UK budget carrier EasyJet will from next month start serving Starbuck's coffee onboard selected flights. It will use Starbucks new instant coffee offering, Starbucks VIA ready brew, which the coffe giant began rolling out earlier this year and describes as a "transformational instant coffee" which replicates the body and flavour of Starbucks coffee.
Starbucks has provided coffee on United Airlines since 1996, but this is the first UK carrier to offer Starbucks coffee. I'm not sure if there are any other airlines in the world that offer a Starbucks product onboard or which other major coffee chains you see adorning airports around the world have made similar leaps onto the aircraft (any contributions welcome on this!!!)
EasyJet will offer the Starbucks coffe on flights from Newcastle, Stansted, Gatwick and Madrid and it will cost £2.10 ($3.07). The airline's in-flight category manager, Rob Pickering, says: "This is a significant step forward for the easyJet in-flight Product range, it co-insides at the exciting time when our fresh food range has been transformed to suit local country markets."
Speaking from personal experience, the importance of coffee onboard airlines cannot be under-estimated, especially on those early morning flights. I'm sure everyone will have their own preferences for the best coffee served onboard an airline, so I'll accept nomination here.
The importance of coffee was similarly recognised by Lufthansa when it launched its Malpensa-based operation Lufthansa Italia earlier this year. During the press briefing to introduce the service, executives stressed one of the key service elements they thought would appeal to the Italian business traveller: freshly brewed espressos onboard.
on April 21, 2009 5:30 PM | Reply
JetBlue serves Dunkin' Donuts signature coffee and tea. Great idea and a real + in my opinion...