British Airways brings back hot main meals to long-haul flights

Effective immediately, British Airways has brought back hot main meals to its long-haul flights.

Substantially later than other carriers – Virgin Atlantic has been offering a virtually full meal service in Upper Class for weeks, and Emirates has even reopened its A380 bars – BA has made a move.

The official BA crew guidance has been published on this Facebook page, Inflight With James.

The text says:

“The following service changes will be introduced on 25 October 2020 (ex LHR, LGW & America) and on inbound flight from 26 October 2020 (ex Far East, Asia & Caribbean).

There are no changes in First, Club Europe or Euro Traveller.

CLUB WORLD

• Primary meal service includes a hot meal which will be served on a meal tray with tablecloth for an interim period.
• Secondary meal service has been replaced with a chilled snack and will be served on a meal tray with tablecloth.
• On 77M for return catered flights (only), the secondary service will continue to be loaded in a box, due to space availability.

WORLD TRAVELLER & WORLD TRAVELLER PLUS

• Primary meal service now includes a hot meal which is to be served on a lined half-size meal tray for an interim period.
• Secondary meal service has been replaced with a chilled snack service to be served in caterer provided box/bag packaging.”

You can click on the images above to enlarge.

The good news is that, in most cases, the cardboard boxes have gone from long haul, at least for main meals, and that a hot main course will be available.

The bad news, Part 1, is that the pizza slice / toasted sandwich has gone from the second meal to be replaced by a cold snack.

The bad news, Part 2, is that there is no mention of the standard drinks service being resumed, or even the reintroduction of glassware.

Overall, this is still a relatively tawdry offering compared to other airlines, many of which has resumed their usual level of catering. We need to give new CEO Sean Doyle the benefit of the doubt that this was signed off during the Alex Cruz era.

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