KLM Reducing Food Waste With Artificial Intelligence

Ben: your comment about this is not real AI is spot on. Every decade or so existing technology/applications seem to get rebranded with the buzz words/phrases popular at the time.

In other words from time to time some one is not going to have the meal they paid for. If it's not "AI" it's "climate change" dressed up to screw customers.

Seems like a waste. The article says 2.5 meals are wasted per flight. There would be zero waste if they gave away the 2.5 meals. Very easy to do with 100 passengers. At least 2-3 will gladly eat extra.

Already have seen in the past two years KLM run out of meal choices on long haul flights. This will limit choices further.

The best way to reduce food waste is not to serve crappy food. Less potion is okay, but try to serve good quality food, unlike most flights in the West.

You don't need AI to get this! Learn from the flights in Asia how they care for the customers and the food. While I am not expecting a Michelin star quality, airlines should serve "some" quality.

The last time I flew AA first class (domestic), I didn't even bother to look at the disgusting-looking chicken pasta they serve for lunch! Same for international routes, as well. One reason why I avoid flying with European and US airlines.

I haven't seen it on any of my itineraries, but apparently they're giving pax the option to opt out of meals in advance in exchange for a few XP. Given that they serve the same five wanderboxes causing me to pass on them almost every time, I guess it's smart. Just bore the shit out of people with the same food options for years, then entice them to opt out with points. Oh well.

Just let people make their choice well in advance instead of holding that function exclusively for business class or not offering it at all... much cheaper than employing a AI.

Not just KLM. Sit anywhere near the back of coach on any long-haul flight and you'll hear the familiar story from the FA's: "We've run out of beef, sir. Pasta ok?"

You're looking at it from a pax perspective. "Giving away" those two meals, while technically reducing waste, also costs KL money. Two meals not made at all is more financially beneficial than two meals "not wasted" by simply giving them away. Always remember that the "waste" spin is corporate speak for money saving.

SAS has gone further - there are no choices of meals at all in economy, period! (Though the meals were still pretty decent.)

Surely delivering to 200+ people in coach their meal choices - in specific seats - isn't practical? 15-20 special meals to passengers with dietary restrictions is doable, but not to everyone on board.

It's called Yeild Management (or Revenue Management at other airlines).

In the mid 1980's I was a Gate AAgent. Back when the 727 ruled the skies, hot meals were still served in coach on most of the mid-cons out of DFW and we didn't have elite upgrades yet.

Flights were rarely catered 'up' to the booking level. For discussion, it's important to note that AA broke a 'meal' into 2 components:
- the 'setup' ... tray, silverwear, salad & desert (the cold stuff)
- the 'entree' (the hot stuff).

A 727-200 had a capacity of F12 Y138. For a hypothetical flight, an example would be (and let's make it easy by saying no non-revs are expected):
- F is booked to 10, I'd be catered with 12 setups and 9 entrees
- Y is booked to 100, I'd be catered with 94 setups and 88 entrees.
All as determined by Yield Management. In the 1980s. KLM is hardly cutting edge here.

If you're interested...
The concept seemed to be to have as many setups as YM thinks the pax count will be (but typically to capacity in First) and then under cater the entrees in case YM's expected count ended up higher than actual. We did have Shy Chef (AA's owned caterer) 'runners' in the terminal to top off any entree shortage. But yes, many times I'd close the door still under catered.

I misread the headline as "KLM Reducing Food Waste With Artificial Food."

Which, in economy, is sorta true?

I personally prefer the approach to let passengers select their choice ahead of time. On airlines that permit to do so, I always make selection.

Awesome! So, how did we go down from there to here?

Similar approaches to using "predictive analytics" have also been used/tested in quick service restaurant environments. You can predict with amazing accuracy, for example, how many hamburgers McDonald's store #12345 will sell tomorrow based on years worth of historical POS data.

Hi Ben,
Have you heard about the new seperate status of FlyingBlue called Ultimate. Comes with 4 upgrade vouchers and some extra benefits. I think it would be great to develop that in an article.
All the best!

Moral of the story - don’t sit in the last row on a KLM flight.

Instead of investing into pre-order system which would guarantee the first choice to everyone, they're investing into making sure fewer people get their first choice. Something to remember the next time you choose your business class flight...

Yup. This is definitely a "Web 2.0" moment.

'Artificial intelligence' and 'plant-based' are just two new pretentious marketing terms aimed at the gullible, for two very old concepts. So old in fact, that even actual Boomers born in the 40s(!) knew about them decades ago. Just say freakin' "computer program" and "greens and vegetables". *eye roll* Even Tim Dunn gets it.

It’s not new. Ultimate has been around a while, in addition to Club 2000 and Hiccocampe which is an even higher tier.

Works great until it doesn’t. I imagine the majority of the time people won’t notice anything, a sizable minority of the time some people will be stuck with what’s left, and in a few instances people will get nothing at all. For a full service airline, leaving some passengers without a meal isn’t a good look so I’d tread with caution if I was in charge of the program.

That's party true however Ultimate as a seperate status was introduced only Jan 2024, I believe. Before, it was Platinum Elite Ultimate which was 300XP if I am not mistaken, however now, Ultimate is a seperate tier with 900XP needed. Club2000 and Hiccocampe are different in the sense that they are invite only, and mostly by Air France. Correct me if I am wrong, however this is what I understand. Long gone are the days when Platinum Elite for Life status meant often free upgrades on short/long haul flights....

... who counted the macadamia nuts for AA's catering? Wasn't removing one from the tray part of Crandall's claims of genius?

Two meals not made at all is more financially beneficial than two meals "not wasted" by simply giving them away