Emirates Serves Up New Meal Boxes For Younger Gourmets

Trendy new school briefcase-style meal boxes are being snapped up by style-conscious young travellers on Dubai’s award-winning Emirates Airline.

The hygienic plastic boxes are the latest high-flying fashion accessory to keep young customers coming back for more - time and time again.

Ideal for serving hot food without burning small fingers, they meet the toughest safety standards, clip firmly shut, and have strong handles so they can be used afterwards as attaché cases to look after cherished toys and games.

Inside the stylish boxes are three compartments, one for the hot meal and the others for various giveaway children’s favourites.

These include a working sport diver’s watch which they can reset to local time on arrival, helping to teach them about the world’s time zones; a brightly coloured cutlery set; a folding toothbrush labelled “clean your teeth after every meal”; and a small game.

The tempting selection of hot dishes for younger fliers includes chicken burgers, spaghetti with meatballs, lasagne, fish fingers and aircraft-shaped breaded chicken goujons. Cabin crew will add a fresh bread roll and butter and serve the meal box with a soft drink.

The safety-first design reduces the risk of hot food falling from the table or tray, making it suitable for sophisticated travellers of any age to ‘do lunch’ just like their parents.

Boxes come in two colours, blue and orange. The blue boxes contain a portion of Rumblers, a new snack with cornflakes and long-life milk; a carton of  orange juice; a fruit bar; and a packet of jelly babies. Orange meal boxes contain a different game, a differently coloured watch and toothbrush, a carton of apple juice and fruit pastilles, plus the school bars and Rumblers.

The new boxes were field-tested before launch, by the children of Emirates staff. Stefan Lotz, Manager Food Product Europe & North America, says: “We introduced kids’ meal boxes three years ago. Now we’re updating them in the light of feedback from young customers - who will soon grow to be the travellers of tomorrow.

“We made the plastic more robust and strengthened the handle and clips so the boxes can be used as carrying cases. The watch is a working watch, and the dividers inside can be lifted out and used as rulers.”

Boxes are served up to everyone ordering a special child’s meal, which has to be done at least 24 hours before the flight. They are now appearing (and fast disappearing) on routes between Dubai and Europe, and will be extended progressively to the rest of Emirates’ fast-growing network.

Mr Lotz says: “We’ll review their contents from time to time, but we know already that they’re popular with children. We’re more than happy for youngsters to keep them once they leave the flight, though parents sometimes mistakenly assume that they have to give them back. Sometimes our adult customers even order a kids’ meal themselves!”