Stylized Airport Take-Out You Can Eat on Board

APEX Insight: Tagging onto the Bring Your Own Device trend are passengers who are bringing their own food on board. Airport restaurants have taken notice, offering menu options like “onboard picnics” and boxed meals that are a step up from the average airline fare.

Sure, airline food is not for everyone. Famous nurturer Martha Stewart is known to tuck a couple of hardboiled eggs from her own chickens into her carry-on along with some “good toast” and a chopped salad of papaya, pineapple or persimmon. But this extreme DIY-approach isn’t possible for most of us.

Driven by the foodie movement, the past decade has seen celebrity chefs Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver and Wolfgang Puck invigorate the airport dining scene, but not everyone budgets enough time for the luxurious sit-down experience – especially those racing to the gate. Increasingly, travelers are looking for food on the fly.

“What’s key here is that a one-size-fits-all approach is being abandoned in favor of something more bespoke, letting the individual take some level of control over what they eat and when they want to eat it,” says Mandy Saven, head of Food, Beverage and Hospitality at the London-based consulting firm, Stylus.

Passengers traveling through London Heathrow Airport can pack an on-board picnic from any one of its 118 restaurants with gourmet options like prawn cocktail, smoked salmon or a chocolate pecan brownie topped with crème Chantilly to go. It even comes in a collapsible, insulated bag that keeps the food at the right temperature.

 “Increasingly, travelers are looking for food on the fly.”

There’s also AirGrub an app that aims to get food in stomachs faster by allowing pressed travelers to order meals on their way to the airport. Using GPS and iBeacon, a restaurant can see where travelers are, so their meal is ready and delivered as they arrive.

Addison Lee, the London-based taxi company leading the movement for “in-car grazing,” offers its passengers healthy boxed snacks to fit their on-the-go lifestyles. There’s Brainy Breakfast for a nutrient-packed kick-start, Party Pre-Tox to line stomachs before after-work drinks, and Long Haul Refuel to rejuvenate travelers so they can fight off jet lag and fatigue.

“These sorts of services really wrap themselves around the needs of the consumer. It’s about looking into the negative space to spot pockets of opportunity where individuals can be served in a personalized and easy capacity,” says Saven.