Do healthy and environmentally sustainable inflight foods matter to international flight passengers? Frequent vs. occasional flyers

Airlines continuously seek strategic ways to impress their passengers and build memorable experiences. Inflight food services as an imperative interaction, the research included healthy and environmentally sustainable attributes (e.g., production method, product origin), reflecting the emphasis on longevity/well-being and sustainability to design optimal inflight food bundles as well as the brand and taste attributes. This exploratory research investigated differences in inflight food preferences between frequent and occasional flyers. A total of 16 full-profile pairwise comparison questions of mixed levels for five attributes were given to the sample of international flight passengers (n = 490). The participants were asked to rate inflight food bundles using a 9-point Likert scale. The results indicate that healthy and environmentally sustainable inflight foods will be preferred over brand-named or tasty foods when served onboard. There were notable differences in inflight food preferences between occasional and frequent flyers. While both flyers preferred low-calorie and tasty foods made with nationally sourced ingredients, frequent flyers highly preferred branded foods made with organically grown ingredients. In contrast, occasional flyers desired generic branded foods made with conventionally grown ingredients. The study findings are discussed further to help airline marketers build a desirable inflight food bundle.