The average mark up on inflight food compared to supermarket prices was 374%

Airlines accused of onboard snack rip-off

8th April 2010, 1:06am

Travellers who don't buy before they board are paying huge premiums for drinks and snacks onboard budget airline flights, according to research conducted by travelsupermarket.com.

A family of four buying sandwiches, drinks and a chocolate bar could end up spending nearly £50 if buying onboard rather than stocking up at home or even in airport departures.

The travel comparison site looked at supermarket, airport and onboard prices and found an average mark-up of food and drink on supermarket prices (not including hot drinks) of 374%.

Bob Atkinson from travelsupermarket.com said: "Airlines can get away with charging extortionate prices because once you're onboard there's nowhere else to go.

"Small savings can really add up, so holidaymakers who want a few extra pounds to spend while away need to get more savvy about eating and drinking onboard.

"Prices vary significantly across airlines so by bringing your own you can avoid having to think about it at all. You can take food through security, but there's no getting around the liquids ban, so then it's worth buying any non-alcoholic drinks in the departure area and ensure that you make savings versus on board costs as well as having far more choice available than from the airline trolley.

"Plus the 'healthy' eating options onboard are practically non existent, so if you've been spending weeks honing your beach body don't throw it away on the calorie laden onboard snacks."

The highest food mark-ups onboard are found on the smaller items such as crisps and baked goods. Examples of the highest percentage mark-ups of airline versus supermarket prices:

* Cup-a-soup – 1175% more (£2.38 onboard average price); on Ryanair it costs £3.16 making it the highest individual mark up excluding tea/coffee

* Pringles – 708% (£1.42 onboard average price for a quarter size tub – equivalent to nearly two full-sized tubes from a supermarket)

* Even the humble Jaffa Cake is marked up by 556% (you get three cakes) a quarter of the normal box which costs £1.20

The lowest food mark-ups onboard are found on confectionary, although on average chocolate bars such as Kit Kats, Mars Bars and Twix are marked up by 150% to 330%. A Twix is free on bmibaby when you buy a hot drink.

Bob Atkinson adds: "Holidaymakers can always avoid the whole 'buying food onboard' issue all together by flying with a scheduled carrier. British Airways offers a hot breakfast snack and drink on board all flights before 10am and drinks and a snack after that on short haul.

"Long haul flights always have a full meal and snack service as well as free drinks. Other short haul carriers such as Lufthansa, Air France, KLM and Swiss offer a basic snack or small meal, but carriers such as Iberia now charge for catering on short haul flights.

"Alternatively, take your own snacks with you or buy at the airport. We even tested a couple of low cost carriers and took are own tea bags on board, requesting hot water from the cabin crew. While staff were reluctant to do this, we were given hot water for free and saved ourselves the price of our aiport transfer on arrival." (These were easyJet, bmibaby and germanwings).

For more visit www.moneysupermarket.com.

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