KUALA LUMPUR: Brahim’s Holdings Bhd is asking the government and Khazanah Nasional Bhd to consider increasing Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAS) inflight food allocation in order to provide better quality of inflight meals.
The national airline, which has been under the limelight in the last few months over its multi-billion ringgit impairment setback to sovereign wealth fund Khazanah, has also been under scrutiny over the quality of food served on board its flights.
MAS has a 30 per cent stake in Brahim’s Sats Food Services Sdn Bhd (SATS), which holds the inflight concession for the national carrier.
The remaining 70 per cent is held by Brahim’s Sats Investment Holdings Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Brahim’s.
Before MAS restructuring, Brahim’s held a 25-year concession to handle in-flight catering ending in 2028.
Brahim’s reportedly negotiated with Khazanah to honour the concession after MAS was restructured.
The “new deal” expires in 2020 with an option to extend it for another five years. Technically, the concession is shortened by three years and 25 per cent cheaper than the original concession.
In an exclusive interview with NST Business and Berita Harian recently, Brahim’s executive chairman Datuk Seri Ibrahim Ahmad said as an inflight caterer, BSATS accommodates to what the airlines want and what they are willing to pay.
"Based on my experience supplying daily more than 45,000 meals to 30 over airlines for the last 16 years and watching the yearly rating how each perform, I know food plays a very important role in getting more people to fly the airline.
“We understand that MAS is going through a tough time right now but we hope the government and Khazanah would consider raising food allocation to ensure we can provide quality food to the passengers and help us manage our costs better.
“Most of the other airlines that we serve are paying three to five times to what MAS is paying. What we are asking is to increase to at between two and 2.5 times of the other airlines’ under the current circumstances,” he said.
Ibrahim hoped that whoever takes control of MAS address the issue of food allocation and allocate the necessary resources to improve the "inflight experience" which will determine whether passengers will continue to fly with the national airline.
“As a catering company, we work hand in hand with the airlines providing the best solution for food and other services. We feel the pain too and we need to clear the air on any misconception about the food services.
“In airline meal development, we have to go through a few testing sessions and decision is from airlines on the kind or type of food to be served. As a caterer, we give what airlines want as per the price that they are willing to pay.
“In the case of MAS, we ended up absorbing some of the cost as we are bound by the meal price constraints of the New Catering Agreement signed under the MAS Act in 2014 and our hands are tied by the prescribed cost determined by MAS,” he added.
“We are working all out to improve the meals on board MAS but we hope MAS can consider additional allocation for meals or slightly higher pricing than the NCA.
“Due to the cost constraint, we ended up absorbing some of the cost as we are bound by the fixed pricing despite the fact that quality food comes at a price,” he said further.
BSATS is a globally recognised as the world’s 100 per cent halal certified flight kitchen with multiple international awards won for quality and service excellence from top airlines.
It also serves five out of a total of 10 world-class airlines such as Qatar Airways, All Nippon Airways, Emirates, EVA Air and Cathay Pacific Airways while also catering to 33 airlines including MAS for flights in KLIA and Penang International Airport which provides all halal meals.
Its kitchen caters to an average of 270 flights and prepares an average of 45,000 to 50,000 in-flight meals daily with a maximum capacity of more than 60,000 meals per day.
The company is reputed to be the largest halal airline catering in the world with an experienced team of 12 chefs, 164 cooks and 400 culinary staff and more than 1,300 employees.