NEWS CATERING
Chef Eero Vottonen to develop Finnair Signature Menu Finnair announced November 1 a new partnership with Finnish Chef Eero Vottonen for its latest Signature Menu collaboration. “The Signature Menu cooperation with Eero Vottonen will bring true Nordic elements to Finnair’s long-haul business class customers flying out of Helsinki to all destinations as of January 11, 2017,” said a release from Finnair. Last year, Vottonen was selected as Finland’s candidate for the Bocuse d’Or competition taking place in Lyon, France every second year. The Bocuse D’Or brings together 24 chefs to compete on the international stage. During his career, Vottonen has worked in the top kitchens of Finland including restaurants such as Chez Dominique, Luomo, G.W. Sundmans and Olo. “Eero has fast become one of the best chefs in Scandinavia and we are very excited to offer our long-haul business class passengers with his exceptional food,” says Maarit Keränen, Head of In-Flight Service at Finnair. “With next year marking Finland’s centennial anniversary, it’s a great opportunity for us to collaborate with Finland’s candidate for the Bocuse d’Or competition. We’d like to wish Eero all the best as he sets his sights on the final preparations for the prestigious event in January.” “Throughout the past few years, I’ve been fortunate enough to have the chance to work with many top chefs and I’ve learned a wide variety of ways and views on food through these experiences,” said
Flying Food Group caters new SQ A350 route from SFO Flying Food Group is catering the new Singapore Airlines direct, non-stop service between San Francisco and Singapore. The daily A350 flights launched October 23 and the aircraft is the 10,000th built by Airbus since production began in the 1970’s. Singapore Airlines has been a Flying Food customer at SFO since 2002. The caterer also supplies Singapore Airlines at New York JFK. The new flights are the longest in the Singapore Airlines network. Flying time ranges between 14:35 hours and 17:45 hours depending on direction and time of year. The A350-900 offers passengers an improved traveling experience with higher ceilings, larger windows, an extra wide body and lighting designed to reduce jetlag. Singapore Airlines took delivery of its first A350-900 in March and now has six, with another 61 on firm order, including seven of the ultra-long-range A350-900ULR variant. Singapore Airlines is the launch customer for the A350-900ULR, Singapore Airlines’ A350 is which will be delivered catered in San Francisco in 2018. The aircraft will be used to re-launch non-stop flights between Singapore and both New York and Los Angeles. SIA serves San Francisco twice daily, with the other flight operating via Hong Kong. 6 | PAX INTERNATIONAL | DECEMBER 2016
Vottonen. “The philosophy I bring to cooking is actually quite simple, the flavor always comes first and I want to use quality ingredients that are sourced from nearby suppliers.”
One of the first of the Signature meals from Eero Vottonen
AIRLINE NEWS AirFi brings wireless to Nesma Cabins
AirFi announced at the APEX Expo in Singapore the signing of its first customer in the Middle East – and 21st customer globally – Nesma Airlines. Nesma plans to use the company’s streaming IFE solution on its A320 family aircraft starting this month. AirFi’s fully featured portable Wireless IFE platform allows passengers to access DRM and non-DRM movies and TV shows, games, chat, duty free and post-flight shopping and daily updated news and social feeds. The company currently works with more than 50 content providers, including its official regional partner, Onboard International. AirFi’s acquisition of a European technology firm earlier this year gave the company the ability to offer a state-of-the-art 3D moving map. This new feature showcases numerous points of interest and offers the opportunity for geo-fenced advertising. Passengers can access the content using their personal electronic devices to connect to a free onboard Wi-Fi network created by the AirFi boxes, which are positioned in overhead bins. AirFi will initially offer Nesma’s passengers content in English, with the roll-out of Arabic-language content due soon after the solution goes live. “We are delighted to welcome Nesma to the AirFi family and to open up another new region here in the Middle East with our partner Onboard International,” said AirFi CEO, Job Heimerikx, in last week’s announcement. “We are dedicated to a continuous program of passenger experience enhancements and ensuring that the AirFi platform leads the market as the best-in-class hard and software solution for safety, performance, cost and speed of deployment.” So far, it has 18 European customers, as well as one carrier based in the Philippines and one based in Mexico have taken the product. Nesma operates scheduled domestic and international flights within Saudi Arabia. Domestic cabins are all economy class and offer snacks and hot and cold beverages. The airline has been operating since June 2010. The airline has a fleet of A321, A320, A319 and ATR72-600 aircraft.