SOME CURRENT ISSUES IN AIRLINE CATERING

This paper offers a preliminary analysis of the role of food provision in airline catering. It focuses on current issues in airline catering as reflected in the concerns of operators and caterers, while at the same time reviewing that previous research which has examined in-fligh t food provision. While service operators clearly believe in the impor tance of catering as part of the service experience, there is little e vidence to suggest that this reflects consumers' views to any signific ant extent. Nevertheless, operators do gear their marketing campaigns to the sale of 'extra' services as a means of differentiating their pr oduct from those of competitors. More research into this neglected asp ect of food service is required in order to elucidate more precisely t he relationship between available products and the satisfaction of con sumer needs.