Here is an interesting little tidbit from the Sunday paper and maybe not such good news for people who travel regularly…and perhaps worse still for the local wine industry.

Perry may be off menu at Qantas

There’s a whole lot of turbulence in the Qantas food & beverage department. Recently Qantas wine buyer Peter Nixon decided to leave the airline, much to the dismay of the wine media. He’s lauded as the man who revamped the Qantas in-flight wine list and completely changed the way the airline bought wine. He decided wine must be bought in much smaller quantities to ensure the list was constantly updated. Qantas made an internal to replace him and the flow on is yet to be seen.

But the even bigger gossip is that Neil Perry is about to lose the catering contract for the flying Kangaroo. Perry has been associated with the airline since 1997 and his arrival prompted an overhaul of in-flight catering (in those days it was considered quite fancy when passengers were served olive oil and sourdough bread). Nowadays some of the well-heeled crowd who frequent first and business class expect more - and are making their voices heard. Qantas executive general manager John Borghetti said the rumours about Perry’s departure were false. “Neil has done an outstanding job for Qantas and we are extremely happy with the contribution he’s made and will continue to make in the future,” Borghetti said.

It makes sense that those who travel in the pointy end of the plane are used to fine wine and fine dining. But with the limited competition for business-and first-class flyers, perhaps Qantas will simply serve them cheese and whine.

Shelly Horton (the diary, The Sun Herald Dec 9th, 2007).


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