


“If you want to put it in your ownpackaging, great. If you want tocreate something that no one elsehas seen before, fine. But when youare picking through products, trust in what is actually selling well in theretail market.” —JULIA STAMBERGER,

PRESIDENT AND CEO GOPICNIC

MOMA Foods’ Oatie Breakfast comes in three sizes

Gourmet has sold more than a quarter-mil-lion bags of “It’s Just… My Bag of CrispyFries” and is now also being trialed by UKbased rail caterers.

“We wanted it to stand out,” said Jordanof the company’s initial development plans.“We wanted it to be simple. There was ateam of us in the business that all got togetherand brainstormed…we wanted to ensureconsistency from the brand to the productrange. The name, It’s Just…, was all aboutcommunicating that simplicity and the cre-ative nature of the products that we are goingto be launching.”

As it develops the brand, Green Gourmetis assessing the needs of its newest market, the

travel sector. Since it began, Jordan said thecompany has learned about the supply chainchallenges and the challenges of cabin crewwith limited time and cooking facilities.

“Demonstrating our understanding ofthe onboard travel market, we will soon beadding to our range of marketplace firstsunder the It’s Just… brand,” he adds.

Sowing their oatsWith its products first introduced to the air-line market in 2009 on Virgin Atlantic,MOMA Foods Ltd. now has netted cus-

MOMA Porridge is enjoyed on several British carriersand on Eurostar

At Clearwater we love wild seafood and are constantly investingin new and innovative ways to share our passion and support ourcustomers. We’re Canada’s leading exporter of premium, wildshellfi sh and a world leader in sustainable, responsible fi shing.

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It has been nearly 10 years since KansasCity-based Racket Group sold itsMichaud line of cosmetics. But in say-ing goodbye to one product it was say-ing hello to a new association with a

company that fit its needs for high-qualityamenity kit contents, but in a slightly differ-ent way.

Gilchrist & Soames, a royal sounding namethat evokes visions of luxury and comfort,became a new partner - both business-wiseand in geographic proximity. Though its his-tory traces back to England, the companyhas also set up shop in Indianapolis, Indiana.In that time, Gilchrist & Soames purchasedequipment from the Michaud factory.

Like all suppliers of amenity items, RacketGroup offers its share of Fifth Avenue cos-metics and fragrances for airline customers.The company is also being challenged to pro-vide a selection of products that satisfy an air-line’s desire for natural materials. Shoehorns,toothbrushes and other products are sourcedfor their ability to be made from sustainablematerials like bamboo.

But even though there is plenty for airlinesto seek out in terms of a glitzy, stylish bag filledwith name brands, not all want to take thatapproach. Those that do not can still findcontents that satisfy the needs of passengers,at prices more affordable.

As a result of Racket’s association withGilchrist & Soames, it found a partner witha brand-name reputation a product strictlygeared to the amenity mar-ket. Gilchrist & Soamesproducts are found in high-end hotels around theworld, making them rec-ognizable to well-heeledtravelers who may recallthe lotions and spa treat-ments from their last visitto a luxury hotel, or fromthe staterooms during acruise on The Cunard Lineor Royal Caribbean Inter-national.

“We partner heavilywith Gilchrist & Soames,”said Anne Bauer, whorecently became Presidentof Racket Group. “They areincredibly flexible in termsof product design, and aretruly committed to meet-ing the vision of the air-line and their marketingteam. That’s the numberone advantage to workingwith an established brand,like Gilchrist & Soames,

who are so strongly rooted in the travelamenity industry.

A Racket-supplied amenity bag withGilchrist & Soames products has been flyingon US Airways Envoy class for the last twoyears. Previously, the company worked withRacket Group to supply Gilchrist & Soamesproducts for the BusinessFirst cabin on Con-tinental Airlines.

Will Racket Group ever again step into theworld of producing its own line of productsas did in the days when Michaud was foundin airlines around the world?“That’s alwayssomething we are open to if an airline isinterested,” said Bauer.

Combinations for comfortVying for the same business with its own setof products and service is West Sussex basedMalton Inflight. In his years with the company,Managing Director Gordon Oakley has seenthe amenity kit go through its cyclical periodof up and down popularity.

“In vogue at the moment seems to be theselection tray concept,” said Oakley. “Wherepassengers can choose which amenity itemsthey really want rather than be given a kitfull of items they do not want and leavebehind.”

The selection of earphones, socks, eye-shades, inflatable neck pillows and otherassorted amenity items are often purchased


Low-costCOMFORTTo fill amenity kits and cabins with comfort items,some airlines forego name brands and premiumpricing for something simple and practical; and theyare finding a number of offerings By Rick Lundstrom

Racket Group and Gilchrist &Soames teamed up for thisEnvoy Class amenity kit on

US Airways

The AirGenie line ofsoap products fromMalton Inflight


Contact us at 770.804.0903 or visit us online at www.amigrp.com.

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without brand names. How-ever, Oakley has noticed thatairlines are looking closely atproduct quality and more var-ied materials to make theamenity items more appealingto travelers.

Popular consumer brandsare sold at premium prices foramenity kits. For airlines look-ing to cut cost, Oakley oftensuggests that Malton Inflightsource an “up and coming”brand or create a product forairline use.

Malton has its own line of products calledAirGenie. Recently, it co-branded its AirGe-nie combination soap and air freshener withan airline customer. Malton has won an Inter-national Travel Catering Association Mer-cury Award for the innovative 2-in-1 Hand-soap and Air Freshener product.

“The foaming soap actuator causes the soapto expand as it is dispensed,” said Oakley. “Sothe passenger takes in less than with a con-ventional soap liquid. This can make a 30 to 40percent reduction in consumption, which is a

significant cost saving for the airline. “In addition, the airline also doesn’t need

to use and replace a separate air freshener.”Malton Inflight has the good fortune of

being near enough to find inspiration in Lon-don, home of high-end retailers like HarveyNichols, House of Fraser and Selfridges. Com-pany employees frequently browse the aisleslooking for ideas that can translate to airlineuse. In 2004, Malton Inflight became one ofthe first to develop a range of products madefrom sustainable materials such as corn and

potato starch, with its Back2Earth line.The company also has its Blanket Com-

fort Kits being sold onboard several low-cost carriers.

“It is very neat and compact set, enablingthe airline to find space to stow enough onboard, and a great value kit which containsa blanket, eye shade, ear plugs and an inflat-able neck pillow,” said Oakley. “If pitched ata sensible price, it is a proven top-seller andcan be a phenomenal income stream forthe airline.”


Malton Inflight’s comfortset on AirAsia


Last May, the cabins of almostevery aircraft in the Spirit Air-lines fleet came to life with thelikenesses of timeless LooneyTunes cartoon characters in a

promotion for the launch of a new series oncable television’s Cartoon Network.

The colorful images of Bugs Bunny, DaffyDuck, Porky Pig and other famous WarnerBrothers cartoon stars were part of what wasan “immersive experience,” made possible withthe help of two Atlanta Companies: TurnerBroadcasting Animation and Global OnboardPartners, which developed the displays.

The campaign was an inevitable cross-road. As airlines unbundle their services andseek ancillary revenue from nearly every aspectof operations, marketing companies and theproducts they represent have begun in a largerway to view the space within the cabin as aprime spot to reach and hold a demographicon the move. Some of the ads are plannedspecifically for the airline market, while oth-ers make use of the airline cabin as part of anoverall strategy to integrate their message andkeep it in front of the passenger - both beforethey enter the cabin, and after they make theirway home, or to their destination.

For airlines, advertising onboard is anotheropportunity for revenue. However, compa-nies that are involved in the business say itmust be handled with care. A recent story in

the USA Today newspaper on the growth inonboard advertising included commentsfrom passengers put off by its presence inthe cabin. What some of the passengers saw

as in intrusion by marketers, other industrywatchers saw a scenario where enough adver-tising revenue could be actually used to off-set the increasing cost of airfares.

“Ads on airplanes have been slowly creep-ing in, even with the legacy carriers over theyears,” said Roger Cunard, Director of Mar-keting and Public Relations at Global OnboardPartners. “And the next natural evolution isusing the large surfaces for display advertising.”

The potential for industry wide revenuefor display advertising is difficult to find.However, it is clear that airlines have begunto think big. Spirit Airlines is asking report-edly up to US$14 million per year to adver-tise on the exterior of its aircraft fleet. The USAToday story also pointed out the cost of otherpotential advertising surfaces: US$196,000for three months on the airline’s overhead bins,US$119,000 for tray tables, and US$18,500 forads on the carrier’s airsickness bags.

What the airlines offer advertisers in returnis a term called “dwell time.” The splashy car-toon graphics boarded on Spirit can be in frontof a passenger for 2.5 hours. “While traditionaladvertising provides consumer recall of only5-12%, the Looney Tunes experience pro-vides recall rates of up to 94%”, said a releasefrom Global Onboard Partners. “Provingpassengers remember the brand and mes-sage after they have exited the aircraft.”

But if airlines are thinking big, there are

ADVERTISING

Mile high mediumAirlines from Florida to India are turning cabins into a bold advertisingcanvas to enhance revenue, while companies that sponsor the displays seekto reach an important demographic By Rick Lundstrom

“Oftentimes thesedays, clients want to provide a 360 degreeexperience thatlives with theconsumer andextends thecampaigns aslong as possible,to otherplatforms.”

Evan Borak,COO BrandConnections

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck clown it upon a Spirit Airlines jet

Increased exposure toadvertising messageslead to more retention

by passengers


only a few places where they can go, and nor-mally they have a short time to get the workdone. An aircraft in the hangar is not outmaking money, which is why Global OnboardPartners developed an advertising product thatcould be quickly, easily and, most impor-tantly, safely installed.

“It is tough to find ground time for anaircraft to do the work,” said Cunard. “It is aproprietary combination of materials that wehave patents pending on in various countriesaround the world, so we are very proud of it.”

One of the company’s first hurdles was reg-ulatory. The U.S. Federal Aviation Adminis-tration needed to be convinced that the appli-cations would meet fire standards. Cunard saidnot only does the company’s multi layerprocess provide a durable peel and stick prod-uct that is resistant to graffiti and other mark-ings, it also burns a lesser rate than othermaterials in the cabin. After receiving a fed-eral go-ahead, the company began workingwith potential advertisers and airlines. Inaddition to Spirit, ad products from GlobalOnboard Partners have been installed on air-lines such as LIAT, AirTran, Air Arabia, Jet Air-ways and Wizz Air.

“Much of our success has been with lowercost and regional airlines,” said Cunard. “TheU.S.-based legacy carriers have had someinterest and we have talked to them. And wehope they continue to have interest, but,unlike legacy carriers we already work within other countries, as of yet they have notdecided to take advantage of this opportunity.”

Spirit Airlines, however, was more thanhappy to take up the slack. “We are thrilledthat the Cartoon Network is using Spirit’sonboard advertising program to introduce itsnew ‘The Looney Tunes Show,” said MichaelPewther, Spirit Airlines’ Senior Director ofSales and Mile High Media, in the Mayannouncement of the promotion. “The graph-ics create such a fun, entertaining and mem-orable experience for our passengers thatwill be remembered long after the flight.”

Tracking the experienceCreating memories, and making onboardadvertising a win-win for both the companiesthat choose to advertise and the airline thatearns the revenue is oftentimes more thanmerely selecting the airline cabin as a placeto reach a target audience. Concepts such astarget markets and dwell times are only partof the considerations when companies cometo a firm, such as Brand Connections in NewYork with the goal of reaching consumers.

For years, Brand Connections has beenworking with national and global brands,

putting together an integrated program thatcould place a company’s name and productsin front of consumers at multiple points. Itis a strategy that Chief Operating Officer,Evan Borak, says makes his company anextension of a firm’s global marketing teamwith the primary task of engaging consumers.

“And integration can mean lots of differ-ent things,” said Borak. “It can mean integratedassets, media assets within the airline, airport,travel experience environment. It can meanintegration across multiple platforms thatare not related.”

Brand Connections has most recently setup advertising programs aboard United Air-lines and American Airlines by primarilymaking use of the carriers’ inflight video. Thecompany has also developed a “Care Cover”that attaches to the surface of a tray table.

“We have done everything from real cre-ative artistic content to board games and exer-cises,” printed on the Care Covers, said Borak.

As for advertising aboard an airline’s inflightconnectivity, Borak says the market for onboardtechnology has not yet proven itself a solidsource for an advertising message.

Some of Brand Connections’ most recentcustomers for airline advertising have beenmobile phone maker Samsung, online insur-ance provider Esurance, and the Hilton Gar-den Inn. Unlike the bold splashy approach thathas been used on low-cost carriers, Boraksays legacy airlines and the companies thatadvertise on them walk a fine line, whichrequires a strong message that must be deliv-ered with more subtlety. The company isoften teaming its advertising with othervenues, such as cruise lines and ski resorts, aswell as nearby hotel chains.

“Oftentimes these days, clients want toprovide a 360 degree experience that liveswith the consumer and extends the cam-paigns as long as possible to other platforms,”said Borak.

ADVERTISING

“The demand for advertising media products is very high,” said Federico Heitz,CEO for Asian Pioneer, which recently developed a simple-to-use headrest-adver-tising concept for Renfe trains in Spain. “Asian Pioneer also believes that it will groweven further in the next couple years as airlines and railway companies are lookingfor additional revenues.”

To meet the need, the Chinese-Spanish-based company has added a line ofproducts that are not only easy to maintain, but also give the user the ability to quicklychange advertising messages. The headrests on Renfe, which were boarded inDecember, have a transparent compartment in the back that allows the railroad tochange advertising messages quickly, while minimizing parts of the product that needto be discarded.

“There wasn’t an online advertisement solution that did not involve excessive waste,stickers, (and) lots of time to change ads when the contract expires,” said Heitz.

Though it is a new segment of the company’s business line, Heitz says advertis-ing support products are approximately 5% of the Asian Pioneer’s overall sales.

Asian Pioneer develops simple,clean displays for Renfe

Headrestadvertising onRenfe trains in Spain


t was nearly three years ago,that San Francisco based

Air Meals wowed thejudges from the Interna-

tional Travel Catering Asso-ciation Mercury Awards enough

to earn the company honors for its pre-order-ing system, which gave airlines and caterersthe ability to deliver gourmet meals to theeconomy class cabin.

Now, as the company begins working theDelta Air Lines to deliver the first such mealsto passengers on two transcontinental routes,the company’s President Adam Bauer, stillsees the award as an important first step tothe pilot program that launched last fall.

It was the ITCA award, and of course, thecard game.

During one of the airline catering indus-try’s notorious card games, this one in Vir-ginia, an executive at one of the cateringcompanies asked Bauer why, given the tech-nology, such a feat could not be accomplished.

“There was not any technical reason whyit could not be done,” Bauer tells PAX Inter-national. “So we examined it and appliedstandards and business launch criteria to it.Who’s doing it, who’s not doing it, the eco-

nomics of it? Is it really a possibleventure? — and not every good

idea is a venture.”

Similar ventures are also makingtheir way across the industry.A functioning pre-buyingprogram like Air Meals canbe up and running at anairline in a matter of weeks,says Bauer. In the airportenvironment, the phenom-enon that has placed smarttechnology in the hands of mil-lions of consumers is now used topre-order meals at three U.S. airports.

It is Delta’s recently launched DineUpprogram that will first make use of the AirMeals technology. In a multi-channel pre-buy platform, passengers can order upscalemeals delivered to their seat with 48 hoursnotice given to the airline. Air Meals callsthe platform AM 1 and has added a pre-buywebsite program that can be used as well.The airline is offering DineUp on flights outof New York Kennedy to Los Angeles andSan Francisco.

“The first (stage) is really the e-commercestage. The up-front fee, getting the orders, cus-tomer service and things like that,” said Bauer.“The second stage is the creation of the mealsby the catering station. They get the ordersand (prepare) the orders and get them to theplane. The third is in-plane delivery.”

“The meals must be pre-paid with a majorcredit card on this site. Orders can be cancelled

with full refund, 48 hours before scheduleddeparture from the pre-buy website,”said Leslie Parker, a spokesperson forDelta in January, adding “this program

is just in the beginning of test phases. Wewill gather feedback from customers and ouremployees to determine if it should roll out toadditional markets.”

Catering for the DineUp program is han-dled by LSG Sky Chefs at Kennedy Airport andGate Gourmet in Los Angeles and San Fran-cisco. In January, Delta was offering passengersthe choice of an Antipasto Entreé of SmokedSalmon and Grilled Herb Chicken, an EntreéSalad of Grilled Herb Chicken and an AntipastoEntreé of Beef Tenderloin and Grilled Rose-mary Shrimp.

Bauer credited Delta for taking what hecalled a “calculated risk” in the DineUp trial.Handling the orders, while dealing with the

vicissitudes of airline travel and heightenedexpectations from passengers, are only a fewof the risks that can derail such a service.However he sees pre-buying services of thistype as a vital new option for any airlineseeking to innovate.

“It is a very powerful niche that all carri-ers at some point in time will have to offer thepassengers,” said Bauer.

The niche needs to be not only profitable,cut also cost effective. One of the most wellknown companies to make use of meal order-ing technology is Private Flight, which workswith restaurants, hotels and caterers aroundthe world to bring gourmet fare to private jetoperators who spend tens of thousands of dol-lars per trip in some instances.

Richard Pryor, CEO of Private Flight Lim-ited in New Zealand sees a future where firstand business class passengers paying tens ofthousands of dollars for a front cabin ticket,will be happy to pay US$100 for a pre-buygourmet meal.

“If (the airlines) are not doing it in fiveyears, they’re really missing an opportunity,”he said.

TECHNOLOGY

I

Beeftenderloin androsemaryshrimp are part ofthe Delta DineUpservice oneastbound flights

Also on Delta’seastbound flights

is an antipastoentrée of grilled

herb chicken

From the concourses to the cabin, technology is placingmore meals in front of more travelers By Rick Lundstrom

Testing the tastywaters

vides details on where he can find the B4YouBoard delivery person in thegate area. The ordering system needs exactly 20 minutes from the time oforder to delivery. The clock starts when payment is made.

Users can browse menus and pay for their purchases using theB4YouBoard app. They can even change orders using an assistance line.It is currently usable on Android and iPhones, but the Airside Mobile andconcessionaire HMSHost are developing an app for Blackberry as well.

To the company’s surprise, Miller said the system has not been totallydominated by passenger orders.

“We have had a lot of repeat business and we are seeing a lot of air-port employees actually using this,” said Miller. “If you have a 30 minutebreak, it is a pain to have to walk to a restaurant to stand in line and thenwalk back to your post and you have already gone through your entire break.”

Miller estimates that approximately one-third of the B4YouBoard mealorders are from airport employees. Demand was such that the company devel-oped a feature of the B4YouBoard program that calculates employee discounts.

“This enhanced level of service and innovative use of technology willdefinitely make the traveler’s day better,” said Joe Waller HMSHost’sVice President of Business development in the September announcementof the program at MSP.

But what will really contribute to passenger satisfaction will be a pro-gram that brings in more aspects of the passenger experience, says Miller.While the company seeks to expand B4YouBoard to more airports andmore restaurants within those airports, it is also looking to add parkingand retail purchases among its capabilities.

“Our ultimate goal really is to be the mobile marketplace for the air-port,” he said.

A tasty appIt’s been nearly a year since the first users of a mobile phone appmade their way through the ordering process that, before depar-ture, had them sitting at the airport gate with a full meal deliv-ered by restaurants at three U.S. airports.

But the company that developed the app, Arlington, Vir-ginia based Airside Mobile, is not finished, nor limiting its

ambitions to supplying meals; and sees its B4YouBoard appas the model for a program that could include other ele-

ments of the airport experience, such as parking,retail and duty free sales in addition to food.

“We’re actually in discussions with dutyfree providers, Homeland Security and Cus-

toms and Border Protection,” said HansMiller CEO of Airside Mobile. Miller

formed the company with Adam Tsaotwo years ago. Before Airside Mobile,the pair had been consultants, who

were involved in the organization ofthe Transportation Security Adminis-

tration (TSA). They also worked with air-lines to co-develop the first mobile phone

boarding passes that came into service in 2007 and2008. They were also involved in the formation of the

Black Diamond passenger boarding process (which opens upa faster boarding lane for experienced travelers), and led thedrive to eliminate gate screening in 2002.

But for now, the company is focused on expanding andhoning its B4YouBoard service that is working with restau-rants at New York Kennedy, Chicago O’Hare and Min-neapolis-St. Paul International Airports. This past fall, Air-side Mobile expanded the capabilities of B4YouBoard, addingan application for Motorola Android phone users.

The service is in place at three restaurants at each of the air-ports. When an order is placed from a smart phone app, it isrouted to Airside Mobile’s back-end server. The order isprocessed with the help of an Apple iPad at the participatingrestaurants. Airside Mobile sends pushed messages with updatesback to the customer. The final message to the customer pro-


TECHNOLOGY

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he pace of changes intechnology may berelentless, but so tooare the changes takingplace in the airlinecatering industry.

Airlines are re-evaluating food service,eliminating it from some routes and enhanc-ing it in front cabin service. With globalalliance groups of carriers expanding to des-tinations far and wide, they are finding ateach station, an airline-catering kitchen withdifferent operation than the one they justflew away from.

That was the consensus by two airlinesoftware providers that have developed estab-lished applications which help handle inven-tory, source products and manage kitchenoperations and front office for airline cater-ing kitchens around the world. To meet theirdemands, these companies have modifiedsystems and created scalable versions of orig-inal architecture.

The Inflair system has been implementedin more than 30 units on five continents.Since its launch, Jeremy Clark, the head of JCConsultancy, who developed the system, hasseen the traditional food service model giveway to buy-on-board operations or elimi-nated outright.

“Few traditional operations remain inemerging markets, but it is inevitable that, intime they will adopt these practices,” he tellsPAX International. “Caterers have seen morechange to their business model in the past 10years than in the previous 50.”

Rapid change and a lack of standardiza-tion or an uneven distribution of techno-logical advancement are a few of the chal-lenges. Production methods, such as DHL’ssupply of British Airways at LondonHeathrow, Emirates’ operation in Dubai andthe Servair/NAS operations in Nairobi are afew examples that Clark says take the cater-

ing model to operations through a rangefrom intensive in-house production to onethat, in the case of DHL/British Airways pro-vides few to none of the traditional prepa-ration demands.

“Providing integrated software to suit allthree is a real challenge,” said Clark “Nonethe-less, a single source integrated system is acost-effective solution to a lot of in-houseproblems. Airline caterers, whether standalone members of a medium sized group orpart of a huge network are basically all doingthe same thing.”

Inflair is moving ahead, developing inno-vations in Java programming, cloud com-puting (which allows software to be providedto computer systems over a shared service suchas the Internet) and developing products forthe rapidly evolving use of hand-held devices.The U.K. based company has also developeda site-based Linux system that can be remotelysupported from centers in the United King-dom and Asia.

Enterprise and Lite“The big lesson we have learned through thedevelopment and implementation of Aerocheffor various clients is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution,” says Mohan Mathew,Director of Business Development at KottSoftware. Hence, AeroChef created what thecompany is touting as an easily customiz-able solution framework for the in-flightcatering industry.

Since its launch in July 2009, the Aerochef

catering solution has found its way to someinteresting applications. Absolute Taste,the company owned by McLaren FormulaOne, implemented AeroChef for its oper-ations last year in the UK and Switzerlandlocations. Casino Air Caterers and FlightsServices in India is a customer using thesolution at three major airports for ordermanagement, menu management, foodcosting, purchase, production, invoicingand a variety of logistics functions. PlaneCatering at London, Heathrow Airport alsoselected the system.

Each of the company’s customers bringtheir own set of needs. “Every station, everycaterer has their own operation challenges andrequirements,” explains Mathew. “For some,the operation is an assembly and logisticsoperation with all food components broughtin from various third parties, for others thechallenge is managing and optimizing highstaff costs. Conversely other locations bene-fit from low staff costs, but every single fooditem needs to be produced from scratch,some caterers are handling hundreds of thou-sands of meals per day, others catering onlyVVIP flights.”

To make the products useful for differ-ent levels of operations, AeroChef is avail-able in two versions – Aerochef Enterprise,for large catering operations and AerochefLite, for premium event caterers and busi-ness jet caterers.

This year, the company plans to launcha new version of the software that will inte-grate services via Internet, mobile phone, textmessages, and advanced managementreports.

TECHNOLOGY

shifting sandsAs software developers create solutions for airline catering systems, they are findingan industry that is diverse in its needs andquickly changing By Rick Lundstrom

T


The changing climate of the littleblue planet has affected manythings. The past few years havebrought increased incidencesof flooding, drought, severe

weather, the accelerated recession of glaci-ers and even a rise in sea levels. All over theworld, humans are learning to adapt to anew and uncertain environment, one thatcould change in the blink of an eye.

Significant progress is being made in termsof rethinking our industrial practices, not tomention our everyday lives in order to pro-tect our natural resources, but many wouldargue that it is not enough, that the earth isgetting warmer. Whether affected by man’soverzealous development of the natural worldor simply part of the earths’ natural warm-ing and cooling cycle, those involved in thebusiness of agriculture, like wine producersfor instance, are particularly attuned to MotherNature’s moods.

“You have to follow Mother Nature in thisbusiness,” reveals Ken Chase, lecturer in theenology department at the University of Mel-bourne and wine consultant to AmericanAirlines and Air Canada. “A lot of winerieskeep very good records of weather patternsover the years. Another thing that we can do

is look at a fruit bud under a microscope wherewe assess the flowering potential that, in theNorthern hemisphere, appears in early tomid-June. If the latent bud is abnormal, wecan predict an abnormal harvest.

Even meticulous observation and docu-mentation, however, is often not enough toforecast the type of harvest a wine producer

in any specific region will experience. Forinstance Europe experienced a hot, earlyspring in 2011, which caused the grapes tobegin growing sooner than expected. Thisin turn forced some farmers to pick the grapesa full two or three weeks before the traditionalharvest time. When this happens the fruitmay appear to be ripe by all accounts, how-ever, says Chase, it may not have the properconcentration that makes a stellar vintage.

“There is no question that Europe was

thrown a curveball this year,” Chase admits.“The curveballs seem to be coming a lotmore often than they used to. There is nodoubt in my mind that we are experiencingsome type of climate change phenomenon andwe are going to see more of it.”

While they typically experience more con-sistent growing conditions year on year than

farmers in Europe, California wine-makersalso experienced an unusual growing seasonin 2011. The harvest there was shortened bycool and rainy conditions beginning in themonth prior to picking. In a scenario likethis, many growers will opt to pick earlybecause heavy and prolonged rains can causethe skin of the grape to split, allowing waterto dilute the fruit within.

All this, however, isn’t too much of a worrywhen it comes to the airlines. According to

WINE REPORT

YOU’LL FEEL BETTER.Wine a little,

PAX International talks to airline wine experts about the 2011grape harvest and how it will affect the landscape in 2012, plus trends in consumption on ground an in air By Maryann Simson

— Ken Chase, wine consultant to American Airlines and Air Canada

“You have to followMother Nature in this business.”


Chase, a poor harvest in one region us usu-ally countered by a good one somewhereelse, and often a successful harvest from a pre-vious year can create a surplus for produc-ers to draw on.

On the West CoastWente Vineyards is the United States’ old-est, continuously operated family-ownedwinery. For 129 years the Wente Family,five generations to be precise, has blendedtraditional and innovative winemakingpractices, drawing from approximately 3,000acres of sustainably farmed Estate vine-yards, to create a portfolio of fine wines. Amajor supplier to the global airline cateringindustry, Wente Vineyards is coming off agood sales year in the channel, and despite ashort harvest which may impact airline sup-ply, is overall optimistic about 2012.

“Sales are up in the United States and forexport,” reveals Eric Wente, Chairman andFourth Generation Winegrower at WenteVineyards. “Chardonnay and Cabernet per-formed exceptionally well in 2011, either inthe quarter bottle or the 750 mL bottle. TheMorning Fog Chardonnay performed thebest in terms of Wente brands. For our TamasEstates brand in the 750mL bottle, the Dou-ble Decker Red received some very goodplacements, but then overall, our HayesRanch brand 187mL was our largest volumein terms of airline sales.”

Doing business with major internationalcarriers like Delta, United and American Air-lines, Wente Vineyards moved more than100,000 cases of wine in 2011, to the airlinesector alone. This was an improvement over2010; however Wente admits he is not sure that2012 will see the same volumes going out.

“It has much to do with the availability

of the wine,” heexplains. “For 2012 itwill be a more diffi-cult climate becausethe 2011 harvest wassmall and so that putspressure on ourinventories across allchannels. All varietalswe produce wereaffected to someextent. Basically wecame in about 30%under original esti-mate for the year. Wehave inventories thatwe can carry forwardand the next harvestcoming in, so youneed to bridge and

manage. I doubt the 2011 harvest will last acalendar year in any channel.”

Also based in the state of California is acompany called Intervine Inc., which wascreated for the sole purpose of selling and dis-tributing wine to the travel industry. Thefounders of Intervine actually began theircareers as suppliers of inflight and duty freeservice items who added wine at the requestof an airline and never looked back. While itsoriginal area of expertise was French winesand Champagne, the now 20-year-old firmhas since added offerings from all of theworld’s major wine-growing regions.

“Economy class wines in the 187ml formatremain an important segment within Inter-vine’s business,” says Ed Matovcik, Presidentof Intervine Inc. “We would expect the 750mlformat to remain standard for upper classesof service given the traditions of home andrestaurant service and the wide availability of

WINE REPORT

Ed Matovcik, second from right, celebrates with U.S. Airways and his team members when they win the2011 Global Traveller Award for best white wine 2011

Morning FogChardonnay is one ofWente Vineyard’s topperforming wines

Ken’sTenHere are ten things to think aboutwhen purchasing wine for thecabin in 2012:

1 WHEN BUYING FORECONOMY, SHOP AROUND!“In the bulk wine biz there are millionsof litres to be had so making an econ-omy wine purchase becomes quitesimple if you know where to shop!”

2 PET IS NOT FOR EVERYONE.“It does save weight, no question.But you need be turning it around ata decent pace because the shelf lifeis still not quite as good as glass.”

3 KEEP AN EYE ON OTHER COSTS.“Glass, labels, screw caps and pack-aging are not getting any cheaper, sowe’re seeing that the packaging partof the formula is now becoming moreexpensive than the wine.”

4 375ML BOTTLES WILL SEEMORE FLY-TIME.“I think it has a future in premiumclass and business class, simplybecause it will cut down on thewaste factor.”

5 TOP WILL STAY ON TOP.“Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are notshifting, they will remain strong, how-ever other varietals are gainingground.”

6 WE’LL SEE MORE PINK AND BUBBLES.“In the North American market espe-cially, the rise of sparkling wines isbig news. I think the Italian Proseccois poised for more terrific growth. I’m also seeing growth in Rosé.There have been leaps and boundsat the restaurant level and in stores.”

7 MALBEC IS IN DEMAND.“On the reds, there is no doubt aboutwhat’s happening with Malbec. I wasn’t sure about it ten years agobut I’m happy to eat my words.”

8 WINE SHOULD BE FUN.“I think we are going to see a lot of wine as entertainment this year. I believe that we are going to seemore electronic education at theback of the seat in economy class.”

9 REVISIT CLASSICS.“I am seeing an interesting resur-gence of bourbon, but not only in thetraditional way. I’m seeing peopledrink it sweetened with honey orliqueur, it adds a nice softness.”

10 LEARN SOME SPANISH.“Watch out for Spain. Spain is on areally big comeback. I’m seeingincredible wines coming out of coun-try that are totally unknown.”


wine in this format. The 375ml format has notgained a wide acceptance by wineries. Theyare available but are usually produced in smallquantities for restaurant use.”

Although he likes to keep sales numbersand volumes confidential, Matovcik did revealin his interview with PAX International that hethinks the most significant trend we will see in2012 is reflective of consumer buying habits.“I think there will be an increased interest inoffering passengers a more diverse list of winesfrom new regions and with lesser-known vari-etals,” he reveals. “One of the biggest stories of2011 was the California harvest, which waslower than average for the third straight year.This, combined with increased consumption,will continue to drive the availability of winegrapes lower and increase costs. Harvest yieldswere down in several European regions as well.Champagne yields were 25% lower than usual,while other notable French appellations sufferedfrom a reduction of about 10%.This is why itis more critical today than ever to be a truly inter-national supplier with a diverse portfolio.”

In FranceTwenty five years ago, a man named GerardBertrand left a career as player on the Frenchrugby team to assume the lead in his latefather’s business, which was producing qual-ity French wine in the southern Languedocregion. Today Gerard Bertrand Wines ownsseven estates farming more than 500 hectaresof vineyard. The company also has strongrelationships with other local growers, whichhelps guarantee wide sourcing and consistentquality at any given time.

Eight years ago, Gerard Bertrand landedits first airline contract when Air France chose

to pour its wines in business class. Now, air-lines such as Qatar Airways, American Air-lines, Swiss Airlines, LuxAir and Air Baltic reg-ularly treat passengers to wines from the pro-ducer. In addition to renewing many existingcontracts in 2011, Gerard Bertrand is pleasedto have added KLM Royal Dutch Airlinesand Singapore Airlines, two large and pres-tigious carriers, to its list of customers. Over-all, the company moved more than a millioncases of wine last year – 15,000 of which weremarked for the airline channel.

“Single varietal wines were selected andpoured most commonly in economy class.AOP (Appellation D’origine Protégée: Frenchwines subjected to very tight controls) andsparkling wines are more and more for busi-ness class pouring and for service in lounges,”says Christophe Balay, Global Travel RetailDirector for Gerard Bertrand Wines, whohas also picked up on some of the trendsthat Ken Chase pointed out. “We have noticeda growing interest for sparkling wines fromthe south of France such as the GerardBertrand Cremant de Limoux. Also, the Roséconsumption is growing a lot in the world andparticularly in seasonal tenders.”

Despite short and early harvests elsewherein the world, Gerard Bertrand himself says thatthe 2011 harvest is, in fact, the best he has everhad with a “fantastic quality for both red andwhite wine, in all kinds of grapes.”

In the UKRatcliffe & Brown was established on NewYear’s Day, 2000 by David Ratcliffe, his wifeChris, Andrew Brown and Andrew’s wifeSusan. Focused entirely on supplying wine intothe travel catering sector, Ratcliffe & Brownhas grown consistently over the last decadeand has picked up major contracts with car-riers including British Airways, BMI, easyJet,Monarch Airlines, Thomas Cook, ThomsonAirways, Etihad and many more.

Last year was particularly good for Ratcliffe& Brown. Important new tenders were wonin the airline market and additionally, thecompany was able to significantly enhance itsrail sector presence, now supplying everymajor UK-based rail company, as well asEurostar. Against a background of toughoperating conditions, Ratcliffe & Brown grewby 20% overall in 2011.

“We only supply wines that we haveselected ourselves, which are good quality, fruitdriven, enjoyable to drink and well priced,”revealed David Ratcliffe in a recent interviewwith PAX International. “We source and sup-ply wines from all over the wine producingworld, but primarily from France, Italy, Spain,

South Africa, Chile, Australia and NewZealand. Many of our wines are ‘custom’blends, tailored to a customer’s individualrequirements and capable of over-perform-ing in the demanding conditions of the travelcatering environment. The company wasthrilled to have one of its white wines, LouisMondeville, Cotes de Gascogne blanc, win thetitle of “Best Economy Class White Wine of2011” in two different airline wine competi-tions, held late last year. We have a bank of reg-ular producers who we know we can rely onto provide us with first class liquids fromwhich we make our selections.”

According to Ratcliffe, this truly interna-tional method of sourcing wine, means thatif a poor growing season or supply issues inany particular region creates a problem,sourcing can be switched to an alternative.

In addition to wine quality, particularattention is also spent on packaging devel-opment. Realising from the beginning theimportance of light weight, eco-friendly pack-aging, Ratcliffe & Brown has been at the fore-front of many new light-weighting initiative,(Ratcliffe having developed and introduced

the world’s first 187ml PET wine bottle withPan-Am back in the early 80’s). Today, mostof production, both quarter bottle, full bot-tle and litre, is specified in light weight, multi-layer PET bottles.

“Every year, airline consolidation meansthat there are ever fewer customers for us to aimat, each with ever greater buying power,” he says.“We need to be constantly researching, improv-ing and refining every aspect of our offer in orderto stay competitive. We are very focussed on ourbusiness and all have a passion for what we do- and our aim is to be the best.”

WINE REPORT

Ratcliffe & Brown has been at the forefront ofmany new wine packaging developments overthe last ten years

Despite short and early harvests elsewhere inthe world, Gerard Bertrand himself says thatthe 2011 harvest is, in fact, the best he hasever had

Specialists in supplying exciting wines in lightweight packaging for airlines and travel caterers

www.chateaux.com +44 (0)20 8294 0721 [email protected]

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t 12:45 pm on January 13,sixteen hand-picked cruiseindustry experts - a mix ofcruise line food and bever-age executives and media -

began arriving at The Forge restaurant inSouth Beach for a VIP Judging to determinewho will become Bacardi’s next Bartender ofthe Year and Chef of the Year.

Growing in popularity with each contestand now in its seventh year, the Bacardi Cruise

Competition is the only one of its kind in theindustry. It allows the men and women whowork onboard any of Bacardi’s cruise linepartners to submit recipes for the chance towin one of the prestigious titles and gainexcellent exposure and recognition for theirhard work in the process.

“We launched the competition seven yearsago to recognize the creativity of the bar-tenders and chefs onboard,” said David Hogan,Bacardi Americas Travel Retail Manager and

organizer of this year’s competition. “It’s a greatway for us to reach out and reward the peo-ple who, at the end of the day, are really thefaces of our brands.”

From the time that this year’s contestopened to submissions on September 1, andclosed November 30, more than 1850 recipesfrom 27 cruise lines were contributed forcocktails and dishes, representing a 16%increase over last year. Once all submissionswere in, the real work began for BacardiGlobal Travel Retail Ambassador Marc Plum-ridge and the Forge’s Chef Dewey LoSasso,who, with small teams, were responsible forthe difficult task of narrowing all entriesdown to a finalist for each one of the five foodand five beverage categories.

“Marc is in charge of the initial judgingprocess,is with support from our team ofglobal brand ambassadors who represent ourfamily of brands; Bacardi, Grey Goose, Bom-bay Sapphire and Dewar’s Scotch Whisky,” saidHogan, adding that this makes sense becausethe categories for drinks are divided by brand.At the VIP Judging event, 16 judges sampledthe top Bacardi-ingredient entries from eachfood category; appetizer, vegetarian, maincourse, dessert and heart healthy (by thestandards for the American Heart Association),which were presented to the judges only afteran explanation of the preparation processfrom LoSasso. In a new twist on the traditionalevent format, the finalist drinks were pre-pared live by Marc Plumridge, to give judgesa better grasp of what goes into their prepa-ration. The judges were able to ask Plumridgequestions about each of the five finalist cock-tails, like what good substitute ingredientsmight be, then discuss ideas, experiences orconcerns with their peers. Finalists werejudged on presentation, taste, creativity, orig-inality, guest appeal and operational criteria.

EVENT COVERAGE

Miami heat

CATEGORYWINNERS

This year’s finalists hail from a number of destinations worldwide, with multiple winning entries from Carnival Cruise

Lines and Royal Caribbean International. A prize of an onboard BACARDI party for the crew who submitted the largest

number of entries was awarded to the crew of Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas.

Gregorio AnonuevoCruise/Ferry Line: RoyalCaribbean InternationalRecipe Name: BACARDI® SeafoodSamplerCategory: AppetizerBrand Used: BACARDI® LIMÓN™Flavoured Rum, BACARDI® GoldRum, MARTINI® Asti Sparkling Wine

Daniel RodriguesCruise/Ferry Line: Carnival CruiseLinesRecipe Name: “Brillat Savarin”tournedos with aged rum andcreamed mushroomsCategory: Main Course (meat,poultry, fish)Brand Used: BACARDI®OAKHEART™ Spiced Rum, NOILLYPRAT® Dry vermouth

Thorsten GillertCruise/Ferry Line: HollandAmerica LineRecipe Name: Potato-Mushroom-Lasagne with NOILLY PRAT® Nage.Category: VegetarianBrand Used: NOILLY PRAT® DryVermouth

Glenmark FloresCruise/Ferry Line: Cunard LineRecipe Name: BACARDI® Day andNight MousseCategory: DessertBrand Used: BACARDI® SuperiorRum

Ramesh ThirumalCruise/Ferry Line: RoyalCaribbean InternationalRecipe Name: GREY GOOSE®

Halibut VitalityCategory: Heart HealthyBrand Used: GREY GOOSE®

Le Citron Flavoured Vodka

BACARDI CHEF OF THE YEAR - FINALISTS

Growing in popularitywith each contest and

now in its seventh year,the Bacardi CruiseCompetition is the only one of its kind

in the industry

Mika SavinainenCruise/Ferry Line: Tallink/SiljaRecipe Name: BACARDI®OAKHEART™ FlipCategory: BACARDI® Rums andflavoured rums

Adri FordCruise/Ferry Line: Carnival CruiseLines Recipe Name: Pink VictoriaCategory: GREY GOOSE® vodkaand flavoured vodkas

Ronald PorrasCruise/Ferry Line: RoyalCaribbean InternationalRecipe Name: Ruby SapphireCategory: BOMBAY SAPPHIRE® gin

Ricky PoyaoanCruise/Ferry Line: Costa CrociereRecipe Name: Corretto CocktailCategory: DEWAR’S® BlendedScotch Whisky

Joseph NackmanCruise/Ferry Line: CelebrityCruisesRecipe Name: The MalgaritaCategory: Signature Cocktail –Pepper

BACARDI BARTENDER OF THE YEAR - FINALISTS

PAX International’s Maryann Simson travels to Miami, whereten chef and bartender finalists compete in a bid to becomeBacardi’s Chef and Bartender of the Year By Maryann Simson

A special delight to the Bacarditeam was the clear acceptance of, andexperimentation with, their newlylaunched Bacardi OakHeart – asmooth spiced rum aged in oak bar-rels. Several of the finalist recipescalled for the product, and the judgesreaction to these dishes and drinkswere clearly favourable. “This is veryencouraging,” Hogan said. “The prod-uct only hit the cruise channel betweenSeptember and November, and thosewere same months that the compe-tition was open. It tells us that that thebartenders and chefs embraced it andbegan playing with it immediately.

PAX International also had the opportunity to chat to a happy MarcPlumridge once the competition was over. “I think it went reallywell today. The fact that it was more interactive, made it a lot morefun for everyone,” he said, praising the work of all this year’s contes-tants. “We saw a great improvement. There were more fresh ingre-dients and a better understanding of the spirits and some very inter-esting twists on classics.”

The next and final stage of this year’s Bacardi Cruise Competitionwill be the announcement of the two winners based on the scores fromthe VIP Judging. This event is planned for March 9 and is to be heldat Bacardi’s new offices in Coral Gables.

EVENT COVERAGE

In 2012, Bacardi will celebrate its150th anniversary with a year-longprogramme of special events.

For the Bacardi Global Travel Retaildivision, the celebrations are begin-ning with airport spectaculars andthe launch of a US$2,000 limited-edition decanter of rare Bacardi rum.

Bacardi was founded in Santiagode Cuba on 4 February, 1862, whenDon Facundo Bacardí Massó pur-chased the small distillery where hewould create a revolutionary newrum, introducing techniques neverbefore used in rum-making.

To honour 150 years of Bacardirum-making expertise and crafts-manship, eight Maestros de Ron, allBacardí family members, have com-bined their extraordinary talents tocreate a Limited edition Bacardi rumcalled Ron Bacardi de Maestros deRon, Vintage, MMXII. A blend of the finerums aged for 20 years in oak and fin-ished in 60-year old Cognac barrels,the vintage blend is presented in ahand-blown 500ml crystal decanter

housed in a leather case and retailsfor US$2,000. The decanters are avail-able to purchase at premium retailestablishments around the world andselect international airports.

For 150 years, the secret art ofblending Bacardi Rum has beenhanded down from one Maestro deRon (Master Blender) to another ensur-ing that its flavour profile and premiumquality are as exceptional today as theywere when it was first blended in1862. From its earliest years, thesmooth, light-bodied spirit was aninspiration for cocktail pioneers.

A blend of the fine rumsaged for 20 years in oakand finished in 60-yearold Cognac barrels

Bacardi turns 150

“I think it went really well today.The fact that it was moreinteractive, I think, made it a lotmore fun for everyone,” said Marc Plumridge, Bacardi’s GlobalBrand Ambassador



While they vary of course by region,size and method of food prepara-tion, most catering kitchens havethe same kinds of heavy equip-ment within to make the enor-

mous task of feeding thousands of passen-gers daily possible.

But the trip from the catering unit is onlythe beginning. Once on the move, the ediblecargo makes its way through a maze of auto-mated and vital systems. One misstep alongthe way can stop the hours of preparation andplanning dead in its tracks. PAX Interna-tional followed the process with several com-panies whose equipment helps make surethat never happens.

Companies like Elro Werke in Switzerlandmanufacture much of the equipment foundwithin the airline-catering kitchen. With acomplete range of full size appliances, worksurfaces, drawer units, extractor hoods andsmaller items such as pans, kettles and steam-ers used in the mass manufacturing of inflightmeals, Elro Werke is an industry leader.

The packagingAfter food is cooked, using equipment fromElro or one if its competitors like HobartTraulsen in Germany or PKL Group in theUnited Kingdom, it is time to place that mealin a vessel that it will likely stay in until itreaches the tray table of a hun-gry passenger. Many differ-ent materials have beenused for airline foodpackaging overthe decades, butone that isbecoming moreand more popu-lar, according to KlausEnglisch, Managing Direc-tor at D|F Marketing GmbH,is C-PET.

“D|F is a supplier to a number of inter-national airlines and other customers for cus-tomized C-Pet dishes and the respective heat-

able sealing foil,” says Englisch. “These high bar-rier films can be either transparent, with or with-out antifog, or printed individually to our cus-tomers’ needs.”

D|F Marketing GmbH is a business withtwo focuses, one is creating customer food solu-tions for airlines on flights departing Europe,and the other is supplying packaging solutionsfor both inflight and retail applications.

“Presenting a hot meal in C-PET gives afresh and innovative appearance as C-PETdoes not bend like aluminum foil does,”Englisch says. “Additionally, C-PET can be fullysealed, giving the passenger the assurancethat the meal is safe. As prices for aluminumcontinue to increase and people note it’sincredibly eco unfriendly production process;C-PET is becoming more popular and a realalternative.”

The inherent resilience to heat and cold isanother perk for those airlines choosing C-PETover aluminum and other packaging options.The material can sustain temperatures rang-ing from -40° to plus 240° without losing itsintegrity. This means that flash freez-ing is no problem for

EQUIPMENT

PAX International investigates just what kinds of specialized equipmentcome into play when food takes flight By Maryann Simson

EQUIPPED FOR takeoffC-PET can sustaintemperatures ranging from -40°to plus 240° without losing itsintegrity

Trolley insulationis critical to

maintaining thesafe cold

temperature ofboth fresh and

frozen food itemsen route to the

passenger

dry ice blasting and dryice production technology. “Just-in-timemanufacturing eliminates the middleman and changeshow a company receives and uses dry ice.”

meals in these containers, and they will also not warp or meltin the heat of the special ovens onboard.

The trolleyMany times has PAX International featured coverage of theairline trolley. This versatile piece of equipment is essentialto airline catering and onboard service. The airline trolleyperforms several important jobs as part of the long chain ofequipment that food must interact with on its way to the cabin.

Most hot airline meals, particularly for economy class ser-vice, leave the catering kitchen frozen when they are loadedonto trolleys for their journey to the tarmac and eventuallythe aircraft.

“Meals are prepared in aclimate controlled environment,”says Patrick Phillips, Director of Business Development forNorduyn, a Canadian producer of airline catering equip-ment including the world’s lightest certified trolley, the Quan-tum. “The trolleys that have been previously washed andcleaned are loaded up with meals to be served on an upcom-ing flight and then placed in a refrigerator until they areready to be moved to the designated aircraft at the gate.”

Trolley insulation, says Phillips, is critical to maintaining thesafe cold temperature of both fresh and frozen food items enroute to the passenger. Not all catering trucks are refriger-ated, and the same goes for some galleys onboard. This meansthat airlines and caterers often rely on the insulation of the trol-ley to keep contents within an acceptable temperature range.

“Even when galleys are refrigerated, the trolleys must offerdecent insulation properties as it can take a while before thegalleys are running to their optimal temperatures followingthe aircraft’s power is turned on,” says Phillips, “Switching toa concept made entirely of composites like Norduyn’s trolley,brings with it many new advantages. They are lighter foronboard personnel to push around, we can work much morewith the shapes to improve ergonomics, insulation propertiesare optimized and we can ensure a product that will remainaesthetically pleasing in the cabin for a longer time than tra-ditional aluminum.”

The iceGood insulation is one thing that keeps airline meals cool beforeit’s time to eat, but in some cases that is just not enough. Manytrolleys are equipped with a tray for holding dry ice to keep con-tents cool or frozen. In a traditional scenario, an airline catererusing dry ice as part of its cold chain operations will order inadvance from a dry ice supplier. However, ordering the rightamount so as not to have waste, or run out, is often a challenge.

After receiving an order from a caterer, the dry ice sup-plier will then make, cut and ship the ice in insulated con-tainers. But because dry ice sublimates at a rate of 5-10% aday, even when refrigerated, a considerable amount can begone before it even reaches the catering facility.

“Fortunately, for organizations where dry ice is an inte-gral part of the cold chain, technology has made it possibleto produce high-quality, freshly made dry ice on site,” saysWim Eeckelaers, Dry Ice Manufacturing Systems SeniorVice President for Cold Jet, a privately held world leader in


w w w. g l o b a l - c . n l

We understand your business, we know ours.

EQUIPMENT

The smallest of its series, the PR750 is capable of producing up to 300 slices of dry ice per hour, or 600 pounds (273 kilograms) of pellets or nuggets in the same time span


An on-site cold chain system, says Eecke-laers, can help reduce waste, improve qualityof dry ice through elimination of transport andensure supply when there is demand. Recently,LSG Sky Chefs Belgium NV- Zaventem saidthat having a dry-ice machine on premisehelped them achieve annual cost savings of 20%through waste reductions alone. LSG SkyChefs Belgium saved an additional 5% in thecost per pound of dry ice and improved oper-ational efficiency.

Several models of dry ice production sys-tems from Cold Jet are well suited to an air-line-catering environment. The PR750Reformer, for example, is designed to meetmutli-form dry ice demands by producingslices, pellets and nuggets. The smallest ofits series, the PR750 is capable of producingup to 300 slices of dry ice per hour, or 600pounds (273 kilograms) of pellets or nuggetsin the same time span.

The truckThe catering truck is an irreplaceable link inthe airline catering chain. By far the largest pieceof equipment in the catering process, itsimportance and proper operation cannot beunderstated. Mallaghan, headquartered inDungannon, Ireland, has produced passengerstairs, medical lifts, toilet/waterservice units, maintenance plat-form and of course, cateringtrucks, exclusively since 1990.

PAX International recentlycaught up with Owen McKenna,Sales Director at Mallaghan,who talked about what is new athis company. He revealed thatcustomization is king in hisbusiness, with every order beingdifferent from the last. Whilethe six meter lift is the mostcommonly used (works wellwith wide-body and larger sin-gle-aisle aircraft), Mallaghanalso produces options at thefour meter height bracket and

is a leading supplier of A380 capable lifts asthat aircraft type become more prevalent formajor long-haul routes. Mallaghan workswith several automotive leaders to offer arange of chassis types and container sizescan also vary by several feet.

“Everything is designed to the customer’sspecifications,” says McKenna. “Some truckshave a six meter body and others could haveone that is eight. Of course, the longer thebody, the heavier the truck, so an extra-longbody could actually reduce payload rather thanincreasing it. When it comes to refrigerationunits, it’s the same. A number of things dic-tate what type of cooling unit is required, likeoutside temperature. In places like the Mid-dle and Far East, outside temperatures canreach 40°-50° Centigrade so they will tend togo for a large or very strong cooling unit toensure an unbroken cold chain. In the UK andother cooler places, some don’t put a refrig-eration unit in at all.”

Recently, in a bid to further expand itsglobal reach, Mallaghan opened its first assem-bly plant in the United States. Louisville,Kentucky is now home to Mallaghan INC,where truck parts made in Ireland are assem-bled on North American-made chassis. Atpress time, the U.S. location was near com-

pletion of its first custom-made hi-lift cater-ing truck on a chassis from InternationalTrucks and destined for use, at an undis-closed location, by LSG Sky Chefs.

The insertAssuming all goes well in the first steps of thecatering process, an aircraft takes to the skystocked with food and beverage that is oftenstill a step or two away from being ready toserve. This is where products from B/E Aero-space come into play.

“Even before push back B/E galley insertswould be hard at work,” reveals Dede Potter,Director of Corporate Marketing at B/E Aero-space. “From heating towels for that specialtouch before meal service, to chilling champagneand wine for a relaxing pre-takeoff drink, tobrewing a hot and delicious cup of coffee.”

Each galley insert onboard an aircrafthelps flight crew deliver a superior passengerexperience and has been carefully engineered.A galley completely outfitted with B/E equip-ment would boast a steam oven, convectionoven, bun warmer, refrigerator, freezer, winechiller, multi-function chiller, beverage maker,espresso maker and water heater. Lesser-usedaccessory products are also available.

“B/E has a long, rich heritage of develop-ing and delivering galley inserts, which datesback more than 100 years with Royal Inven-tum - the oven company that B/E purchasedin 1993,” Potter says. “B/E has made a majorinvestment over the last several years in ournew Essence Inserts Collection. The newproduct is targeted for the A350, but will beavailable on all advanced airframe platformsgoing forward.”

Recently launched at the third annual Air-craft Interiors Middle East, B/E hopes theEssence Collection will impress airlines withintuitive features, reduced weight, superior reli-

EQUIPMENT

Two Mallaghan standard six meter lifttrucks service a aircraft in Addis Ababa

B/E has made a majorinvestment over the last severalyears in its new Essence InsertsCollection


ability (MTBF) and power improvements.The bun warmer, for instance, heats in half thetime (five minutes) of the industry standard(10 minutes). The pull-down time of theEssence line’s beverage chiller has been reducedfrom 42 to 40 minutes and the beverage makerbrew cycle time reduces waiting from threeminutes to two minutes, forty-five seconds.

“The intuitive features and technologyenhancements make the entire collection easyto use,” says Potter. “A keen focus on aesthet-ics and human factors development was a keyobjective and has created a modern look moreappropriate for a high-end kitchen space, pro-viding an exceptional onboard experience.”

The box that challengedthe insertAccording to Christine Walter, Head of Mar-keting and Sales at B&W Engineering, manyairlines today are beginning to see that it ispossible to cater a flight with hot, warm,ambient or cold food and beverage withouthaving galley inserts onboard at all. The A-LogEqu container was launched several yearsago by the German engineering firm and hassince been impressed countless delegates with

EQUIPMENT

its insulation properties at many industryconventions and exhibitions.

“We offer two product ranges,” explainsWalter. “Inside the Magic-Boxes, hot stayshot, and cold stays cold. The Cold-Boxes sup-port the storage of chilled and frozen food andbeverages according to HACCP standards.Both kinds of boxes can be stored in trolleysand carriers and both are equally compatiblewith ATLAS and KSSU.”

Goods can be stored in an A-LogEqu con-tainer at as low as -90°C all the way up to+120°C, with extreme temperatures main-tained for two hours or more, and more

moderate temperatures held for more than20 hours. Since the food or drink is placed intothe container already at its ideal service tem-perature, there is no need for heating or cool-ing once the catering arrives onboard. Thework has already been done on the ground,thus saving time and energy. Also, says Wal-ter, equipment failure is virtually impossible.

“The A-LogEqu containers are the world’sbest passive system,” she says. “Of course ourinsulated boxes are a competition to electri-cal galley inserts, but we believe they are aninvestment in the future, not just aworkaround solution.”

The A-LogEqufamily ofequipment


Airline Catering Industry: Tellus about the history of Rougié.When and where did it allbegin?Alain Rougié: It all startedback in 1875 with the openingof a small business in theSouth West of France thatquickly became the favoriterendezvous for all the greatestgourmets in the region. Ourreputation continued to grow. The com-pany started by my grandfather LeonceRougié (and then developed by myfather Jean Rougié), gained interna-tional status in the 1950’s with our firstexports to the U.S. and to Hong Kong.

We were famous for the consistencyand optimum quality of our produceand for continually creating newrecipes of foie gras terrines and othergastronomic specialties. The name

Rougié became a symbol ofFrench cuisine all over theworld thanks to the travels ofmy father and myself. When-ever a luxury hotel, a royalfamily or a chef wanted toorganize a culinary event, wewere there. This busy scheduleof magnificent events gave usan unbelievable recognition.Together with Paul Bocuse or

some other great names of gastronomy,we were invited to the most prestigioustables: the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo withthe emperor Hiro Hito, the Oriental inBangkok with the King Bhumibol, thePeninsula in Hong Kong and others.Airline Catering Industry: Tell us howthe company has grown and evolvedover the years. What is your reach andproduct range today? Alain Rougié: One of the fundamentals

of the company that was initiated by myfather, and that we have been constantlystrengthening, is an unequalled rela-tionship with the chefs all over theworld. This knowledge of their workand our close partnership with themallowed us to think and develop ourworking techniques and our products.

To some extent we even founded anddeveloped the process that made possiblethe delivery of a one-hour fresh, raw foiegras to any restaurant on the globe. Webegan implementing this flash-freezing,specially adapted to this extremely deli-cate material about 15 years ago. Thisprocess gave another dimension to thecompany and revolutionized the use offoie gras in the chefs’ kitchens.

Today the range of products is quitevast from IQF raw foie gras mini slicesor pepites that can be cooked onboard,to raw or smoked duck breast, game orother fine meat terrines and confits.Every year we develop new recipes forour range of traditional whole foie grasterrines. In recent years we havelaunched foie gras with coffee, espelettepepper, champagne, tea and ginger,grapefruit, and other unexpected ingre-dients. This year we are launching thefoie gras with vanilla tahïtensis.

Recently we changed the traditionaltrapezium shape of foie gras terrines tomake them easy to cut and display inthe respect of catering constraints. Weare also launching a foie gras ganachespecially adapted for airline catering orcruise companies. Airline Catering Industry: How shouldtop notch Foie Gras look and taste? Howare you so sure premium passengerswant it?Alain Rougié: Even if you divide thefoie gras in two categories; the raw foiegras that will mainly be consumedwarm, panfried, grilled, poached orroasted – and the cold foie gras terrine,both productions will require a sub-stantial amount of savoir faire.

An excellent foie gras terrine will bevery mild, unctuous and delicate intaste, with very little rendered yellowfat on top. Whether coming from gooseor duck, its flavour must be a perfectbalance of fine nutty, gamy, buttery

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

Truth be toldRougié separates fact from fiction on the topic of foie gras and how it is produced

This year Rougié is launching foie gras with vanilla tahïtensis

to extend its range of terrines.

Jean Rougié


touches and a hint of precisely mea-sured seasoning. This line of delicateflavour opens plenty of room for a greatchef to match with other aromas.

An excellent raw foie gras, oncecooked, must have a texture close to theone of tofu. It must be mild and unctu-ous, but should not render oil in thepassengers’ plate. Its taste must be cleanas a guarantee of freshness and at thesame time should offer an explosion ofround gamy, nutty and buttery flavours.

The Japanese are fascinated by thehigh content of Umami in foie gras, theso called ‘fifth taste’. They feel that itoffers delightful emotions to one’s body.Doctors and scientists attribute to it aninteresting level of magnesium, phos-phates, calcium, potassium, iron,retinol, E vitamin, C vitamin, B9 vita-min and folic acid.

Like olive oil, the fat content of foiegras is composed mainly of unsaturatedfatty acids which protect the cardio-vascular system and generate omega 3.

Whatever the size of the portion, fora limited cost and a minimum effort, adish with foie gras is always perceivedas a luxury and its natural characteris-

tics will provide a great satis-faction to passengers. Todayyou can find Rougié foie grasin most ofworld’s Michelinrestaurants because the greatchefs understand this. Rougiéis a supplier of Bocuse,Ducasse, Gagnaire, Robuchon,Georges Blanc, Alleno, Pour-cel, Hiramatsu, Takeushi,Yamamoto, Michel and AlbertRoux, Blumenthal, Valazza,Botura, Boulud, Keller andRochat, to name a few.Airline Catering Industry:Which airline was the first toboard your products? Alain Rougié: Two airlineswhere the pioneers in servingRougié foie gras onboard. Obvi-ously our national airline hasalways used foie gras as a per-fect ambassador of French gas-tronomy. But soon after WorldWar II, Cathay Pacific became avery prestigious player in theculinary scene in the air and apartnership with Rougié wasthe perfect match. For them weoften created tailor-maderecipes of foie gras terrines.

Airline Catering Industry: How manyairlines you have worked with to date? Alain Rougié: We have been lucky tosupply almost all the Far Eastern carri-ers, the major airlines in the MiddleEast, most of the major airlines inEurope and also some companies inAmerica and Africa. Our halal range cer-tainly opens more routes for foie gras!We always remain discrete on thesepartnerships and as an interesting resultthe selection of products is never thesame from one airline to another. Airline Catering Industry: Are there anyregions where you would liketo improve market pene-tration? Alain Rougié: Ourmain concern isthat when a com-pany is using foiegras, it has to beRougié. We have somany advantageson other brands interms of choice,R&D, technicaladvances, healthand safety and ani-

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

mal welfare. We are the only producerUSDA, HACCP and IFS certified. Weare committed to the United NationsGlobal Compact program for sustain-able development, and we are the mostinnovative producer of foie gras in termsof new products and recipes. We haverevolutionized the image of foie gras.

Sadly, certain airlines have chosennot to take foie gras onboard for socalled “ethical reasons.” These airlinesare missing a very strategic item formenu planners and we are losing alegitimate market.Airline Catering Industry: What aresome of the concerns that misinformedpeople or organizations may have aboutyour product?Alain Rougié: Some activist organiza-tions are sending a message to the gen-eral public that the production methodfor foie gras called “fattening” isunkind. This creates controversy andcan wrongfully influence the opinion ofpeople who do not understand how foiegras is made, and why it is made as it is.These organizations are definitelyagainst meat and any form of animaluse, even pets. They have distorted thetruth about foie gras by spreading falseinformation.Airline Catering Industry: How are theseconcerns affecting business for you? Alain Rougié: So far, no airline hasreally stopped foie gras but our businessis affected in the sense that many air-lines refuse to put foie gras on themenu. They are doing this either toavoid cabin crew’s contests or journal-ists’ questions. This creates an extraor-


dinary frustration for us, knowing thatthe passengers of business class andfirst class are educated to enough tounderstand there is nothing wrongabout foie gras. We feel the product isoften being banned for irrational rea-sons and to support political agendas.Airline Catering Industry: Please tell uswhy these concerns are unfounded. Tellus about your company’s procedure, cer-tifications and policies for animal welfare.Alain Rougié: Foie Gras ducks spend85% of their life cage-free. They areraised in both indoor and outdoorarrangements. For the first 3 weeks oftheir life, they are raised inside heatedbuildings, as ducklings are too fragileto face outdoor conditions. After thesethree weeks, the ducks are free to gooutside at will. For four months theyare free-range, able to choose indoorsor out as they please. The fatteningperiod only begins at the end of theirlife. After four months of free-range liv-ing, they are ready for fattening. Thisperiod lasts for 12 days, and consists oftwo meals per day. Each meal takesabout 10 seconds, which comes to atotal of 4 minutes maximum in the lifeof a duck.

In the lifetime of a foie gras duck, thefattening constitutes a very brief periodduring which the animal is not sub-jected to stress or suffering. Ducks havethe particularity of having a very flexi-ble esophagus that allows them to com-fortably ingest entire live fish in thewild. The feeding tube therefore causes

no suffering or particular disturbancefor the duck.

Searchers for the INRA (NationalInstitute for Research in Agronomicfields) such as Guy and Guéméné, whoconducted a scientific investigation in1998 for the EU, concluded that “Force-feeding does not appear to induce painand is not a major source of nocicep-tive information integrated by the ner-vous system. The absence of pain indi-cators results from anatomical speci-ficity of the waterfowl involved in foiegras production.”

Furthermore, the fattening is under-taken with utmost care and supervisionon the part of the breeders.

Ducks have a natural capacity fortremendous ingestion. We take advan-tage of this physiological particularityof overeating. This behavior in ducksallows them to accumulate energyreserves for specific situations such asmigration or nesting.

For example, before migration ducksoverfeed in order to have sufficientenergy for the long flight. Overfeeding istherefore a natural function in ducks andthat is what we use. A huge mistakewould be to compare ducks and humans.Airline Catering Industry: Which bodiesor associations rightfully oversee andmonitor animal breeding, fattening etc?Can we assume they have determinedthat Rougié follows all lawful proceduresfor humane treatment?Alain Rougié: The organization over-seeing the foie gras production in

France is the CIFOG. A lot of informa-tion could be found on their websitewww.thefoiegras.co.uk. All membershave the obligation to follow a preciseproduction charter in which animalwelfare is a key point. As a matter offact, the foie gras farms in France havea lower mortality rate than any otheranimal production farms.Airline Catering Industry: What stepsare you taking to create transparency inyour organization and to educate con-sumers about your product?Alain Rougié: Foie gras has recentlybeen recognized as an important part ofFrench gastronomy, “intangible” Trea-sure of Mankind. It now appears on thesame list as the pyramids at Giza, theLoire Valley, the Grand Canyon, theMexican Day of the Dead, the Cambo-dian Royal Ballet, Spanish Flamencodancing and Chinese acupuncture. Thisis already a big step. We are also orga-nizing many visits of our farms for pro-fessionals of the industry and journal-ists. We are developing worldwide part-nerships between our Rougié Foie GrasSchool in France and the most presti-gious cookery schools such as Tsuji inJapan, Alma in Italy, At-Sunrice in Sin-gapore, HITDC in Hong Kong,Enderun in the Philippines, Hoffman inSpain, the Westminster Kingsway Col-lege in London, The Paul Bocuse Insti-tute in Shanghai and others. The mainobjective is to make sure the future pro-fessionals of the catering industry knowthe truth about foie gras. ■

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

Foie Gras ducks are raised free range for about 90%

of their 4 month life.

Exhibition 27-29 March 2012World Travel Catering and Onboard Services Expo provides a dedicated business environment for those responsible for catering operations and passenger comfort during air, sea and rail travel.

Providing the platform to meet key industry decision makers, to source new products and find innovative solutions.

New Conference for 2012Date: Monday 26 MarchThe Cabin Innovation & Strategies for the Future Conference is the world’s premier event focusing on the key strategic issues surrounding cabin innovation, consumer expectations and strategies for profitability within the cabin.

Cost to attend €100 + vat (Free of charge to airlines and rail & cruise operators)

World Travel Catering& Onboard Services

The global event for the travel catering and onboard services industry

Organised by:

www.worldtravelcateringexpo.com/pax

Co-located with:

Register your interest in visiting at www.worldtravelcateringexpo.com/pax

For more information please visit www.worldtravelcateringexpo.com/conference

& O& OWor

gO b d S iOnboard Servicesrld Travel Catering

27-29 March 2012Hamburg Messe, Germany

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Two companies are touting a newhygiene solution for a trans-portation industry that isincreasingly concerned with con-trolling the spread of contagious

diseases while passengers are travelling.Cascades’ Green Antibacterial Paper Hand

Towel (also known as The Intelligent Paper)is making its way through trials, as the man-ufacturer and its distributor plan to roll theproduct out of a larger segment of the indus-try this year.

Used like a regular paper hand towel, thekey feature is its ability to provide a persistentantibacterial defense for 30-minutes, thanksto the active ingredient called BezalkoniumChloride. Used in a cabin environment, thetowel transfers this ingredient onto handsduring the drying process, minimizing thespread of potentially harmful bacteria to otherpassengers. The product is also helpful inother travel environments such as in airportwashrooms or on trains, says Nathalie Comeau,Innovation Director, North America Away-from-Home Products at Cascades.

As highlighted by the Public Health Agencyof Canada, nearly 80% of common infectiousdiseases, such as the flu or cold, are spreadthrough hand contact. “The fact that this prod-uct protects hands from future contamina-tion is an important benefit for travelers andfor people working within the industry,” saidComeau, adding that the paper towel is also use-ful for the food service market and healthcare.

Improper hand drying can play a role inspreading germs. In fact, when hands are notdried properly, moisture attracts bacteria andcan even cause it to grow back.

“The whole airline industry realizes theimportance of a good hand washing procedureand the proof of that is that whenever you flyAir Canada now, they have a video that showshow to wash your hands and dry them – thisis something that you didn’t see a year ago,”said Comeau. “They all know the importance

of having your passenger clean prior to gettingonboard and to maintain this procedure whileyou are travelling.”

A green solutionFounded in 1964, Cascades produces, convertsand markets packaging and tissue productsthat are composed primarily of recycledfibers. Cascades developed the IntelligentAntibacterial Hand Towel with special atten-tion given to sustainability. Comeau said thatCascades has made this their focus even“before green became trendy.”

The Antibacterial Hand Towel contains100% recycled fibers and has a distinguishedand patented green colour - unlike tradi-tional brown or white paper towels. The newtowel is also odourless and stable with noexpiration date, as opposed to other gels orsanitizers currently on the market.

“We wanted to definitely stay true to whoCascades is. Our products are made usingthe best environmental practices possible,by using a lot less water (in fact 80% lessthan the North American paper industryaverage), and using recycled fiber is alsosomething we have done.”

According to Comeau, the towel wasdesigned to compensate for less-than-perfecthand hygiene practices, without suggestingpeople change their habits. “It simply completesthe hand washing process without changingpeople’s behavior in doing so,” she said.

Set for launchTo gain exposure and awareness in the travel sec-tor, Cascades has partnered with Massey’s Pro-duction, a relationship that was formed justover a year ago. Massey’s Production has beenin the airline business for 15 years. Matt Mahoney,National Sales Director at Massey’s Production,said that the company is very excited to intro-duce Cascades’ new product to airline customersaround the world, and also to profile it at the Air-craft Interiors Expo and the World Travel Cater-

ing and Onboard Services Expo in Germany.“We really just want to get the message out

that this product has arrived, it is out there,it adds value and it has many benefits to thecustomers as well as the employees in thetravel industry,” he said.

Ajay Massey, President of Massey’s Pro-duction said the product is undergoing trialstages with select airlines, including Air Canadaand within a month or two after AIX andWTCE, the product should already be onboard.

“A couple of the airlines are alreadyinformed about this product; we are justwaiting on all of the certification to be final-ized before we can fully give them a go ahead,”he revealed. “We are definitely targeting trans-portation, whether it is rail services, cruiselines, as well as airlines.”

Currently only available only in Canada,Comeau said that in time, the product willalso move into other markets including theUnited States.

“A future plan for sure is to introduce thisproduct into the away-from-home market inthe United States but in order to do so, we needto comply to the tentative final monograph ofa healthcare sanitizing product – and that is whatwe plan to do in 2012. We are told that once youhave the green light to Health Canada, it opensdoors to any other market in the world.”

PRODUCT INTRODUCTION

PAX International explores Cascades’ anti-bacterial hand towel, a new product that is inpartnership with Massey’s Production and is set to improve hygiene onboard By Lauren Brunetti

Cascades newproduct offers

protection from futurecontamination for 30-minutes after

hand washing

Cascades and Massey’s Production formed apartnership just over a year ago. Pictured left to rightare: Matt Mahoney, Guy Ayotte, Ajay Massey, NathalieComeau and Sanjay Massey

Get yourHANDS ON THIS


Even though this year’s MarineHotel Association Conferenceand Trade Show was still threemonths away, planners hadaccomplished much by the

first of the year for the annual event, nowin its 27th year.

By mid-January the MHA had alreadyfilled out its quota of stands, even thoughorganizers had allocated an additional 30for this year’s gathering, set for April 15-17at the Peabody Hotel in Orlando. In addi-tion, a keynote speaker well known to any-one in the hotel industry had been securedand planning for social evenings promisingan international flare was well underway.

“For us January is just a very busymonth,” said Caroline Pritchard, ExecutiveDirector of the MHA. With the allocatedstand space filled early in the year, appli-cations were being placed on a waiting list.In addition, the MHA was gearing up fora year that held the possibility of a robustcruise industry that is rapidly spanning theglobe in its appeal.

That appeal will be reflected in the MHA’schoices for social events. Three evenings areplanned that are in keeping with the group’stheme for this year: Global Voices. Theopening reception will reflect a night inHong Kong. Another night will be devotedto Venice, while visitors can raise a pint ata makeshift British pub the final night.

“We are trying to focus on that (inter-national appeal) and embrace that naturalprogression that seems to be happeningwith MHA,” Pritchard said.

But amid the fun and the networking,there will no doubt be some serious dis-cussion regarding the state of the cruise

industry. Like years past, cruise lines havesought to lure travelers with sizeable dis-counting and marketing that stresses thevalue of cruising. That has led to an empha-sis to get passengers to pay for services andenjoyment once they board the ship.

“There are almost no limits to theoptions people have and the options tospend money,” Pritchard said. “All in all Ithink that when someone gets on board aship to go on the cruise,they are getting still theabsolute best value theypossibly can; and that’swhy they are still sell-ing ships.”

Taking the stage themorning of April 16 willbe the keynote speaker,Horst Schulze, Found-ing President/ChiefOperating Officer of theRitz-Carlton hotel groupand now Chief Execu-tive Officer of the WestPaces Hotel Group inAtlanta, a newly formedcompany focused oncreating and operatingluxury hotels. Pritchard said Schulze wasa natural choice for organizers, since manyof the hospitality executives in the cruiseline industry come from a hotel back-ground and are aware of his long career inthe industry.

Born in Dresden, Germany, Schulzejoined the Ritz-Carlton chain as the found-ing president in 1983. It has since grown toa US$2 billion business with properties in41 countries.

Plans for 2012 and beyondFollowing this year’s Conference and TradeShow, the next major initiative for the MHAwill be across the Atlantic in the Britishnaval city of Plymouth in July. It will be thesecond year that the MHA has held its HighPerformance Leadership Program set for theUniversity of Plymouth with a similar pro-gram slated for Florida International Uni-versity in Miami. The group also hosts a pro-

fessional development atCornell University’sSchool of Hotel Admin-istration.

The weeklong pro-gram for cruise industryprofessionals at FIU andthe University of Ply-mouth stresses manage-ment skills and leader-ship building over a fiveday intensive workshopwith lectures and casestudies designed to build“leadership essential forthe cruise industry.”

“This program isgeared towards theunique needs of leaders

in the cruise industry,” said a breakdown ofthe week’s events. “We begin the programby identifying each leader’s personalizedstrengths, with a concentration on indi-vidual leadership styles, enabling individ-uals to broaden their leadership approachfor optimal results.”

Looking on to 2013, the MHA has againscheduled a European Conference andTrade Show for November at the Hotel Artsin Barcelona.

EVENT COVERAGE

This year’s Marine Hotel AssociationConference and Trade Show continues itsinternational appeal, with more stands andevents geared toward its far-flung clienteleBy Rick Lundstrom

A global voice

Horst Schulze, Founding President/ChiefOperating Officer of the Ritz-Carltonhotel group


FOOD SERVICE

ReadershipAwardsPART OF ITCA DUBAI GALA

Franck Bouat, Senior Vice President ofInternational Sales at Servair traveledfrom Paris to accept the PAXInternational Readership Award forCaterer of the year, Europe

PAX International Editor Rick Lundstrompresented the Outstanding Food Serviceby a Carrier Middle East Award to TerryDaly, Divisional Senior Vice President ofService Delivery at Emirates at thecarrier’s headquarters

PAX InternationalReadership Award Winners 2011

AWARD OF DISTINCTIONLSG Sky Chefs

Europe 2011

Airline Caterer of the Year Servair

Americas 2011

Airline Caterer of the Year Flying Food Group

Airline of the Year Food Service Continental Airlines

Middle East 2011

Airline of the Year Food Service Etihad Airways

Outstanding Food Service Emirates Airlineby a Carrier

Best First and Business Qatar AirwaysClass Lounge

Asia 2011

Outstanding Food Service Korean Airby a Carrier

An intimate gathering of industry professionals reveled in camaraderie stream-side on a mild October evening in Dubai during the second day of this year’sInternational Travel Catering Association Exhibition at a gala banquet which,again, included a presentation of the annual PAX International Readership Awards.

The event was held at the Park Hyatt Hotel on the banks of Dubai Creek theevening of October 26. Caterers and representatives from several airlines in theMiddle East were on hand to receive the awards, distributed by PAX Interna-tional Editor in Chief Rick Lundstrom and Dubai-based Journalist Faye Rowe

“The goal of these awards stays the same,” said Lundstrom. “And that isto recognize excellence seen through the eyes of the readers of PAX Interna-tional.”This year, LSG Sky Chefs carried the top honors with the ReadershipAward of Distinction. The Readership Awards were presented in four categories:Airline Caterer of the Year, Outstanding Food Service by a Carrier, Airline of theYear for Food Service and Best First and Business Class Lounge.

The following is a list of this year’s winners divided by region, along withthis year’s Award of Distinction. The absence of winners in some categoriesindicates no votes were received:


FOOD SERVICE

InflightDirect125 Compton View Drive

Middletown, RI 02842 USAtel: 1-401-714-4190

email: [email protected] web: www.InflightDirect.com

Mills TextilesPO Box 67

Oswestry, Shropshire, SY111WD, UKtel: +44(0)1691 656092

email: [email protected] web: www.millstextiles.com

Marwan Haber, Qatar AirwaysCountry Manager for the UAE withthe Best First and Business ClassLounge Award won by the airline

Chan Kim, Regional Manager of theKorean Air Dubai Branch acceptedthe Outstanding Food Service by aCarrier Asia this year

Werner Kimmeringer Head of GuestExperience – Catering at EtihadAirways was on hand to accept theAirline of the Year Food Service Award

WHAT’SHOT!

Pure cotton refreshment towelsCompany Name: Coolike Regnery GmbHCompany Location: Bensheim, GermanyDescription: Coolike presents a new line of refreshment towels from England made with acombination of Bachflower essences and pure cotton ingredients. The perfect onboardaccompaniment, this new line features a unique well-being effect for flight passengers andcrew. The towels are available in Active Morning, Vital Day and Relaxed Evening.Visit Coolike at WTCE: Stand #3C30


Freshorize 3-in-1Company Name: Freshorize Ltd.Company Location: London, United KingdomDescription: Freshorize presents 3-in-1, theworld’s first combined soap, moisturizerand air freshener dispenser. This productallows onboard aircraft restrooms orother tiny spaces to smell fresh all thetime. The unique system effectively holdsfragrance and evaporates it at a slow,continuous rate. Visit Freshorize at WTCE: Stand #2E32

Grand Sud Merlot and ChardonnayCompany Name: Les Grands Chais de FranceCompany Location: Petersbach, FranceDescription: Grands Chais de France, the leading privatewinemaker in France, launches Grand Sud Merlot andChardonnay in a brand new PET 18.7centiliter sized format.The Grand Sud Chardonnay offers delicious white peach andcitrus notes, while the Grand Sud Merlot has mouth-fillingflavours including red fruits and a peppery blend. Both winesare vibrant, fresh and offer a pleasant taste and aroma. Visit Les Grands Chais de France at WTCE: Stand #2E58

WHAT’S HOT!

Delectable mini éclairsCompany Name: En Route InternationalCompany Location: Berkshire, EnglandDescription: En Route International presents a new line ofmini chocolate éclairs. Perfect for on-the-go use andcomplete with easy application, these are ideal for anypassenger who is craving a sweet treat. They can beserved for an afternoon-tea service or as a dessertoption, and can also be pre-packed to specifications or served as is.Visit En Route International at WTCE:Stand #2E40

Waterproof amenity kitCompany Name: Global Inflight ProductsCompany Location: Redmond, WADescription: Global Inflight Products introduces a new, fullyfunctional and practical amenity kit called, La Trousse.The perfect companion for any passenger, this kit comescomplete with durable and waterproof fabric, whileoffering an elegant and contemporary look. Allowingpassengers to have a more luxurious travelingexperience, this amenity kit is also easy to hang. Visit Global Inflight Products at WTCE:Stand #2E75


All-natural breadpuddingCompany Name: Kozy ShackCompany Location: Hicksville, NYDescription: Perfect for peopleon the move, Kozy Shackintroduces a new Bread Puddingline-up, which offers a new twist onan old classic and true homemade taste.Made from a gluten-free recipe and all natural ingredients, thisdessert has only 150 calories per 3.5 ounce cup. Perfect for anypassenger looking for a sweet tooth cure, these desserts can beserved warm or cold.

JP Chenet Cabernet-Syrah Company Name: Les Grands Chais de France Company Location: Petersbach, France Description: JP Chenet Cabernet-Syrah offers anintense bouquet of cherry and blackcurrantflavors, which are combined with a light anddelicate spicy note. The grapes areharvested at peak ripeness, fermented for6-12 days at controlled temperatures andgently pressed. This wine can accompanya wide variety of dishes including redmeats, cold cuts, salads and most cheeses.Visit Les Grands Chais de France at WTCE: Stand #2E58

Sweet and savoury snacksCompany Name: Hoppe ProfessionalCompany Location: Tilburg, The NetherlandsDescription: Perfect for any passenger on the go, HoppeProfessional offers a complete new line of savoury and sweetsnacks - featuring mini cookies in chocolate chip, caramel,and apple & cinnamon flavours, in addition to mini nachos,pretzels and salted crackers. Plus, there are also colourfuland bright packs of Safari animal biscuits. Visit Hoppe Professional at WTCE: Stand #4F35

Fun and fresh meal boxesCompany Name: Oakfield Farms SolutionsCompany Location: Grapevine, TexasDescription: Oakfield Farms Solutions presents a new line ofcombination fresh/ambient meal boxes. The new boxes canstore a mixture of fresh or chilled products and can also betailored, customized and/or branded to certain specifications. Visit Oakfield Farms Solutions at WTCE: Stand #2B70

WHAT’S HOT!

State of the art airline cutleryCompany Name: Sola Company Location: Zeist, The NetherlandsDescription: Providing more than 70 differentairlines with their trusted cutlery, Solaexpands their lineup with impressivestainless steel hollowware and service in-flight articles. This flatware is durable andmade for easy care. The cutlery is availablein a wide selection of contemporary designs.Visit Sola Airline Cutlery at WTCE: Stand #2D80

WHAT’S HOT!

‘Easy Peel’ Hot Towel TrayCompany Name: Mills TextilesCompany Location: Oswestry, ShropshireDescription: Mills Textiles introduces a new hot towel tray, complete withan easy peel lid. The unique design allows ease and safety for cabincrew members to enjoy. The new product is available to accommodate4- 40 towels per tray. Visit Mills Textiles at WTCE: Stand #2B21


Breakfast on the goCompany Name: The Hoffman GroupCompany Location: Seattle, WADescription: Re-energize while travelling during those early morning hours with TheHoffman Group’s Breakfast on the Go lineup. Offering a source of naturalenergy, the recipe contains emerald nuts, real dried fruit and granola clusters.Each single service packs contain 200 calories or less and is available in threeflavours, including Breakfast Nut Blend, Berry Nut Bend and S’mores Nut Blend.

Unique Rack DispenserCompany Name: Asian PioneerCompany Location: Madrid, Yiwu City, Zhuhai, Azuchi-MachiDescription: Asian Pioneer introduces a new rack dispenser accessory which isdesigned to increase buy-on-board sales. Allowing additional storage forproducts, this rack dispenser conveniently hangs on top of a trolley alongthe side of a drawer. It also provides additional space for product display.Visit Asian Pioneer at WTCE: Stand #2B35

Crispy fries in the skyCompany Name: Green GourmetCompany Location: Gloucestershire,EnglandDescription: Green Gourmet introduces aworldwide favourite to be enjoyedas part of the onboard experience.‘It’s Just My Bag of Crispy Fries’ is asmall bag of French fries designed tobake in a re-gen over in 20 minutes –with no need for a fryer. The pre-portioned bag is easy to open,ensures product consistency, andreduces mess and waste. Each 120g portion is slightly seasoned andmade from specially selected potatoes. Visit Green Gourmet at WTCE: Booth #2B47

Premium ready-to-drink alcoholic cocktailsCompany Name: Kiss Mix Company Location: Godalming, Surrey, UKDescription: Kiss Mix, a premium selection of ready-to-drink alcoholic cocktails, will be expandingits collection by adding new flavours to thelineup, including Margharita, Bourbon and Colaand more. Kiss Mix offers numerous benefits,such as convenient lightweight packaging and along shelf life with a two year expiry. Visit Kiss Mix at WTCE: Stand #1B39

Delicious Whole Duck Foie Gras with Vanilla Company Name: Rougié Foies GrasCompany Location: FranceDescription: Rougié presents its latest creation, made by pairingvanilla with the finest Foie Gras. With a subtle 100% naturalvanilla dose, this recipe is made using vanilla Tahitensis andother high quality ingredients. The product’s firmness andconsistency also allows for clean slicing and elegant plating.Visit Rougié Foies Gras at WTCE: Stand #2F45


Onboard luxury amenity kitCompany Name: FORMIA Airline Supplies Ltd.Company Location: Kowloon, Hong KongDescription: Air Astana welcomes on board itsBusiness Class cabin the new Chopard Kits,created and supplied by branded amenities expert,FORMIA. The new kits represent the debut ofChopard as the “über luxury” brand in airlineamenities. The Chopard bag is available in twoversions - one for ladies and one for gentlemen,each containing a selection of cosmetics from theSwiss brand and an extensive range of inner items. Visit FORMIA Airline Supplies at WTCE: Stand #4B14

WHAT’S HOT!

Convenient equipmentCompany Name: Zodiac AerospaceCompany Location: Alkmaar, The NetherlandsDescription: Driessen-Zodiac Aerospace introduces a new line ofHybrite containers and foldable trolleys. The Hybrite container isa stylish ‘design container’ for mobile storage of food, beveragesand condiments in the galleys and on-board catering. A 10%weight reduction makes the container the lightest in the industry.The Hybrite container offers improved stackability and even morecrew appreciation.Visit Zodiac Aerospace at AIX:Stand #7D50

Comfortable rubber-tipped headphonesCompany Name: Inflight DirectCompany Location: Middletown, RI Description: Inflight Direct introduces new rubber-tippedIFE headphones. Simple and alsoinexpensive, these earbuds provide highquality sound and maximum comfort, forevery passenger to enjoy while ononboard. The headphones are availablein a variety of trendy colours and can alsobe customized with airline specific logos. Visit Inflight Direct at WTCE: Stand #4B14

A D V E R T I S E R ’ S I N D E X

Achenbach..........................29AMKO Int’l...........................37Bacardi ...............................47Clearwater Seafood.............39DHL ....................................35Driessen .............................27

En Route .............................22Formia ................................23FSP GmbH ..........................15Global-C..............................55Green Gourmet ...................57Gut Springendheide ............31

Inflight Direct ......................65Intervine Inc. .......................34Kerry Gold...........................25Korean Air..........................4-5Linstol.................................13LSG Sky Chefs ....................72

Mallaghan...........................17Medina Quality ....................19Meiko .................................11Oakfield Farms Solutions ....33Onboard Logistics ...............45Ratcliffe & Brown ................51

Rougie Advertorial .........58-60Select Amenities .................67Servair ..................................2Sola Airline Cutlery..............28Watermark Products ...........71 WESSCO ...............................7

U P C O M I N G E V E N T S

Thermal spring watersCompany Name: Select Amenities Ltd.Company Location: Hockessin, DEDescription: Buccotherm® Toothpaste, the first oralcare range based on thermal spring waters, is nowavailable to amenity kit packers in 10 ml, 8 ml and3 ml tubes. It is manufactured by LaboratoireODOST in Castéra-Verduzan France. Since 1841,the thermal waters of this spa have been knownfor the soothing and healing properties. Airlinescan now offer this distinctive toothpaste to furtherenhance passenger comfort.

Cruise Shipping Miami, March 12-15, Miami Beach Convention Center. For moreinformation [email protected]. Or call 609-759-4700.

Aircraft Interiors Expo, and World Travel Catering & Onboard Services Expo,March 27-29, Hamburg. For more information call 44 (0) 208 910 7126 or [email protected].

Marine Hotel Association Conference & Trade Show, April 15-17, Peabody Hotel,Orlando. For more information, contact the association at (415) 332-1903.

Airline Passenger Experience Association TV Market Conference, April 16-18,Brighton, England. For more information, contact APEX at (212) 297 – 2177, Fax: +1 (212)370 - 9047 [email protected]

cruise3sixty, April 26-30, Broward County Convention Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.For more information, contact Tim Chau, registration coordinator (949) 457-1545, extension122 or [email protected]

IFSA Asia/Pacific Conference, June 12-14, Incheon, South Korea For more informationContact IFSA at (404) 252-3663, e-mail [email protected]

Ancillary Revenue World, Europe, June 26-28, London, for more information, contactTerrapinn Lt.d, at 44 (0) 20 7092 1000 or e-mail [email protected]

IFSA Annual Conference and Exhibition, September 18-20, Long Beach ConventionCenter, For more information Contact IFSA at (404) 252-3663, [email protected]

Airline Passenger Experience Association 2012 Annual Expo, September 17-20,Long Beach Convention Center. For more information contact APEX at (212) 297 – 2177,[email protected]

Aircraft Interiors Expo, Americas, September 25-27, Seattle. For more information,call 203 840-5680 or e-mail [email protected]


It has been a little more than half a yearsince David Loft took over duties asPresident of the International Flight Ser-vices Association (IFSA). Now, as thegroup enters a new year, the Vice Pres-

ident of Sales and Service at Flying FoodGroup, talked about IFSA’s latest initiatives.

PAX International: How was this past

year for IFSA?

David Loft: 2011 was a year of excellence forIFSA. Many factors played a role, includingthe hard work of outgoing president VickyStennes, who has now transitioned to theChair role, and key involvement from theboard of directors. The 2011 Annual Con-ference & Exhibition in Seattle saw morethan 750 attendees, 100 more than in 2010,and our largest exhibition in comparison torecent years. As a result of the successful 2011conference, IFSA has experienced one of itsstrongest years within the past decade. TheIFSA Board of Directors is continually work-ing to find the best and most effective waysto continually grow our organization andenhance value for our members. IFSA remainscommitted to our mission to represent theglobal business interests of the onboard ser-vices industry. It has also been a great year forthe IFSA Foundation, providing scholarshipsto young students with the hope that they mayone day become leaders in our industry.

PAX: What can we expect to see at the

IFSA Annual Conference and Exhibition?

Loft: The 2012 IFSA Annual Conference andExhibition is September 18-20 in Long Beach,California at the Long Beach ConventionCenter, and will be co-located for the thirdconsecutive year with the Airline PassengerExperience Association (APEX). This indus-try “super show” is the only event of its kindin the U.S., and will provide a “one-stopshop” at which to meet key industry decisionmakers from over 40 airlines; discover the lat-est trends and developments in onboard foodproducts, packaging and technology frommore than 150 exhibiting suppliers and cater-ers. Also during this event is the 4th AnnualIFSA Chef’s Competition. IFSA will be located

directly adjacent to APEX. I am also veryexcited that we have confirmed Mr. DaveHilfman, Senior Vice President Sales of UnitedAirlines, as a keynote speaker. If you haven’thad the opportunity to hear Dave speak, heis very entertaining and has a wealth of knowl-edge to share, and is a great addition to ourconference line-up.

PAX: Is IFSA exploring alliances with

any other industry organizations?

Loft: IFSA, through a cooperative agreementwith Aircraft Interiors, will be exhibiting atthe World Travel Catering & OnBoard Ser-vices Expo in Hamburg from March 27-29.Attendees of the World Travel Catering showwill have the opportunity to have personalconversations with IFSA board and com-mittee members. In addition, attendees willlearn more about the value an IFSA mem-bership provides their company, including howto collaborate with IFSA to maximize theirexposure to key onboard services profes-

sionals who are decision makers and airlinebuyers. IFSA will also share more detailsabout upcoming 2012 events, including theAnnual Conference & Exhibition.

IFSA is also cultivating a strategic part-nership with Asia Pacific On-Board Travel(APOT.Asia), an association formed to pro-vide local area support to the inflight indus-try in the Asia Pacific region. IFSA is partneringwith APOT as well as APEX to present the 2012Asia Pacific Conference in Incheon, SouthKorea on June 12-14, 2012. IFSA will continueto seek out and work with related industryorganizations to identify those opportunitiesthat provide additional value to our members.

PAX: What are some other initiatives

IFSA has planned for the year ahead?

Loft: The Association seeks to be more activein providing a unified voice on matters con-cerning the interests of the onboard servicesindustry. As a result, IFSA is forming a Com-munications Advisory Council comprised ofseasoned marketing and communications pro-fessionals within the industry that represent thevarious segments of IFSA membership – air-lines, caterers and suppliers to the industry.This group will assist in the development anddistribution of communications on behalf ofthe industry, and plans to proactively share“best practice” information and respond toonboard-related media inquiries. IFSA is alsoexploring the possibility of implementing agovernment relations-based advocacy pro-gram to support the communications initia-tive. The goal of the advocacy program will beto establish IFSA as a resource representingthe onboard services industry when relevantgovernmental regulations are promulgated.

All in all, 2012 is going to be another busyand exciting year for IFSA. We look forward toworking with our members to make the exhi-bition and conferences as successful as eventsin previous years, but also to introduce somenew initiatives that will benefit our membersand enhance our ever-changing industry.

Thanks to Jacqueline Petty at IFSAHeadquarters for her help compilingthis report.

ASSOCIATION NEWS

“As a result of thesuccessful 2011conference, IFSAhas experiencedone of its strongestyears within thepast decade.”

IFSA PresidentDavid Loft

IFSA2012Successful partnerships and several initiatives are charting the group’s course for the year

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