Airlines Still Offer Fliers Fine Wine as a High-Class Amenity
The World's Airlines Buy 4.3 Million Gallons of Wine a Year
Most airlines have eliminated meals, free pillows and magazines. They've reduced snacks to a miniature bag of pretzels.
But there's one frill many refuse to skimp on in their cost-cutting drive to be profitable: wine.
The world's airlines annually buy about 4.3 million gallons of wine, and some spend at least $15 million on wine each year, the airlines and wine experts estimate. Some airlines pour wine that retails for $50 to $220 a bottle. And some employ consultants or sommeliers and require flight attendants to take courses to improve their wine knowledge.
"Service cutbacks and the recession have not affected airlines' wine-buying policies," says Lori Lynne Brundick, president of Intervine, an airline wine supplier in Napa, Calif. "They're buying quality wines and increasing the diversity of their wine lists."
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Why hold onto an apparent extravagance in an age of low-cost, no-amenity flying? The airlines say the wines they serve uphold their reputations and instill brand loyalty in their highest-paying customers: first- and business-class passengers.
Premium passengers are served the better-quality wines for free. Coach passengers, however, usually receive lesser-quality wine and pay five or six times what the airline paid for it.
USA TODAY gathered the wine lists of 33 airlines with U.S. flights and asked wine expert Dan Berger to evaluate them. Berger is a syndicated wine columnist who judges wine competitions and has a website, www.vintageexperiences.com.
"I'm impressed with what many airlines are offering," says Berger, who evaluated all wines, champagnes and ports for October-through-December flights. "Their wine lists show creativity and forethought."
Berger says he's "astounded" by the wine lists of Qantas and Air New Zealand on flights to and from the USA. He ranks Qantas No. 1 and Air New Zealand No. 2 of the 33 airlines' wine lists.
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