IFSA president Ken Samara, left, and conference organizer Hideo Miyabe of TFK Corp. pose with Chef’s competition winner Yoshimitsu Nishio of TFK

ITCA/IFSA team up again for Asian conference

Members of the world’s two travel catering associations returned late last month to where their years of long collaboration began to discuss the state of the industry in Asia where many things have changed, but some remain the same.

The bustling, balmy city of Singapore and the sprawling halls of the massive Food & Hotel Asia 2008 provided the backdrop for three days of discussion, networking and socializing at the ITCA/IFSA Asia Pacific Conference April 22-25. The attendees also had the chance to see some of the cooking expertise of the region with a four-person competition that was won by a chef from TFK Corp. in Tokyo. Visitors also had the opportunity to take part in an April 22 golf tournament and to tour the extensive operations of Singapore Air Terminal Services.

Totals from the International Flight Services Association show that more than 200 delegates from 32 countries and 95 companies were on hand for the event. Adjacent the conference hall was a trade show of 21 companies.

And though the travel industry was not facing the economic downturns that loomed during the first joint gathering of the two associations in Singapore in 1997, a new group of challenges, from rising fuel and food costs to strange weather conditions, to fluctuating currencies was on the mind of industry leaders such as Clement Woon, the new CEO of Singapore Air Terminal Services.

During his keynote address the opening day of the conference, Woon said the industry was facing a projected downturn in overall profits from US$7.5 billion to US$4.5 billion this year. With the industry feeling the crunch of market forces, Woon said airline catering is facing pressure to outsource more of its operations.

“Food safety is our fundamental responsibility to travelers,” said Woon in the April 23 address. Some of those responsibilities included an expanded role of the caterer to see to passengers’ diverse dietary needs of medical and religious nature.

Woon took over the top job at SATS in November of last year. He comes to the industry from the Geosystems Division of Leica Geosystems AG in Heerbrugg, Switzerland, the firm is involved in spatial/surveying activities.

A discussion on the advancement over the years of fresh frozen meals was part of a morning panel that featured Charles Grossrieder manager of catering services at Cathay Pacific Airways, Mark Trundle; general manager of the Qantas subsidiary SnapFresh; William Wong, vice president of operations for LSG Sky Chefs and Gijs van Zon, vice president of airline sales and marketing at MARFO in the Netherlands.

During the hour-long discussion, the four men brought the audience up to date on the history and inevitable acceptance of frozen entrees in both premium and economy class cabins on airlines around the world. Woon elaborated on how the advent of frozen products has improved caterer’s ability to plan, carry and stock products to eliminate periods of peak demand. Frozen meals have become the norm in the United States and Europe and companies such as LSG Sky Chefs are preparing to bring the concept to more airlines in Asia with the construction of a new frozen meal plant in Qingdao in China’s Shangdong province.

Chefs on parade
The afternoon of April 23 was taken up with a four-person chef competition, hosted by TFK Corporation’s Tim Zandbergen. It featured the creations of Chef Fritz Gross of LSG Sky Chefs Hong Kong, Chef Yeung Hung Kwan of Gate Gourmet in Hong Kong; Chef Yoshimitsu Nishio of TFK Corporation in Japan and Chef Anne Goo Saw Siak of SATS Catering in Singapore. The four chefs prepared the equivalent of a business class meal for a group of judges. Costs for the meals ranged from $4 to $25. In the end, the judges picked Chef Yoshimitsu Nishio’s Dome of Roasted Lamb, with Asian Spiced Coconut Mousse and Baked Hommard Lobster Scented with Horseradish and Chili as the winning combination.

In what has become a yearly presentation at recent Asia Pacific gatherings, Isabelle Devatine-Lacaze ground operations senior engineer at Airbus began the morning of April 24 with an update on the A380 now in operation on several routes. The presentation took on a new dimension as it occurred in the home of A380 operations by Singapore Airlines. Joining Devatine-Lacaze on stage was Karmjit Singh, chief operating officer of SATS, who took part in the launch of the A380 out of Singapore.

Devatine-Lacaze took the group through the yearlong, global effort by Airbus to test systems and show potential customers that the big jet could meet expectations and the 90-minute turn time that is important to efficient operations. She called the preparations “very busy, very exciting times” where the company experimented with configurations and played all the possibilities that could slow down operation of the aircraft.

Though the 90-minute turn time is an achievable goal, Devatine-Lacaze said airlines should consider the affect of any customizations that they may desire.

“Decisions should be carefully considered when short aircraft turn times are required for operations,” she said.

From the caterer’s perspective, Singh urged a training regime that brought in exterior mockups and extensive communication with catering truck drivers on the effective ways to maneuver highly customized vehicles to cater the 8-meter upper deck A380. Two people were used to marshal the trucks for most of the trials, said Singh.

“Do not underestimate the fear factor” when working with drivers, warned Singh.

With news of the latest version of the IFSA/AEA World Food Safety Guidelines Ulrike Enneking, vice president of quality at LSG Sky Chefs told the group that attention to food safety takes on a new importance because of a number of trends and factors. Caterers are now taking on a higher degree of outsourced products and have taken on more unskilled staff. The safety guidelines help caterers with issues such as supplier approval processes, recall procedures, and foreign body management. The guidelines are available for download on the Internet.

“If one airline or caterer has an issue it reflects on the entire industry,” said Enneking.

Representing 17 member airlines, Beatrice Lim, commercial director for the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines gave the group a quick trip around the world of Asian carriers and the wide range of business models that now exist in the region. Even without the Chinese airlines, Lim said the member airlines of the AAPA account for 18 percent of the traffic in the region. Though low-cost carriers such as AirAsia in Malaysia are gaining some ground in operations, passengers in the region still seek out high-end service in great numbers, said Lim. Premium cabin service generates revenue of approximately US$12 billion per year, amounting to 29 percent of the international passenger revenue, said Lim.

Last year was a “very good year” for Asian airlines, with carriers generating $5.2 billion in profits that amounted to a 5 percent margin.

Still, Lim said the region lacks global influence. She said often Asian carriers adopt regulations that have their start in the United States or Europe. “Asia does not seem to have a voice,” she said.

Rounding out the sessions on April 24 was a discussion of the latest trends in cabin and galley equipment by Take Tsuchihashi of JAMCO in Japan. Though a number of new cabin and galley productions are being developed, such as microwave ovens for the cabin and fast-cooking steam ovens, the aircraft cabin of the future will also be marked by an increased emphasis on the importance of uniform systems for safety and efficiency. For galley systems and trolleys, the Atlas standard, which is now represents 60 percent of the systems in the world airline fleet will continue to edge out more KSSU and other manufactured products.

“We cannot stop the trend of Atlas standardization,” said Tsuchihashi.