-
Ryanair
- IATA/ICAO Code:
- FR/RYR
- Airline Type:
- Low-Cost Carrier
- Hub(s):
- Dublin Airport, London Stansted Airport, Milan Bergamo Airport
- Year Founded:
- 1985
- Airline Group:
- Ryanair Group
- CEO:
- Eddie Wilson
- Country:
- Ireland
Irish carrier Ryanair is one of the world's leading low-cost airlines. While this is a well-known fact, something that most of us might not be aware of is the fact that the all-Boeing operator is also Europe's largest seller of ham and cheese paninis. When catering on such a large scale, food waste could be an issue, but the airline is now working with Amazon Web Services to minimize the risk of this.
A mighty undertaking
Even on a basic level, providing onboard catering for Ryanair's day-to-day operations is a mammoth task. With 500 Boeing 737 series aircraft operating more than 2,900 flights a day, this amounts to a significant amount of food and drink. However, Ryanair's low-cost business model provides its own challenges in this regard. Being a budget carrier, Ryanair does not offer passengers free refreshments.
Instead, those traveling with the airline have the option to purchase food and drink onboard. Of course, it is hard to know what or how much people will want to buy on a given flight, meaning that stocking the aircraft appropriately could prove tricky. Equally, it is important not to run out of popular items. Aoife Greene, Ryanair’s Deputy Director of Ancillary and Head of Retail, recently commented that:
"Your holiday starts on the aircraft. People want their gin and tonic. They want their ham and cheese panini. They want to sit back and relax. They don't want to hear, ‘No, that’s not available.’ It’s our job to make sure no one is disappointed."
Stay informed: Sign up for our daily and weekly aviation news digests.
Getting ahead of the game
Thankfully, due to a cloud partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Ryanair has been able to take steps toward reducing food waste by predicting what a given flight's passengers will want. Given that each of an aircraft's five trollies can only be restocked every 24 hours, this has to be calculated precisely.
Using a machine learning tool, which has been dubbed the 'panini predictor,' Ryanair collects information about which products are being requested and sold. This, in turn, feeds an algorithm that also uses data regarding the time and duration of the flight, and the number of people onboard, to produce optimized loadings. John Hurley, Ryanair's Chief Technology Officer, adds that:
"Even more importantly, it’s improved customer satisfaction, cut our waste in half, and boosted our sales."
The airline industry is always full of new developments! What aviation news will you check out next?
Better than the old system
The 'panini predictor' is one of several digital projects that Ryanair is currently working with AWS on. It has thoroughly revolutionized the airline's approach to food waste and restocking, and is far more optimized than the old method.
Indeed, before the advent of the panini predictor, cabin crew had to collect sales data themselves to inform predictions. However, with such a wide spread of operating bases, the enormity of this manual task was significant. Now, with the help of AWS, cabin crew have easier access to such data, including trends such as the fact that flights from Dublin Airport sell four times as much tea as Rome.
What do you make of Ryanair's 'panini predictor' tool? Have you ever purchased food and drink onboard one of the carrier's flights? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments!