Lufthansa’s new onboard catering concept became available to Economy Class passengers on short- and medium-haul flights on May 26th. To prepare for the launch, Retail inMotion, together with Lufthansa, performed the first ground tests in Frankfurt and Munich in April.
The trial runs for Onboard Delights took place at Lufthansa Technik in Frankfurt and Munich on A320neo and CityLine’s CanadairJet 900 respectively with maximum 30 participants per ‘flight’ – airline employees and representatives from Retail inMotion. In total, six test flights were simulated on two consecutive days. The test flights respected all the safety and disinfection measures to minimize the risk of coronavirus infection.
On the test flights, the Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cityline crew members carried out the entire onboard catering service, and were able to gather crucial information about the overall experience in order to allow Retail inMotion and the airline to put the final touches on the new concept and deliver on the promise to build a best-in-class passenger experience. Guests were able to choose, purchase, and test all the products that have been carefully selected by Retail inMotion.
All end-to-end processes were tested and special attention was paid to the crew and guest service processes, the new Vector Point of Sale (vPOS) technology and the actual sales process. During the six weeks between ground tests and go-live, Retail inMotion and Lufthansa continued to optimize the processes and make final adjustments to ensure that everything was functional and ready for prime time.
Overall, the feedback was very positive with a majority of guests indicating that the service was excellent, the culinary offer was abundant and tasty, and the cashless payment set up by Retail inMotion worked.
The menu, which was first introduced on the test flight, features a protective coating and can also be downloaded on passengers’ personal devices using the QR code on the flyer.