Airplane passengers should expect a reduction or elimination of food and drink offered on board in the coming months, warns the chief executive of Gategroup. He points to supply problems and transport delays.
“In the worst case, there will be less food during the flight or only drinks, or even only water on short-haul flights,” said Christoph Schmitz in an interview broadcast on Saturday by the newspapers of the press group CH -Media. Such problems already exist ‘from time to time’ and will probably continue to exist ‘in the coming months’.
Gategroup, which supplies meals to airlines, is currently regularly running out of certain champagnes or certain kinds of beer, Schmitz says. The company must invest millions of francs to increase stocks of products, such as tea, butter or beer, he adds.
After the Covid-19 pandemic, the Glattbrugg (ZH) group does not expect a recovery in business before 2024. ‘If we can reach or exceed the pre-crisis level, a return to the stock market is realistic’, according to Mr Schmitz. The recovery will not yet be complete in 2023, as the Asian market is ‘still completely down’.
During the pandemic, Gategroup’s turnover fell from 5 to 2 billion francs and the group cut 20,000 of its 50,000 jobs. It now has 37,000 employees and, continues the director, this number should exceed 40,000 by the end of the year.
/ATS
