In-flight meals on airplanes that were once common. However, at present, the free offer on domestic flights is almost limited to the advanced class seats of the two major companies. Why did it disappear?
In-flight meal is “the fun of air travel”
ANA Holdings (ANA), which boasts the highest passenger revenue (FY2020) in the Japanese aviation industry, is an in-flight meal mail order developed against the backdrop of the Korona-ka.
“Home meal”
Was a big hit. It’s surprising that more than 1.4 million meals have been sold out as of February 2022.
Following this, Japan Airlines (JAL), which has the second highest passenger revenue, will also follow this in July 2021.
「SKY BISTRO」
It seems that it has started a similar business and has been well received.
The above phenomenon may be a sign that many people consider the meals served on board to be “a great pleasure of air travel.”
Serving light meals on domestic flights was the norm
Currently, free in-flight meals on domestic flights are mostly limited to the high-end class seats of the two major companies. ANA’s New Chitose = Naha flight (flight time less than 4 hours), which is the longest domestic flight, is no exception.
However, as people of a certain age or older remember, Japanese aviation history has a history of serving in-flight meals as a matter of course even in ordinary seats on domestic flights. There wasn’t as much volume as on an international flight, but at least what could be called a “light meal” was distributed to passengers by flight attendants.
So how long did the service exist and under what circumstances was it abolished?
Four people ate Japan’s first in-flight meal
The history of in-flight meals began more than 100 years ago, when Handley Page Transport (now British Airways) provided passengers with sandwiches and fruits for a fee on a London-Paris flight in 1919. Has been done.
A space for flight attendants to prepare in-flight meals … In other words, the first aircraft equipped with a galley, the Douglas DC-3, made its debut in the late 30’s.
Japan’s first in-flight meal is older than the Douglas DC-3. In 1931 (Showa 6), a flight attendant called “Air Girl” boarded the seaplane of Tokyo Air Transport Co., Ltd., which operated between Tokyo and Shizuoka, and provided light meals and tea to passengers. By the way, while the Douglas DC-3 was able to carry more than 20 people at the same time, the passenger capacity of this seaplane is only four, which is very different from the image of a passenger plane that is generally imagined at present.
The first free in-flight meal service after the war was provided by JAL, which was established in August 1951, on the Haneda = Itami = Itatsuki flight, which was operated as the first regular domestic commercial flight after the war from October of the same year.
Not only JAL, but also ANA (established in 1958) and Toa Domestic Airlines (established in 1971, Japan Air System since 1988), which were born by industry reorganization during the period of high economic growth, also have bread and rice balls on long-distance routes in the morning and evening. It is common to eat light meals such as, and sweets at other times.
The period of high economic growth ended with the oil crisis, the bubble economy started, and the economic situation fluctuated, such as ending for about four years, but the era of in-flight meals on domestic flights in Japan continued.