SWITZERLAND. Gate Gourmet and gateretail have been awarded a six-year contract to serve Spanish carrier Air Europa Lineas Aereas (Air Europa), effective 1 January 2020.
The Majorcan-headquartered carrier is 100% owned by the Globalia travel and tourism group and is a member of the Skyteam alliance. Air Europa flies to and from destinations across Spain, Europe, Latin- America, the US, Africa and the Middle East.
The two gategroup companies will enter into a global partnership with Air Europa to bring what the group described as “a seamless and fully integrated end-to-end solution that delivers best in class inflight services, with a powerful balance of customer centricity, flexibility and excellence in culinary, operational and retail capabilities”.
The operation will be from a number of locations in both Spain, (including Air Europa’s main hub operations in Madrid), and Latin America, where gategroup retains its current business in Sao Paulo (Brazil).
Short, medium and long-haul flights will feature in the new contract covering Business and Economy classes culinary offering, as well as duty free services on long-haul flights. Business meals and Buy on Board retail services will also be offered on short and medium haul routes.
Air Europa’s main hub will be operated from gategroup’s new facility at Coslada, near Adolfo Suarez Madrid Barajas Airport. A cutting-edge kitchen at the new 9,000 sqm facility will allow the company’s chefs to showcase their talents and deliver innovative and creative meals to all classes of the airline’s guests. The fully digitalized kitchen features the latest culinary equipment, from mobile device cooking to fermentation and will enable Gate Gourmet Madrid to become a culinary competence center which leads the way in creativity and delivers new benchmarks in airline catering.
“We are delighted that our flexibility, commitment and innovation have been recognised as strong differentiators and will establish a strong foundation for our relationship with Air Europa,” said gategroup CEO Xavier Rossinyol. “Our value proposition conveys an exciting blend of technology, retail and culinary innovation which will allow Air Europa to deliver a superior offering to their passengers.”
Air Europa Deputy Managing Director Richard Clark added: “We have chosen gategroup for its unrivalled world-class operational excellence, unexpected innovation, remarkable technological solutions, omni-channel retailing and desire to deliver increased customer satisfaction.”
