Qantas restores hot snacks in domestic Economy

One of my earliest memories of flying was savouring a mango-flavoured Weis bar on a Qantas flight to Sydney. And now, many years later, it seems that Qantas’ domestic Economy catering is coming full circle again.

Over the coming weeks, Qantas will bring back a ‘more substantial range’ of hot snack items on domestic Economy flights longer than two hours. Rather than cheese and crackers, passengers can tuck into a scrambled egg brioche with tomato relish in the mornings or a warm ciabatta roll with Portuguese chicken and mango lime jam in the afternoon.

Other highlighted options include:

• Carrot and pumpkin fritters
• Artisanal beef sausage rolls

As expected, the menu items are all created by Australian producers and feature ‘premium local ingredients’.

In contrast, Jetstar offers hot pies and toasties as part of a buy-onboard menu. Virgin Australia similarly does not offer complimentary snacks in Economy anymore but does sell fresh sandwiches and wraps.

The menu refresh comes almost six months after Qantas reintroduced complimentary beer and wine from midday across all its domestic flights. In that same vein, you’ll now be able to sip coffee or tea up to 4 pm.

Phil Capps, Qantas Executive Manager of Product and Service, says that the team at Qantas are ‘always adjusting our menu in response to customer feedback and to enhance our inflight dining experience.

Finally, the iconic Weis ice cream bars will again be offered on longer domestic Economy journeys of over 3.5 hours (essentially all transcontinental flights). Here’s hoping that the mango makes an appearance again.

Featured image courtesy of Qantas. In-text food images by Brandon Loo.