CHINA. Beijing Daxing International Airport has entered into a partnership with Chinese food delivery platform Ele.me, according to the Beijing-based news agency Pandaily.
Its report said that 21 airport restaurants are aligned to the new Ele.me service, with food delivery guaranteed within 30 minutes inside the airport. Passengers can have the food delivered to departure gates and are permitted to take their purchases on to their outgoing planes.
The Ele.me platform – which continues to operate independently after being acquired by Alibaba for US$9.5 billion in 2018 – is offering approximately 700 types of food from within the airport, including Chinese cuisine, fast food, coffee, tea and bakery products.
As of 2019, Ele.me had become the largest food delivery service in China with a 53.4% market share. Its clients now also include foreign retailers such as German supermarket chain Aldi, after Alibaba added grocery delivery to the platform’s service list.
The Chinese characters which spell ‘Èle me?’ roughly translate to ‘Hungry now?’ in English.
