Emirates remembers its roots during Ramadan

 

Emirates may be global airline brand but it still holds on to its Emirati traditions.

During the Islamic Holy Month of Ramadan, Emirates will share thousands of iftar boxes for fasting customers both onboard and at boarding gates.

It will also offer complimentary Emirates prayer mats, screen a range of religious content and popular TV shows on ice, and present traditional Ramadan dishes in its lounges.

For the comfort of all fasting customers, complimentary iftar boxes to help break the fast containing water, laban (yoghurt-based drink), a banana, and dates are distributed at select Emirates boarding gates during iftar time.

For the month of Ramadan, customers breaking their fast across all cabin classes to select destinations will be offered nutritionally balanced Ramadan meal boxes.

Iftar meals are served in bespoke boxes designed by Emirates to represent the geometric design of traditional Islamic art.

The meal boxes include traditional dates, light bites of hummus, moutabel or muhammara with Arabic bread, a chicken mossakan sandwich or herbed chicken sandwich, sweet treats of chocolate almonds, baklawa pistachio mamoul or baklawa pine seed cashew, and laban.

Emirates’ Ramadan boxes are served in addition to the regular hot meal service.

To ensure the highest levels of accuracy for fasting Muslim passengers, Emirates uses a tool to calculate the correct timings for imsak (the time to commence fasting) and iftar while inflight, based on the times of the sunrise and sunset of the location the flight is passing by using the aircraft’s longitude, latitude, and altitude.

When the sun sets, passengers will be officially informed of the iftar time by the captain.

Emirates also has special keepsake prayer mats on all flights, which are available by request to cabin crew.

Across the seven Emirates lounges in Dubai International Airport (DXB), an array of Arabic sweets, dates and coffee will be offered during Ramadan.

Qantas promises a better in-flight food experience

Qantas has boasted that customers travelling across its regional, domestic and international networks can expect better a in-flight and lounge dining experience as the airline rolls out a menu enhancement program this month.

The additional multi-million dollar investment introduces new dishes and larger portions across all cabins, using high-quality ingredients from premium Australian producers.

I'm flying tomorrow, and although I no longer have Qantas Club lounge access we'll see if the flight experience has improved.

Qantas says the move is "the single biggest investment in Qantas in-flight and lounge dining in a decade" and comes as the airline returns to profit and accelerates its customer investment programs.

The menu changes follow an overhaul of the domestic economy menu in October 2022, including offering a vegetarian option for all meals.

Qantas Group Chief Customer Officer Markus Svensson said new dishes, generous portions and premium produce would take the in-flight dining experience to a new level.

“Premium food and wine is one of the top three reasons our customers choose to fly with Qantas, so this significant boost means we will be able further our efforts to deliver a world-class experience in the sky,” he said.

“We are proud to work with established and emerging Australian food and wine producers to offer the best possible dining experience to our customers.”

Qantas Creative Director of Food, Beverage and Service Neil Perry, who has worked with Qantas for 25 years, said: “We are spoilt for choice in Australia when it comes to being able to source top quality food from fantastic Australian producers, and together with generous servings and great service, these are the key ingredients to creating an enjoyable meal.”

The new menus have begun rolling out on domestic flights and will launch on international services from March 29.

Qantas to splash out on new and upgraded lounges

There is some good news for business class travellers and Qantas frequent flyers.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce this week announced a program of new and refurbished Qantas lounges across the globe, proclaiming it as the biggest investment in the airline's lounge network in over a decade.

Joyce said the work had been enabled by the faster-than-expected recovery in travel demand, with the project including a new First Lounge at London Heathrow Airport.

Also on the agenda is a refreshed Hong Kong International Lounge, upgrades for the International Business lounges in Sydney and Melbourne, a new Hobart Qantas Club and an expanded Broome Regional Lounge.

The new London First Lounge is anticipated to open in late 2025, aligned with the debut of direct London-Australia flights.

The new $100 million lounge program is in addition to previously announced upgrades in Auckland, Adelaide, Rockhampton and Port Hedland.

The national carrier has an extensive lounge network, including 42 in Australia (12 of which are in regional destinations) and nine overseas.

“Being back in profit means we’re back to making long term investments for our customers," said Joyce. That started with the major aircraft order we announced last year and now we’re building on that with a major investment in our lounges.

"Millions of people a year visit our lounges and they are typically our frequent flyers who travel with us the most, so anything we do to improve them is a way of saying thank you to our most loyal customers."

Good news for Tasmanians with the proposed relocation into a brand new Hobart Qantas Club with larger premises in line with the overall terminal redevelopment. Qantas is targeting a 50% increase in capacity from 96 to approximately 150 seats.

That further strengthens Qantas' postion in Hobart with Virgin Australia still not having a lounge despite promising one over a decade ago.

Eligible Qantas lounge customers include: Qantas tiered Frequent Flyers (gold and above), customers travelling in business class and first on Qantas operated flights and eligible oneworld and partner airline customers.