The Journey Circle – Making WTCE the best it can be for airline buyers

If you are an airline buyer attending WTCE this year, you won’t want to miss this episode. Joining Onboard Hospitality’s Managing Editor, April Waterston are Simone Walli, Catering Manager, Culinary Art & F&B Onboard Concepts at Austrian Airlines, Tobias Ogren, Head of Inflight Product & Catering at Sunclass Airlines. They’ve both been working as part of what WTCE is calling ‘The Journey Circle’ – a brand-new advisory group of experienced onboard hospitality buyers who have been sharing insights, ideas, and challenges shaping the future of inflight service and passenger experience, to help make the show as useful as possible for buyers like them. Listen on to find out how!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

The Onboard Hospitality Podcast brought to you by Onboard Hospitality Magazine.

SPEAKER_03 0:14

Hi everyone, and welcome back to our podcast. My name is April Waterston. I'm managing editor of Onboard Hospitality Magazine. Now, if you are an airline buyer attending WTC this year, you will want to keep on listening. As today I am speaking to two people who have been working behind the scenes to help make the expo as productive as possible for buyers like them. Joining me today are two very special guests. We've got Simone Valley, catering manager, Culinary Art, and F and B Onboard Concepts at Austrian Airlines. Hi Simone. Hey. And also with us is Tobias Ogren, head of InFlight Product and Catering at Suncast Airlines. Hi Tobias.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Hello.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

Hello. So to start off, I thought it would be interesting for you both to give us a brief overview of what your current priorities are right now in in-flight catering. So Simone, perhaps you could begin by telling us a bit about the latest happenings at Austrian Airlines.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Yes, of course. So currently I'm working on a new FMB concept on board for all our classes, short haul, mid-hole, and long haul. The concept concentrates on being more Austrian than before. So more regions of Austria should be highlighted, not only like Vienna and the surroundings, so also the mountain region, the lakes and everything should be shown of Austria and also on the plates. So special dishes, traditional dishes. Our tableware will be redesigned and we are getting ready for our 70th birthday next year. So yeah, we're trying to like uplift everything and have a nice experience for our guests.

SPEAKER_03 1:54

Oh, that's really exciting. I love that focus on provenance and really highlighting where you come from too. That's really nice. For anyone who doesn't know, can you just maybe give like a little taste, a little flavor of what some local dishes like outside of Vienna might be?

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Yes, of course. So for summer, we are focusing on Salzkammergut. It's a region in um Upper Austria. So everything there is just like summary from the lakes, fishes, and like all those nice things. For the winter, for example, it's like the Alpine region, like Salzburg, Tirol, Vorarlberg. And those are more like the comfort food dishes. When you go skiing, you get like Gamknudel or Kiesekle or whatever. So something like this that just warms and wraps you up, and yeah, you just feel comfortable comfortable and at home. And for Vienna, obviously, it's uh Schnitzel and Kaiserschmann.

SPEAKER_03 2:51

Nice. Yeah, I could do with some comfort food right now. It's quite chilly here. Um good, that sounds lovely. Thank you so much. Um, and Tobias, same for you. What is um SunClass Airlines looking at right now and sort of what are you maybe focusing on for the year ahead?

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Yeah, well, I think that we are looking at uh many different areas right now. It's uh always about how we are able to continuously improvement our existing products uh while we're also reviewing additional products for the summer. We have a quite high meal order pre-order rate, with more than 50% on average, is ordering a uh a pre-order meal, which means that the expectations are quite high. And we are working closely with the local producers. We have DAFCORS, for example, located in Sweden, uh, where we are currently reviewing the full assortment and doing a few tweaks here and there, introducing a new meal together with them this uh this summer, which which will be very, very exciting. Uh, apart from that, we are also looking over the the light meal offer, which is a new uh interesting um area that we started with uh last summer, where we introduced a burger and also a kebab. We see that it's a quite big demand from our passengers on the light meal products. So hopefully we can find a third alternative this summer uh going forward as well.

SPEAKER_03 4:14

Cool, thank you. That all sounds really interesting. Um, really interesting to hear those trends as well. Um so both Simone and Tobias have been working behind the scenes ahead of this year's World Travel Catering and Onboard Services Expo, WTCU, um, which is fast approaching and now less than a month away. Can you believe it? Um, to help make the show even more productive for other hospitality buyers like themselves. They have formed part of what WTC is calling the Journey Circle. Um, it's a brand new advisory group of experienced onboard hospitality buyers who have been sharing insights, ideas, um, and the challenges that are shaping the future of In-Flight service and the pasture experience. Um, Tobias, maybe you could tell us uh a little bit more about what the Journey Circle have been doing and why. Why has this uh advisory board been formed for this year?

SPEAKER_01 5:02

For sure. So I was approached by Shona from the WETC group uh last year, who wanted to talk about the idea of having an advisory group that could support the future uh development of uh of the fair. Um and I thought it was a great idea. And I always support new initiatives, and she got me hooked on the on already from the start. Uh and this kind of developed into what's now being called the journey circle with the idea of establishing a group working within the same areas to be able to discuss and share insights on industry trends, priorities, while so while also supporting uh the future development of the of the whole event. So we are still in the build-up phase, but I'm sure that it will be a success going forward uh where we can contribute and share ideas uh among each other.

SPEAKER_03 5:47

Lovely, lovely. That sounds really nice. Um Simone, maybe you could tell us a bit about sort of the the key developments that have come out of this thus far. Um, for example, I know there's a discover zone and there's some uh VIP personalized bags.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Oh well, yeah, already you already mentioned it. So it's like the personal personalized um VIP bag. So in the Discover zone, everyone can just pop by and pack their own VIP bag with all the things they think they're interesting for them. So that saves uh a lot of like waste and things you don't really use or don't just like think they're useful for you right now. And um, yeah, everything's tailored and shaped uh for everyone's personal needs, which I personally really love. And yeah, so I just recommend everyone to pop by and pack their bags.

SPEAKER_03 6:42

Nice. Um so just to sort of clarify, so the the personalized bags, they're in the discover zone. Is that is that what it is? Yes. Yeah, cool. Cool, all right. That sounds like it would be really, really useful and um less wasteful as well. Um so yeah, really good. Um I'm sure it'll be really helpful for any other buyers attending the show. Um so yeah, make sure to go by if you're listening. Um so just to sort of conclude, um, I'd be interested to hear what you personally are both looking to get from the show this year. Because obviously you're you've been advising, you've been behind the scenes, but you are at the end of the day attending to. Um, so what sort of things are you looking for? Um, you know, are there any particular innovations you're on the lookout for to buy us? You mentioned that you're looking for light mail options, maybe you'd like to start.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Sure. I mean, uh WETC is a it's a great event, uh, which I've been uh part of for many years now. Um it's great because you meet everyone you're working with, everyone is going there. So instead of having to spend a lot of travel time going to visit suppliers and in the whole region, Europe, we just meet at all at the same place. We can catch up, we can discuss cooperation, what's going on, what's going good, and so on. Uh while there's also a great uh possibility and opportunity to look into other trends, to meet new exhibitors, to find new um possibilities. As you said, I'm looking into finding new light mill this uh this summer. So hopefully I can find a good partner there, uh, get some good inspiration and to work to work with that going forward. And that is also one of the ideas behind the discovery zone as well, because we kind of want to future develop that as well as well. Uh, because more or less everyone who's attending uh the fair has a tight schedule and many meetings planned to catch up with existing partners, suppliers. Um, and often I feel that my time is very limited when it comes to looking into new possibilities. So meeting new suppliers uh can be quite time consuming, hence the idea of the discovery zone, uh, where you could meet all exhibitors at once, where they could briefly just showcase their products and have some samples available. And then if you find an exhibitor uh which is very interesting, you can then contact them later and to later on to further hear about their possibilities, and maybe you can find an agreement. So this is as you said, uh WTC is approaching next month. So this is not that something that can be done this year, but but hopefully we can do it to next year. And and I I say we because I see myself as one of the team members because I want to put some extra pressure on them as well. So let's let's see what happens.

SPEAKER_03 9:14

I'm sure they will keep you. You've been very useful. Hopefully, hopefully, yeah. Shoney didn't hear that. Simone, Simone, do you have anything else to add?

SPEAKER_02 9:24

Well, uh, a lot of um what Tobias said is I totally agree with everything. So um the time is always really, really scarce. So it's like a lot of things to do, especially with my role for Austrian. I just run from one supplier to the other to find new snacks or maybe like um kosher meals, frozen food, drinks. So everything's just like a two-day of running all over the venue and finding new things, but also it's really nice to meet people again and just like to connect. For example, um, gate group. So gate group, they are back. That's good for us because it saves me from traveling a lot. And I just made an appointment to say hello and see how they were doing, and yeah, so because this year is a lot of traveling, anyways, because I have menu presentations all over the world. So yeah, I think that's a good opportunity. And the WTC is always fun, it's everyone's just there and everyone's excited to see what's what's out there, and everyone's happy to show and share everything. So yeah, I'm really excited to get there soon.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

Good. Yes, me too, me too. Um, I haven't been for two years now because I was on maternity leave last year. So I'm really excited to get back. Um, I do need to buy some more comfortable shoes though. Uh, you've just reminded me of all the running around. So oh great. Thank you so much um for joining me. Um really looking forward to hopefully seeing you both at the show um and exploring the discover zone too, because it really does sound like it'd be really useful um for buyers who are run off their feet, as you say. Um but cool, thank you so much. You're welcome, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

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