SWISS is trialling a new concept that aims to reduce the volumes of fresh food items which remain unsold on its flights and must therefore be thrown away.
The airline already uses historical sales data for each flight to tailor its fresh product uplifts as closely as possible to likely passenger demand. As part of an existing collaboration, SWISS and partner “Too Good To Go” will offer at reduced prices any fresh food items which remain unsold. To test customer acceptance, a trial of the new approach is being conducted in August and September on the last flights of the day from Geneva on SWISS’s European network.
The new concept consists in offering any fresh food items that remain unsold on certain services at the end of the flight concerned. These items’ availability is communicated via an inflight announcement, and interested passengers are offered a bag containing one, two or three such fresh food items at one third of their usual price. The bag’s contents are not revealed in advance and remain a surprise for the purchaser.
“Managing waste on board is an important part of our commitment to greater sustainability,” said SWISS CCO Tamur Goudarzi Pour. “We hope to significantly reduce unused food on board our aircrafts by introducing this service. Thinking about sustainability in all our products, services and processes is part of our SWISS DNA.”
“The first results from these trials have been promising,” added SWISS’s Head of Western Switzerland Romain Vetter. “The new approach has been well received by our passengers on the flights concerned. We’re now awaiting a final analysis of the trials’ findings to decide if we should extend it to further routes.”
