REDUCING WASTE
IN THE
AIRLINE INDUSTRY
In 2016, airlines generated over 5.2 millions tons of food waste.
Our aim is to reduce it.
How? By helping airlines handle their meals stock with more efficiency.
REDUCING WASTE
IN THE
AIRLINE INDUSTRY
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Today, airlines charge twice the amount of food than necessary: in order to offer a broad choice of meal to their passagers, they board at least two meals per traveler. They also carry a large amount of drinks that won't be consumed by travelers during the flight.
For security measures, airlines are forbidden to keep the unconsumed food left behind at the end of the trip. It goes to waste.
This food waste cost is huge, both on environmental and financial levels.
30 times more polluting than the train
In a year, the air industry emits 650 million tons of CO2 (as much as Germany emits in a year)
The plane is
THE MOST POLLUTING
transportation medium
The food not consumed in a plane
GOES TO WASTE
In 2016, the airline industry produced 5.2 million tons of food waste
A passenger leaves an average of 1 kg of non-consumed food behind him
In 2016, the airline industry lost over 500 million dollars in food waste
It is both
an ecological
and financial
CATASTROPHY
You can find more informations and data in our "ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT" and "FINANCIAL IMPACT" pages
OUR GOAL
Our aim is to find a solution to reduce this waste and, thus, reduce plane pollution.
A lot of it could be avoided if airlines were able to know the eating preferences of their travelers and, thus, manage their stocks. It would, for example, prevent airlines from boarding alcohol for non-drinkers, or meat for vegetarians.
It would have three impacts: first of, reduce the food waste. It would allow airlines to save a lot of money. It would also contribute to help the planet: it would contribute to make planes lighter and to save the kerosene pollution.
Even though simple, we believe this small action could have a big impact.
OUR SOLUTION
To do so, we would like to offer airlines a plug-in that would allow plane passenger to mention their food preferences while checking-in their flight. It would allow airlines to adjust their stocks on board.
The benefits, for airlines, would be to lower their costs and gain an eco-friendly image. For consumers, it would be a cleared conscience!
To make sure people would be interested, we ran a survey and ask 63 persons who take transatlantic flights at least once a year if they would accept to choose there meals in advance. The majority of the answers was positive.
HOW WE DO IT
We have thought of three solutions to make airlines know
their customers preferences:
-
Offering a menu choice when the passenger checks in through the web platform (it would be mandatory)
-
Offering travelers to do it through a chatbot (it would be optional, the travelers could chose to do it or not)
-
Have customers register their food preferences in their permanent airline profile
MENU CHOICE
When buying their plane ticket, or while doing the check-in, passengers would be presented with the different options of the menu and would have to indicate the drinks and meals they would be more likely to eat.
The questions could be very precise and adapted to the food served in that specific plane.
CHATBOT
The passengers who want it would be able to, at any time until the moment of the boarding, to indicate their food preferences through a "Pick your Meal" chatbot.
It would only offer generic choices: vegetarian, vegan, no alcoholic drinks.
CUSTOMER PROFILE
Most Airlines offer their customers to open an account. It allows them to register there informations, follow their previous travels and collect miles.
It would be pretty easy to add an option on a customer profile, for him to register his main food habits.