
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 11, 1995                   TAG: 9503140032
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

EAT NOW, FLY LATER ON AMERICAN PLAN

AMERICAN AIRLINES WANTS to feed you before you board your flight and is testing the money-saving idea at four airports nationwide.

There's something special in the air at American Airlines' boarding gates - and it smells suspiciously like roast beef on rye.

To cut meal costs, American Airlines is testing a program that allows passengers to grab breakfast and lunch at the gate at four airports before they board flights.

Washington National Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Airport plus those in Houston and New Orleans are part of the test, which will be expanded to Dallas in April. If it works well with American's customers, the company will broaden the program nationwide, said American spokesman Joe Crawley.

The meals to go, available to passengers on flights that last from two hours to 2 1/2 hours, are expected to cut costs by streamlining the company's distribution system. Instead of paying for trucks to tote meals to each flight, for example, American has the meals for a number of flights delivered to the gate once each day. Passengers can eat before they board or en route.

The process also saves time on board and may lead to fewer flight attendants on some flights, Crawley said.

``In the early days of aviation, that's the way people used to take meals on airplanes,'' Crawley said. ``We're serving the exact same thing as would be served on board, anyway. In fact, we're giving the passenger the option now to eat before they even get on the plane.''

The new ``bistro'' flights offer only breakfast and lunch entrees, such as pasta, chicken breast, deli sandwiches, yogurt, cereal and fruit. The measure is the latest attempt among carriers to cut in-flight meal costs. Many airlines, in fact, have stopped serving food on flights of less than two hours.

Through cost-cutting measures and by eliminating some flights, American saved $14 million on its food bill for the three months ending Sept. 30, reducing it 7.6 percent, to $170 million. The cost of food per passenger mile dropped to 63 cents - down 9 percent from 69 cents a year earlier. Last year, American served 190,000 meals a day. Today, that number is 185,000.

by CNB