Jet follows Air India, curtails menu on domestic flights

MUMBAI: Having a small plate of fruits for lunch or dinner may not sound particularly appetising, but that is the only meal choice available to Jet Airways domestic passengers on both economy and business class if they happen to be allergic or intolerant to lactose, gluten or need to be on a low-cholesterol diet.

Jet Airways recently narrowed down its list of meal preferences on offer for domestic passengers from 23 to a meagre seven. That makes it the only full-service airline in India to leave slim pickings for passengers who suffer from food allergies.

A Jet Airways spokesperson said: "Going by trends we have seen certain special meal options have a higher consumption pattern than others on our domestic flights.

While finalising our list of special meals available to our domestic flyers, we have ensured meal options like the fruit platter to be included to serve guests requesting bland food or gluten free meals. The special meals served on board Jet Airways' domestic flights are Child Meal/Baby Meal/ Jain Meal/Diabetic Meal/Fruit Platter, and all- time popular vegetarian and non-vegetarian Indian meals.''

However when TOI checked the meal preference list on the Jet Airways website, there was no mention of the child meal and baby meal options. Meal options available for domestic flights were vegetarian/non-vegetarian, Jain, diabetics vegetarian/non-vegetarian, fruit platter and Muslim.

Last month national carrier Air India, in a cost-cutting move, stopped serving non-vegetarian meals to its economy class passengers. Unlike Jet though, AI domestic passengers with dietary restrictions can still opt from a list of 15 special meal options which includes children, vegan, Jain, gluten-free, low-calorie, lacto-ovo, raw, Oriental, Kosher, etc.

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