Catering subsidiary created GHI JUNE 2008 25 & cleaning news Catering Gate Gourmet has agreed to purchase airline catering units in fi ve cities from Air Berlin and SCK Sky Catering Kitchen. In addition Air Berlin has agreed to a new long-term catering contract with Gate Gourmet in Germany and the rest of Europe. The fl ight kitchens included in the transaction are located at Düsseldorf, Cologne/Bonn, Munster/Osnabruck, Leipzig/ Halle and Paderborn. The fi ve facilities serve approximately 18,000 fl ights in total a year, with Düsseldorf the largest single unit with approximately 10,000 fl ights annually. The operation is actually a joint venture between Air Berlin and SCK Sky Catering Kitchen Bordverpfl egung & Co Service KG, Ulm: SCK Sky Catering Kitchen Bordverpfl egung & Co Service KG will continue to operate its facilities in several other German cities. “We are very pleased to include these fi ve facilities into the Gate Gourmet portfolio. They are an important strategic addition to our network, and we see them as a key acquisition in our long-term strategy to secure Gate Gourmet’s position in the German airline catering market,” commented Guy Dubois, President and CEO Designate of gategroup, the umbrella brand representing Gate Gourmet and ten other brands. “The addition of Air Berlin’s catering business at its busy Düsseldorf hub and the new multi-year contract with the airline elsewhere signifi cantly strengthens our relationship with this fast-growing and innovative European carrier,” added Philippe Op de Beeck, gategroup Senior Vice President & President of the Central Europe, Middle East & Africa region. “With Gate Gourmet, Air Berlin found a global partner that perfectly suits our worldwide fl ight network. The optimised purchasing will grant us synergetic effects,” said Thomas Ney, Senior Executive Infl ight Service Air Berlin Group. Bigger plate for Gate IN BRIEF Specialist services provider OCS has just been awarded two new PRM handling contracts. The fi rst, which gets underway on July 1, is at Bristol airport whilst the second, at East Midlands, will commence on July 26. ARINC has announced a partnership with Gate Gourmet to market onboard sales programmes for airlines and passenger rail systems worldwide. The agreement will see Gate Gourmet include ARINC’s SkyBuy sales technology in its buy-on-board programmes while ARINC works with Gate on outsourced catering and buy-on-board projects. The two will introduce the wireless point-of-sale system to ongoing retail programmes at easyJet, Norwegian and Jetstar Airways. The technology uses ARINC’s Mobile Communications Gateway to upload sales data automatically into back-offi ce systems. Onboard sales contract signed Since March Servair and Newrest have been operating a catering unit at London City airport. A surface area of 900 square metres is equipped with a hot kitchen and the unit, named Newrest Servair LCY, has a capacity of 4,000 meals per day. The unit currently serves 30 daily fl ights for Air France. Planned for the near future is a VIP facility for executive jets, private aviation and functions. Managed by Pierre Martens from Newrest, the unit employs 20 people. The capital holding of Newrest Servair LCY is split: 20% is retained by the British handling company Airport Logistics whilst Servair and Newrest hold, with equal shares within a consortium, the remaining 80%. LCY catering Dakar Catering, a subsidiary of Servair, has announced the creation of a subsidiary with the operator Senegal Handling Services at Dakar’s Leopold Sedar Senghor airport to clean, equip and provide in-fl ight supplies for aircraft. The capital of this new subsidiary, SENCA, is 60% held by Dakar Catering and 40% by Senegal Handling Services. Since its creation in 1973, Dakar Catering has aimed to provide its clients with an optimal service. To further improve operational effi ciency, Dakar Catering and Senegal Handling Services have decided, through a partial transfer of assets, to create a common subsidiary called SENCA, which will provide a range of services. These will include the loading and unloading of cabin food, drinks and equipment, storage, cleaning and repackaging of cabin equipment, repackaging of food and drinks and cabin cleaning. Dakar Catering is the largest unit of Servair in Africa, capable of serving 4,500 meals per day. Its client portfolio counts over 20 airlines including Air Senegal International, Delta Air Lines, Air France, Ethiopian Airlines and South African Airways. The unit employs 280 people. Servair currently takes the number one slot in Africa in terms of the number of stopovers served, with a total of eight units. C M Y CM MY CY CMY K House ad.ai 02/06/2008 10:00:26

26 JUNE 2008 GHI handling passenger Handle with care Within the realm of looking after the customer, things continue to progress. Airlines, bracing themselves for more and more flyers, are increasingly relying on airports and handlers to process their clientele. Ever since check-in process changed its shape and nature there has been more and more interest in the smooth handling of today’s airborne passenger. Most modern airports thus boast an array of self-service kiosks, in line with IATA’s desires to simplify the whole travel experience. These aren’t actually that new as a device: they were employed by Continental Airlines, for example, as far back as 1995. Things haven’t stopped there, though. Even though there is a whole body of travellers out there who are only just getting to grips with tapping on a keyboard to obtain their ticket, so the concept has been surpassed by the reality of Web check-in. The low cost sector has been firmly behind this innovation and the earliest exponents of this measure (such as Alaska Airlines) introduced it in just four years. According to recent statistics, around 80% of US passengers are making use of these self-service options. But again, progress dictates that the industry cannot stand still and so the next step mooted has been that of the electronic boarding pass, which in essence turns a hand-held device or a mobile phone into a boarding pass. At least half a dozen airlines in the US currently allow customers to check in using their mobile devices, including American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, Southwest and Alaska. Continental has been the first carrier to begin testing the electronic passes, allowing such travellers to pass through security and board an aircraft without the necessity of handling a piece of paper. The boarding pass is nothing more than an image of an encrypted barcode displayed on the device’s screen, which can be scanned by gate agents and security personnel. Leaving aside the slightly worrying scenario of a portable’s battery dying en route to the gate, the idea is a sound one and should endear itself to those for whom security is paramount. Currently, if a traveller wishes to use another airline’s mobile check-in service, he or she still has to print a boarding pass at an airport kiosk in the traditional manner; that said, many carriers are keen to eliminate this encumbrance. Continental has been trialling the process since December 2007 but the electronic passes are currently restricted to non-stop domestic flights out of Houston. What is interesting in this context is that the mobile checkin facility may well be the first step in direct communications between airlines and passengers as they travel. Taken to its extreme, airlines could employ mobile messaging to communicate with passengers on various subjects, including on-board services, rebooking options, baggage collection and ticket purchase.