Qatar Airways has launched its new economy-class product, ‘Quisine’, which aims to elevate the passenger in-flight dining experience with an even higher level of satisfaction and luxury – or so they claim.
What is Quisine
The carrier purports that food will be better than your average economy dishes with more choice, retail-style products and tableware, and more generous portions. Although it is yet to be seen what ‘retail-style’ products actually mean.
For longer flights of more than 5 hours, the option of a pre-dinner drink will also now be available on flights of more than five hours, with sparkling wine and cocktail snacks available prior to the main meal being served.
Meals will also be more substantial, with main courses 25% larger, appetisers 20% larger, and desserts 50% larger. Cutting through the Jargon and PR of fresh and artisanal products, the carrier aims to take health more seriously offering fresher ingredients but more importantly providing a new service timeline for passengers traveling on long-haul and ultra-long-haul routes. Passengers will now be presented with redesigned menu cards which will include a service timeline with the objective being to help passengers plan their individual diets.
In addition, there will also be a complimentary bottle of water for each passenger — a small, but important offering, as there’s only so much thirst a small glass of water can quench.
Quisine also plans to make its meal packaging more environmentally friendly by increasing the use of recyclable and biodegradable products by 80% while reducing single-use plastic, also by 80%.
While it’s going to be years before the new economy Quadra seat is rolled out across the fleet, it won’t be long before economy passengers start enjoying these soft-product improvements. Al Baker announced that Quisine will roll out “from April” launching with flights to and from Brussels, Cardiff, Gothenburg, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. With complete rollout across the entire network by the end of 2019.
Analysis
Qatar Airways’ Quisine economy food offering wasn’t the best to begin with, always lagging behind its competitors. While comments about their ultra-rubbery eggs can be discussed in detail for another article, the short point to take away is that there is room for a lot of improvement.
It’s safe to say that the carrier has listened to passengers and offered what looks on paper to be a significant jump forward. Redesigned menus, more choices, and additional options will always be welcomed on longer flights.
What I do like is the bottle of water, too often does the cabin air dry you out and make sleeping uncomfortable, hopefully, a bottle of water, although a small token, is a very welcomed addition to the service – and one that Business class passengers have had for a long time.
