AUA put off by on-board food poll
Austrian Airlines (AUA) has suffered a devastating defeat in a global check on carriers culinary offerings.The former federal flagship airline came just 24th out of 30 aviation companies in the test carried out by users of website Airlinemeals. Korean Air tops the chart with 7.9 out of a maximum 10 points ahead of Emirates (7.6) and Etihad Airways (7.6).Alitalia are last in the list with just 4.9 points. Lufthansa Group member AUA achieved 5.9 points. Swiss, which is also owned by Lufthansa, fared even worse. The firm reached 25th place (5.8 points) in the survey investigating the quality and taste of meals offered to Economy class passengers.Only in September, AUA announced it decided to reintroduce warm dishes on many of its flights. The service was abandoned when the company started a strict cost-cutting programme to reduce its operating losses.A spokesman for AUA, which is based in Vienna, said today (Mon) he was unaware of the study. The AUA official pointed out that the companys on-board meals won acclaim in several other polls.Lufthansa purchased a main interest in AUA around one and a half years ago. AUA counted 2.1 million passengers between January and March. It sustained a loss of 63.5 million Euros at the same time.