Bigger seats, better service? Nope; but airlines are offering cool pretzels
Pretzel Perfection was a little-known company producing 100,000 bags of gluten-free pretzels a month when it made its debut on Delta flights in 2017. Now, the brand, which Amy Holyk started out of her garage in Vancouver, Washington, turns out over 8 million bags of pretzels and snack mixes a month and had $16 million in revenue last year.
Brian Berry, Delta’s director of onboard services strategic planning, said that after passengers reported in surveys in 2016 that they wanted better snacks in economy, the company branched out. “We wanted to be on trend with our snack choices, and we think that smaller, specialty brands are definitely on trend,” he said.
Are other airlines doing the same thing?
Yes, in recent years, carriers including Delta, United Airlines, American Airlines and Jetblue have begun serving passengers food and drinks from startup companies.
This spring, United started serving Wheatley Vodka, which is distilled in small batches in Frankfort, Kentucky, in both economy, where it’s available for purchase, and business class, where it’s free. Also, in July, the airline started serving bags of maple wafers from Byrd’s Cookie Co., a fourth-generation, family-owned enterprise from Savannah, Georgia, as its free economy-class snack on morning flights.
American Airlines will start serving snacks from Lorissa’s Kitchen, a maker of grass-fed beef jerky, in November (free in business class; for sale in coach), and the airline will also be selling items from Zoë’s Kitchen, a company in Plano, Texas, that prides itself on its Mediterranean dishes that are made from scratch.
The choices will include the Gruben sandwich, which is a combination of turkey, manchego cheese, slaw and feta spread on marble bread.
You mentioned Jetblue …
Jetblue is so dedicated to supporting tiny food brands that it offers a mentoring program called Bluebud where companies work with its onboard food and beverage team to learn what it takes to supply products to an airline. They’re not guaranteed placement on Jetblue, but Sophia Mendelsohn, head of sustainability, environmental and social governance, said the point was to set up the budding entrepreneurs for success.
In the skies, the airline has numerous options from niche food companies, varying by route. In Mint, its business-class cabin, for example, passengers can eat ice-cream from local producers.
Flights departing from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from October to December, are stocked with a “chocolate decadence” flavor from the Miami Beach company the Frieze, while flights leaving Los Angeles at that time can choose “bananas Foster” from Coolhaus.
The companies must love this
Byrd’s, the cookie company whose products were picked up by United, was making 200 million cookies a year before the airline started offering them. “We now make 1.9 billion of them a year,” said Geoff Repella, Byrd’s president. The thin and crispy wafers are made with brown sugar and maple syrup and are a variation on a recipe from the South that Repella said dates back more than 300 years.
“Our relationship with United has been a game changer for us,” Repella said. “I get more than 20 calls and 40 emails a day from customers who want to buy our cookies.”
But it’s not always easy to ramp up a small business to meet airlines’ needs. Only one company that completed Jetblue’s Bluebud program has had its wares accepted for onboard service: Hot Bread Kitchen, whose challah rolls were part of the brunch menu in Mint class.
“Many of the companies haven’t been quite ready to offer their products on such a large scale,” said Tamara Young, a Jetblue spokeswoman.
Wouldn’t passengers be a lot happier with a couple more inches between seats?
But that would cost money, and providing hipper snacks is relatively cheap.
Zach Honig, the editor at large of the travel site the Points Guy, said offering cooler snacks is a win for everyone involved because they’re more likely to be loyal to the airline while the brands reach the big leagues.
Honig said that he is a frequent traveler on United and said that he fell in love with the Shelia G’s brownie brittle that used to be in its first-class snack basket. “It was the first thing to go so I would rush to grab it,” he said. “I even ordered a case for home. When you’re trapped on an aircraft, food is one of the biggest sources of excitement.”