INFLIGHT SERVICES INDUSTRY
Overview of the Inflight Services Industry
Because of the fact that airline was now perceived to be a primary mean of transportation both regionally and globally, the commercial aviation industry is very keen in providing passengers with the superior, holistic service. Inflight services are one of those wherein the objective is to ensure that passengers are provided with quality services aligned with their needs during travels especially lengthy ones. Inflight services are provided by both on-ground suppliers and airline staff and crew, providing for both cabin and onboard services. Inflight services, nevertheless, depend on the nature of the flight and the class of travel. Although inflight services appear as more routinal, it holds the reputation of a high profile element of airline service. Today, the essential services now includes basically for comfort and amenities pack as well as crew catering with associated ancillary items and serving utensils provision. Entertainment has also become an inevitable service component as well as the duty free sales.
The inflight services industry is no longer at its infancy while increasingly becoming a globally recognized industry as well. Such a globalize industry, inflight services are now provided for 9, 000 daily flights in 1, 000 airports. From the period of 1920s to 1940s, inflight services were initially restricted considering the small number of passengers. Foods and beverages are specifically limited to sandwiches and thermos coffee or tea due to lack of heating systems and passengers are only able to access full hot meals during stopovers. It was in the 1950s that the inflight servicing became developed in conjunction with the dramatic changes in passenger volume. It was also this decade that airport restaurants and independent purpose kitchens became fully involved with onboard servicing. As such, large scale meal preparation and distribution were established leading to development of standardized food and beverage products specifically for the aviation industry.
Basically, this can be viewed as the ongoing globalization of inflight caterers. The globalization of commercial aviation industry was realized because of the continuous demands of passengers for facilities and therefore services. Inflight catering facilities, for instance, had grown complementary with these demands. The globalization requires airline companies to commit to customer satisfaction, employee engagement and core profitability. Organic growth was also a part of this globalization wherein airline companies resort to major mergers and acquisitions. Although organic growth is incremental and processual and involves volume and mix with emphasis on own resources (Kennedy, 2007, p. 111), it could be best realized through the combining the energies of organic and venturing strategies (Sadler, Ryall and Craig, 2003, p. 123) which lead to the optimization of the economies of scale and scope and therefore maximizing the return on investment (ROI).
Inflight Food Service as the Basic Service
Importantly, provisions for food and beverages are the most apparent inflight service. As demand for quality onboard dining grows, passenger services with emphasis on victuals services being provided by the airline caterers became the competitive reference of airlines. Airline caterers are given the responsibility of inflight food management hence supervision of critical logistics activities. Airline catering refers to the servicing of food to passengers onboard on a commercial airliner. Airline catering has increased and developed considerably over the past twenty-five years. The trend now includes full and varied service which could be either terminal catering or in-transit. Furthermore, the in-flight catering varies depending with the class of travel, type and duration of flight, making airline catering strategically positioned within the aviation industry (Davis, Lockwood and Stone, 1998, p. 8).
Stressing on the complexity of the nature of inflight food service, it is both much customized and highly individualistic. Inflight caterers produce meals of varying volume and variety taking into considerations the precise weights and quantities and specifications for passengers and aircrew. Even so, food preparation must be in accordance with both space and time due to hygiene controls and food safety. Significantly, there are many consequences along the flights which can devalue the food like inclement weather and delays. What made inflight service industry a significant industry is the crucial investment on value chain leveraging to deliver high levels of customer satisfaction in real-time as well as the investment on the human capital. Customer satisfaction is generally related with the fact that passengers dictate the profitability of airlines and it is also the passengers that consume the inflight service products thereby the products and services must be attractive for passengers.
“Customer has become a crucial measure of competitiveness” (Harding, 1998). The service quality increasing became the determinant of customer satisfaction. It can be effectively managed through customer-centered and priority-driven techniques. There are two principles of customer service according to Deviney and Engelke (2000). The first principle is the internal customer. Airline caterers and onboard crew are considered as internal customers to the airline whereas the passengers technically fall under the second principle which is the perceived value. Passengers of any airline make decisions according to higher perceived value with quality, customer service and price are the variables. Passenger’s perception of inflight food has implications for availing the services of a specific airline.
Competition in Inflight Services Industry
Competition in inflight services increasingly becoming intense because of the continuous waves of globalization, making a more quality passenger management at the center of concern. Development, planning and logistics of inflight services especially food which is seen as a diversion befell to be even more critical. Air travelers preferred variations in their meals and food choices. The Inflight Service Division takes full responsibility of this aspect and all the associated tasks that comes with it such as the liaison and interfacing with the inflight caterers. Wensveen (2007, p. 215) relates that airlines are particular with departmentalization or the practice of subdividing both people and functions into group in order to gain advantages of specialization. It is this very reason that the airline and the airline caterers maintain a very close business relationship regardless of whether the latter is a part or not of the airline, independent or part of the competitor of the airline. There are responsibilities on both sides which must be taken seriously and can not be sacrificed. What the inflight service industry can do is to leverage its supply chain trough four basic commitments including maximization of return on investment (ROI), high levels of customer satisfaction; real-time service delivery and human capital.
In pursuit of acquiring the competitive advantage within the inflight service industry, the use of product and service diversification could be the key. A reason to account for this is that long-term industry attractiveness was based on market profitability, competitive intensity, entry barriers, opportunity to differentiate products and services, demand variability, segmentation and technology development. Irwin (1995) states that the more attractive the industries that a company has diversified into, the better the performance prospects are likely to be. True enough, the inflight service industry could benefit from the competition through consistent food products and service innovations including activities of co-branding, quality of the foodservice brands, strength of competencies and relative brand strength all aligned with the passengers requirements and expectations.
In order that airlines and airline caterers to keep pace with the competition, moreover, training and development will be an important endeavor then. Both and airline and inflight services industries must learn how to manage a new generation of employees whom are outspoken, expectation-driven and motivated so that they can add value to the airline company (Wensveen, 2007, p. 215). Training and development is also needed because of the inherent constraints of inflight catering for both airline and carriers. Such constraints include but are not limited to time and length of flight, point of embarkation and disembarkation, class of people with reference to their nationality or ethnicity, budget allowed, price of food, seasonality of food, cost of labor, time required to serve the food, number of flight attendants available in serving food, time needed to consumer food, ability of meal to be consumed in limited space, time and effort needed to clear an item, odors which may penetrate the cabin, ability of meal to rethermalised and ability of meal to withstand low humidity and pressures.
Airlines and Inflight Services Providers
There are three among the activities that require tight working liaison between airlines and airline caterers which are planning and budgeting, production and provisioning and outsourcing of activities. Activity planning could be as short as three months and be as lengthy as a year depending on the activities involved and the budget. Production and provisioning follow but are subjected to consistent changes thus communication between the two parties are fundamental. Activities which might not be in the capacity of the airline or the caterer and/or too costly for both are outsourced. Cost therefore is an important element in the business relation of the two. These activities necessitates that the airlines of the 21st century are expected to focus their energies on specialization of functions.
Jones (2004) argues that each of the stages of flight catering, there are specific features that are unique depending on how the caterer and the airlines will respond to. One simple fact, however, encompasses such uniqueness that “while the food is prepared on the ground it will be consumed in the air” (p. 12). Such condition impacts first on customers and their needs where the prime motivation for travel is not eating but a mere add-on. Second is on menus that some foods and drinks are not suitable for consumption in pressurized spaces above the ground. Production method is the third with emphasis on the volume of large scale meal production. Service style which is predominated by trays, shelf life or the gap between production and consumption and transportation of majority are modular trolleys are other considerations.
Further, Jones (2004, p. 17) points out that in responding to various constrictions, caterers act as preparers of the food products but essentially require competencies on part of the caterers which must reply with and respond to the airline’s wishes if not for the passengers per se. Because of this, caterers must also build distinctive relationship with suppliers and together must comply with the specifications of the airlines in behalf of the passengers. Anything that is within the caterer’s production facilities that concerns the airline and its passengers are of concern to the airline. Airlines, on the other hand, have the responsibility to establish the passengers requirements with the caterers and through the caterer interpret and respond to the expectations of the passengers. The airline management also decides on the number and content of the menus (p. 18).
As such, the complex relationship between the airline and caterers must be legally binded. This relationship between the two parties is based on service delivery with the following requirement variables: consistency of food product, accuracy of uplift, on time delivery, value for money, service relationships, health, hygiene and safety, innovation and overall operational performance. All of these are perform under a contact which tends to be very long and detailed but one which conform to fair standard structures. Service level agreement, price list and standards of performance criteria are also other documents to be considered under the contract (Jones, 2004, p. 21).
Summary
Inflight services are now perceived to be an imperative and high profile component of airline services as airlines purport to ensure convenient, comfortable, safe and healthy travel of their passengers. Although inflight services depends heavily on the nature and class of travel, its affects virtually all stakeholders (i.e. passengers, aircrew and external customers like the airline caterers. An industry which moves along with competitive pressures, standardization of inflight services materialized. This was seen as the globalization of the inflight services industry; airline companies strive for providing superior service through customer satisfaction, employee engagement and core profitability. Inflight food service is the most basic service and had been the basis of competition since it was established. Nevertheless, the undertaking was complex and painstaking at the same time, stressing the need for airlines and caterers to work closely together.
References
Davis, B, Lockwood, A and Stone, S 1998, Food and Beverage Management, Butterworth-Heinemann.
Deviney, D E and Engelke, D 2000. ‘Customer Service as Viewed by Cooperative Employees’, Management Quarterly, Vol. 41
Harding, F E 1998, ‘Logistics service provider quality private measurement, evaluation and improvement’, Journal of Business Logistics.
Irwin, R D 1995, Module 8 – Strategic Analysis of Diversified Companies, in Principles of Strategic Management.
Jones, P 2004, Flight Catering, Butterworth-Heinemann.
Kennedy, G 2007, Strategic Negotiation, Gower Publishing Ltd.
Sadler, P, Ryall, M J and Craig, J C 2003, Strategic Management, Kogan Page Publishers.
Wensveen, J G 2007, Air Transportation: A Management Perspective, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
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