British Airways eyes plan to scrap free food in flight with M&S help. So what's the all the fuss about?

The company is in a dogfight with low cost airlines on short haul routes. "Free" food is an inevitable casualty of that

British Airways - still the world's favourite airline? (PA)

British Airways is in a spot of bother again over in flight meals.

In May, The Independent revealed it was looking at overhauling the policy of providing "free" food and drink on all its flights. Economy class passengers on short haul flights were in line to lose out.

Now it seems those plans are firming up, with M&S in the frame to provide the catering for those in economy who want to pay for it.

“Hard to swallow,” is how the decision was described by Nik Loukas, the editor of the Inflight Feed website, speaking to the Mail on Sunday.

But why? It’s true BA has long made a big deal about its full service offer. PJ O’Rourke, the American satirist, made note of the food, and much else besides, when comparing the virtues of BA’s offer with the no frills approach of the budget boys while fronting a BA ad campaign a few years back..

Then there was the rather portentous “To Fly To Serve” commercial, on a similar theme. The World’s Favourite Airline? That’s what the admen would have you believe.

Ok, I admit I’ve been watching too much youtube. So, here’s the point: Ryanair last month thumbed its nose at its establishment rival by once again appropriating that last slogan for itself, justifying its move by pointing to industry figures supplied by IATA, an industry body.

They had Ryanair carrying 101.4m people in 2015, making it the world’s favourite in terms of the number of passengers carried and by quite a distance.

Ryanair spent years many winding its customers up. The Office of Fair Trading famously once accused it of “taunting” them with “puerile” booking charges. While the company has been trying to improve its image of late, flying with Ryanair isn’t always a lot of fun.

Despite customers’ justifiable and oft repeated moans, however, it doesn't appear to have stopped all that many of them from flying with Michael O’Leary’s company. The reason? If you limit yourself to carry on baggage and don’t buy any food on board, the fares work out cheap.

BA struggles to compete, and to make money from its short haul routes, because BA offers add ons like that supposedly free food as part of the price of your ticket. Food you don’t always really want anyway when it is plonked in front of you at the wrong time of day.

If a deal with M&S to provide food passengers pay for in flight helps it to make money from fares that are closer to Ryanair’s, BA will probably be willing to put up with a bit of bad publicity because it will win in the long run.

Some of its customers will be savvy enough to take advantage of the new reality by, say, stopping off at an M&S en route to the airport to pick up a sandwich at a cheaper price than they’d pay on board their BA flight. Or even a Waitrose one. The partnership was originally in line for the inflight catering job.

A self professed libertarian like PJ O’Rourke really ought to like the idea. It’s the free market taking flight! And who knows, it might even help BA to become the world’s favourite airline by passenger numbers as well as their ratings.