British Airways Is Now Shrinking Its Short-Haul Business Class Meals Because Of Supersized Cabins

British Airways has quietly downsized the meals served in its Club Europe Business Class cabin on domestic flights, and the decision to shrink its food offering is reportedly linked to the airline’s now infamous supersized premium cabins on short-haul flights.

Lacking any formal announcement or warning, passengers who had been looking forward to a hot breakfast on domestic flights between London and destinations such as Edinburgh and Aberdeen only discovered that British Airways had removed the option when they boarded their flights.

British Airways no longer offers a full English breakfast or a vegetarian omelette on these flights, and instead has replaced this more substantial offering with a small fruit plate, yogurt, and pain au chocolate.

According to menus posted by disgruntled passengers online, the downsized meal now contains a total of 501 calories.

Cabin crew have admitted that the new breakfast offering is part of a trial to address time constraints serving passengers on relatively short domestic flights, eliminating the need to cook meals or offer customers a choice between different dishes.

Like many European airlines, BA’s short-haul Business Class product can be pretty underwhelming from an international perspective, with premium passengers left sitting in regular Economy seats, with the middle seat in a row of three blocked out.

This flexible divider system allows European airlines to adjust the size of their short-haul Business Class cabins based on demand, maximizing revenue wherever possible.

The one thing that sets European airlines apart from their US counterparts, however, is that the food and drink offer is generally a lot more substantial and normally better quality as well.

It’s the ability of airlines to adjust the size of their short-haul Business Class cabins so easily that has, however, apparently led to this change.

Back in June, BA chief executive Sean Doyle boasted that Club Europe was “more popular than ever,” and the airline has been trying to make the very most of this demand by maxing out its Club Europe cabins.

Of course, that means on shorter flights, it’s a struggle for cabin crew to serve a hot meal to 50 or more Business Class passengers.

British Airways has been heavily criticized for its recent cost-cutting initiatives, such as:

• Serving breakfast for lunch in long-haul Club World Business Class
• Serving paninis as a hot dinner in Club World on flights from the East Coast
• Eliminating water bottles from meal trays in World Traveller Economy Class

All of these experiments were quickly eliminated after a furious backlash from both passengers and cabin crew, although it’s important to put the latest cutbacks into perspective.

British Airways only introduced Club Europe on domestic flights in 2017 – part of an effort to recognize Business Class passengers connecting to or from a long-haul flight by allowing them to travel in a premium cabin for their entire journey.

The change came just months after British Airways eliminated free food or drinks in its short-haul Economy cabin, meaning that a Club Europe cabin was the only way to enjoy complimentary refreshments onboard short-haul flights.

Routes affected by this change include London Heathrow to Edinburgh, which clocks in at just 335 miles. In comparison, many US carriers offer little more than an ambient snack basket on all flights less than 900 miles.

A short-haul Business Class ticket in Europe also includes lounge access and, presumably, on quick domestic hops, British Airways has found that many passengers are eating a hot breakfast in the lounge.

Matt’s take – it’s the optics that really matter

There’s a strong argument for why British Airways would introduce a pared-down meal service on short domestic flights, but given all of the airline’s other recent antics in slashing onboard service, seemingly in the name of cost-cutting, these changes to Club Europe meals are not a good look.

It’s also worth noting that premium passengers are being ‘punished,’ for lack of a better word, for BA’s decision to sell so many Club Europe seats on these short flights that it puts the cabin crew under such extreme pressure.

If British Airways was concerned about the passenger experience, you would like to think the airline would consider other options before making sweeping cuts to its onboard service.