Gallery: These Ingenious New Meal Trays Save Virgin Atlantic Millions in Cash
Photos by Map Project Office01virgin-atlantic-food
Virgin Atlantic spent $168 million upgrading their meal service by altering the look and feel of the trays and cutlery. The goal is to reduce their environmental impact by 43 percent by designing weight and waste out of the system.
Photos by Map Project Office02virgin-atlantic-tray-perspective
The goal of the redesign was to make airline meal service feel more like a restaurant with multiple courses served over time. Food isn't deposited into cavities on a pre-molded tray; instead custom designed dishes and flatware are carefully arranged on the skid-proof surface.
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Clever design modifications allow the trays to nest in the meal trolly and reduce their footprint by 25 percent, leading to massive reductions in fuel costs and carbon emissions.
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Virgin's new trays feature a soft rubber inlay that prevents food from bouncing around in transit. It increases the cost of the tray, but eliminates the need for wasteful paper liners on every flight.
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The of this carafe handle was redesigned with improved ergonomics in mind: Unlike a regular teapot, it's purpose-built to be lifted from above.
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By rotating the lid of the carafe molded text reminds flight attendants about what each pot contains and reduces the need to resort to low class hacks like writing on it with a Sharpie.
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This is a flat pack cake stand that can be assembled in under 11 seconds.
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The purple cutlery was the only facet of the design MAP couldn't radically reimagine due to stringent security requirements.
