We often say that there is no free lunch in the world. Recently, some airlines have announced that they are no longer offering free meals. HNA Group member enterprises-Tianjin Airlines recently joined the "no free meals" ranks.
What are the airline's reasons for? What do consumers think?
Competition intensifies airlines cancel free meals one after anothe
Open Tianjin Airlines booking page, you can see on the official website listed 12 kinds of food, dishes relatively rich, package prices from 25 yuan to 75 yuan. CCTV financial reporter also dialed Tianjin Airlines customer service phone, the passengers generally concerned about the food on the plane to inquire.
Tianjin Airlines customer service staff said passengers can buy their own meals on the official website or cash on the plane after boarding.
After the cancellation of free meals, free drinks on board are also cancelled, and only free drinking water is currently available on board.
In fact, long before Tianjin Airlines, Xiangpeng Airlines, China United Airlines, Spring and Autumn Airlines, Western Airlines economy class did not provide free meals, but they are cheap airlines. Tianjin Airlines is the first non-cheap airline to cancel ordinary economy class meals.
According to HNA Holdings' 2017 earnings, it shipped 71.69 million passengers last year, with a meal cost of one billion five hundred and twenty three million yuan, or 2.94 percent of its operating cost, and an average of 21.45 yuan for a passenger.
The cost of each meal for Air China, China Eastern and China Southern is 25-33 yuan. According to more than 13 million passenger traffic by Tianjin Airlines last year, cancelling meals could save at least two hundred and seventy nine million nine hundred and ninety nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine yuan a year for Tianjin Airlines.
G: look at the time. If it wasn't for lunch or dinner, it wouldn't be taken into account.
At the same time, China Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and HNA provide free meals as usual, and China Southern Airlines also offers different specialties depending on the route. Experts point out that the cancellation of non-cheap airlines is just one of the airline's competitive strategies and does not represent a future trend.
Li Yanhua, associate dean of the School of Economics and Management of China Civil Aviation University: some airlines want to cancel catering, or it is more likely that it wants to develop in the style of low-cost aviation, which is a model.
Do a good job of "differentiation" airlines break auxiliary revenue
In addition to free food and beverage, we have long been used to including baggage check-in the cost of air tickets, but now airlines have cancelled one-size-fits-all-size-fits-all free checked-in luggage.
The reporter noted that while canceling free catering in economy class, Tianjin Airlines also provided different free check-in luggage services for passengers who purchased different types of air tickets, and the airlines split the previous packaging services into menu-style services. Passengers who don't need to eat, pick seats, or even check-in luggage can buy cheaper tickets.
There are split services, there are also specialized services. For example, Sichuan Airlines on the aircraft to attract more variety of meals, Noodles, Sichuan Style, grilled corn, old dry mother, cooking, sour plum soup and so on can be eaten on the plane.
Flight selection, WIFI services, hotel reservations and pick-up reservations are being developed by airlines. Industry insiders believe that low-cost airlines are the future trend, outside the ticket revenue is becoming more and more important.
Yang, General Manager of Spring and Autumn Airlines Beijing Branch: in fact, it is a derivative service, which now has many kinds. For example, the most popular is the sale of aircraft on international and regional routes, especially duty-free goods.