Airlines are increasingly desperate to squeeze every last penny out of their customers. We’ve seen this repeatedly in the US: Southwest eliminating its controversial free-for-all boarding option, increased baggage fees from every major airline, and even the nicest airlines adopting an “a la carte” approach to basic flight amenities. After you purchase your flight, you are often still asked to cough up for a little extra leg room, luggage, wifi, and, maybe soon, inflight meals.
Air France just became the third European airline to announce it will be removing its inflight meal service on short and medium-haul flights. This means that for intercontinental flights in Europe, there will no longer be meals service for economy class, starting in 2025. This is a particular blow to loyal Air France customers, because the airline has a pretty extensive and impressive inflight meal service—even for short and medium-haul flights. For flights over two-and-a-half hours, economy passengers would receive a sandwich and a cookie.
Instead, customers in economy on these shorter flights will be treated to a “Buy on Board” option. You will still be able to get the cookie and a beverage (just tea, coffee, or water), but if you want a sandwich or anything providing more sustenance, you will have to pay extra. Right now the planned trial will only impact flights between Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and Lisbon or Helsinki.
“Air France is constantly studying opportunities to develop its offer, in order to meet customer expectations as effectively as possible, in line with market trends,” an Air France spokesperson told USA Today about the pending change.
But the particulars of the Air France change are less disturbing than the larger trend of deciding to add yet another inflight purchase for economy customers. In the past few years, British Airways and Lufthansa have both adopted this a la carte system for economy passengers. KLM is also considering adopting the pay-on-board model next year. American carriers like Delta and United don’t even offer an inflight meal service for economy passengers.
The change in policy from the European carriers wouldn’t feel so egregious if airlines were changing the food service for all passengers on short and medium-haul flights. But if you have the money for Air France’s business class, you will still be served gourmet snack boxes for short-haul flights, and a chef crafted spread for medium-haul flights. And sure, business class passengers are paying more, so it makes sense they are getting more. But as economy passengers have been getting less and less, little by little, it’s resulting in supremely uncomfortable and sometimes even volatile flight experiences.
For budget airlines like Spirit and Ryanair, it makes a certain amount of sense to charge for sodas and food items while on board. They are giving passengers cheap tickets with no perks. But as we’ve seen in the past year, major carriers have begun to adopt certain features of the budget airlines business model. Paying for a carry-on is no longer just something you have to do at Frontier—airlines like United charge for carry-ons at their most basic fare level. Colombian airline Avianca charges economy passengers for beverages unless you’re flying to or from Europe.
Everywhere you turn, there’s another fee. Another small charge for a modicum of comfort, sustenance, or hydration. It sucks. At least Air France is planning on rolling out free high-speed wifi for passengers in 2025. Just don’t use it to watch a show where they eat a lot of great-looking food.