Qantas has ditched another unpopular move after days of backlash.
The airline announced quietly on Friday that it would increase vegetarian options and fresh fruit on domestic flights – after customer anger at its move to a “one size fits all” menu.
“We’ve heard the message loud and clear about having vegetarian offerings on all of our flights and so we’re making that change as a priority,” Qantas’ executive manager of product and service Phil Capps said in a statement.
This week’s saga began when PlanetArk chief executive Jon Dee told his 8000 Twitter followers that all passengers on his flight from Adelaide to Sydney last Sunday had been offered the same in-flight meal – a chicken pie.
Mr Dee, a vegetarian, couldn’t eat the meal.
“I’m informed that Qantas no longer serve [sic] vegetarian food on domestic flights (except Perth),” he wrote.
“Crew said ‘one size fits all’ – Joyce has really screwed Qantas.”
Mr Dee embarked on a subsequent media spree, drawing support from other disgruntled customers. On Friday, Qantas gave in – although its backdown left people with other dietary or religious requirements feeling peckish.
Tweet from @JonDeeOz
COVID compromises
Qantas is the only Australian airline that offers complimentary inflight food and beverages on domestic flights.
Prior to the pandemic, the airline offered passengers a drink, fresh fruit and a snack – with a vegetarian alternative.
When the pandemic hit, Qantas cut its vegetarian options for domestic flights under 3.5 hours – effectively, most flights. It also canned the fresh fruit options.
The backlash after Mr Dee’s post this week was accompanied by calls from those who are gluten-intolerant or who require kosher or halal food.
A Qantas representative told The New Daily on Friday that the airline had never catered for such dietary options, even before the pandemic.
However, with a growing number of Australians having specific dietary requirements, millions of Aussies are potentially going hungry on flights.
One in 70 Australians have coeliac disease – an auto-immune condition where consuming gluten leads to damage in the small intestine.
Plus, about 1.1 million Aussies prefer to eat kosher food, while a further 700,000 eat and drink halal food.
Tweet from @cheezy58
Tweet from @DavidTaffey
Series of controversies
Qantas’ reputation has taking a battering since the start of the pandemic, with it facing scandal after scandal.
Following controversy over flight cancellations, lost luggage and JobKeeper, Qantas has even slipped from the top five rankings for the world’s best airlines.
University of Sydney associate professor of narratology Tom van Laer told The New Daily that Qantas needed to become more proactive, rather than reactive, to rebuild its tarnished reputation.
“It’s actually quite remarkable in a day and age where anybody who is on a delayed flight will flick out [a picture]. People start taking pictures of the queues. All of that goes all over social media. And that’s the actual image of Qantas,” Dr van Laer said.
He said Qantas’ issues were not necessarily about competence, but integrity.
“If they take a step back, they would see that all these issues are not about operations – they are about values,” he said.
Dr van Laer said if Qantas could identify issues early on, take accountability, and demonstrate that it was working towards a solution, an improved public image would follow – one even stronger than its picturesque advertisements.
“That’s something Qantas can do. It’s not hard. The technology is there, but they don’t have that in place,” he said.
He also recommended more diverse meal options to build customer approval.
“It’s not the extra meal option in itself … It’s what it represents. It represents that you actually embrace that Australia is a multicultural country where people have different diets and different requirements,” he said.
Dr van Laer said Qantas could learn from Domino’s Pizza in the US.
In 2009, when social media was in its infancy, the pizza company became embroiled in the now-infamous ‘Boogergate’ scandal.
It emerged after two bored Domino’s workers decided to make a video showing one sticking cheese up his nose and then putting it on a sandwich to be delivered to a customer. Unfortunately for Domino’s, it took just 48 hours for the video to spread across the internet, with nearly a million views before it was taken down.
The company responded, in part, by showing customers the workings of its pizza preparation process, subsequently restoring customer confidence.
Dr van Laer urged Qantas to take the same approach.
“It’s about showing what actually happens behind the scenes. How do people come to decisions? How do you run your operation? What kind of principles are there? What kind of morals are there to do the things they do?” he said.
“That’s something that Qantas is not very forthcoming with.”
