Vistara junks box-meals for trays to make extra room for fliers

Vistara has ditched its box-meal concept. From beginning of this week, the airline is serving in-flight meals on usual trays for economy class passengers instead of the box.

Airline sources said that the step was taken to improve efficiency in catering logistics. “Our review showed that boxes were taking a lot more spaces than the trays. Trays are easier to store,” an airline official said.

A Vistara spokesperson said that the initiative is a part of their attempt to become more environment friendly by reducing the usage of single-use disposable items in catering.

The airline is also replacing fork and spoon with sprok, plastic casseroles with aluminium dishes, plastic straws and stirrers with paper or wooden ones, and disposable bowls in economy class with reusable ones.

“On World Environment Day last month, we pledged to further reduce consumption of plastic by over 50 percent this year by adopting other innovative, environment-friendly and cost-effective methods. We’re actively working with our vendors/partners and considering every touchpoint including alternative ways of packaging water to reduce dependence on plastic bottles.

Vistara fully supports any initiative taken in the interest of making our environment greener and more sustainable,” the spokesperson said in response to a query from Business Standard.

Vistara which has Singapore Airlines as one its promoter, tries to differentiate itself from other airlines in terms of service quality had pioneered the ‘box meal’ concept in Indian skies. While the box was used to serve food for economy passengers, premium economy and business class passengers were served on tray.

It also helped to quicken the process of inflight services.

Vistara had even used the concept for branding of the quality of the meal with the tagline “What’s inside the box is out of the box.”

Jet Airways which competes against Vistara in the premium service category had followed it from early this year by removing the traditional tray and cover set up by using recyclable boxes.

Airline sources said that the step was taken to improve efficiency in catering logistics