Air India takes non-veg food off its domestic flights to stop wastage

Mumbai: Ailing national carrier Air India has removed non-vegetarian foods menu for economy class passengers traveling in domestic flights. However, the state-owned airline will continue to offer non-vegetarian foods for its international passengers in economy class.

The carrier says it took the decision to put an end to wastage of foods and enhance its food catering services. It also says a 'only-veg' menu in economy class would avoid mix-ups and according to the carrier vegetarian foods are more in demand.

"Air India has taken conscious decision not to have non vegetarian meal in economy class on its domestic flights to reduce wastage, reduce cost and improve catering service," The Times of India quoted Air India spokesman G P Rao as saying.

This comes in the back drop of reports of Air India sellout to private players as the airline is burdened with a debt of Rs 52,000 crore. Apart from that, the airline is piling up its losses over past few years. Tata Group that had once owned and ran Air Inida has evinced interest in its buyout.

In June, Air India employees had formulated solutions to drag the carrier out of debt and loss mess. Those suggestions included cost-cutting measures advised to airline's top management. They opposed its privatisation and also proposed to cut salads from meals.

An Air India senior official had last month in an internal communication had said to its top management that on a recent flight, a cabin crew incharge walked up to him with some interesting cost-cutting measures.

"One was that in international flights economy class, he found only 20 per cent eating salad. He (the cabin crew) felt we must discontinue salad in economy class on international flights. He also felt that we must carry only around 25 copies of Shubh Yatra (AI's insight magazine) in a flight which can be kept in the magazine racks rather than on every seat to reduce weight," TOI quoted the official as saying in the letter.