A restaurant experience at 30,000 feet
AirAsia launches AirAsia Santan inflight meals featuring the flavors of Asean cuisines.
When I was younger, I would never eat airplane food. No matter what it was, I couldn’t seem to get myself to like it. This is coming from a kid who ate everything and was willing to try anything. I would always have bread and butter or bring my own pack of Skyflakes on board. For long-haul flights, that meant I would collect the rolls and butter of my mom and grandparents so I wouldn’t go hungry.
Earlier this year, AirAsia launched its own line of inflight meals called AirAsia Santan. The vision behind Santan was guided by AirAsia’s CEO, Tony Fernandes. When he traveled, he noticed that most airlines serve food you don’t really understand. AirAsia is a people’s airline. That being said, they didn’t want to serve anything that would intimidate their passengers. Fernandes challenged his team to come up with affordable meals that are close to home, and collectively pull together the taste of ASEAN.
Fernandes wants AirAsia passengers to have a restaurant experience at 30,000 feet. Based on the logic that airline food doesn’t have to be complicated, AirAsia aims to produce great food and promote local food at a reasonable price. This will also help in differentiating AirAsia from other airlines’ food that is of good value and great taste.
Fernandes talks about how food is universal and how sometimes, less is more. Another objective of this campaign is to introduce different cuisines to the rest of Asia. As of now, the top-selling inflight meal from the Philippines is nasi lemak. Now everyone else flying AirAsia to their respective destination countries will be able to try a version of Philippine adobo, as well as Thai green curry or pad Thai, etc. Asia has been blessed with a mix of cultures and influences so it’s just natural to have such diverse flavor profiles throughout Asia.
I was able to try some of the AirAsia Santan meals on a round-trip flight to and from Kuala Lumpur. One of my favorites was Uncle Chin’s Singapore Chicken Rice, a Singaporean dish that comes with a packet of chili sauce. The Thai green curry rice was also very good. It left a taste that lingered in my mouth and left me craving for more. It crossed my mind that perhaps I should have ordered two for myself.
They also recently added a new dish, chicken lasagna, which I can’t wait to try. Other meals available onboard are Pak Nasser’s nasi lemak from Malaysia, spicy beef bulgogi with japchae from Korea, miso chicken with garlic rice from Japan, nasi kuning manado from Indonesia, and much more.
The most exciting news of all is that AirAsia also recently launched their Lil’ Star Combo to make the flying experience pleasant for AirAsia’s young flyers. They now don’t have to settle for rolls and butter like I did. Instead, they get a mini chicken pizza with rich tomato sauce, a mix of mozzarella and cheddar cheese and chicken slices. The meal also comes with a pack of Oreo cookies and a chocolate drink for only P180.
Don’t forget to book your meals. Passengers can preorder their AirAsia Santan meals online 24 hours before their respective flights. Pre-booking meals will give assurance of meal availability during the flight. Now that there’s food for everyone in the family, family trips will be much more comfortable and hassle-free with AirAsia Santan.
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