Religious Travelers - easyJet apologizes for offering only bacon, ham on flight from Tel Aviv

Daily Mail - And for our kosher customers... ham melts or bacon baguettes: Fury of Jewish passengers at pork-only menu on easyJet flight (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1359459/easyJet-forgets-Kosher-policy-serves-bacon-sandwiches-Jewish-passengers.html)
EasyJet has been branded 'insensitive' by Jewish customers who were served bacon sandwiches on a flight from Israel.

Airline staff for the budget airline were forced to apologise on the route to London when passengers of the Jewish faith were offered only ham melts and bacon baguettes.

The airline claims to take pride in its inclusion of kosher food on the journey which was was introduced only in November

But Jewish passengers were forced to go hungry for four and a half hours because the wrong meals were taken on board.

What a blunder on the part of catering. I'm confused as the article stated te provisioning took place at TLV. I can't imagine Kosher flight kitchen at TLV would make such a serious mistake and that they would have pork and bacon sandwiches in the first place. I'm most disturbed by some of the comments posted however.

What a blunder on the part of catering. I'm confused as the article stated te provisioning took place at TLV. I can't imagine Kosher flight kitchen at TLV would make such a serious mistake and that they would have pork and bacon sandwiches in the first place. I'm most disturbed by some of the comments posted however.

It is common for airlines to double cater flights. This mistake occurred at Luton.

The Jewish Chronicle (http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/45706/easyjet-gives-another-non-kosher-helping):
EasyJet gives another non-kosher helping

The budget airline forced to apologise for serving ham on a flight from Israel this week admitted it has happened more than once.

EasyJet said the wrong canisters had been loaded on to a jet at Luton airport which led to crew offering ham melts and bacon baguettes to passengers returning from Tel Aviv.

A spokeswoman said at the time that they had broken their own policy not to load pork products and that guidance had been reissued to all cabin crew members.

But easyJet has since admitted that the mistake has happened again after another customer complained.

St Johns Wood businessman David Abrahams said he was offered the sandwiches on both his outward and return flight to Tel Aviv earlier this month.

"This wasn't a mistake," he said. "An announcement was made on both the outward and return flight. I was flabbergasted."

He also lashed out at staff training after one stewardess offered a ham sandwich to a Chasidic man sitting next to him.

"I thought it was so insensitive," Mr Abrahams said. "I was quite horrified. I couldn't believe my ears. They shouldn't do this on an airline going to Tel Aviv.

"There was no sensitivity. The staff didn't realise it would be offensive. They hadn't been trained."

An easyJet spokeswoman said: "It does appear that the mistake was made on more than one flight around the time of the original flight mentioned - easyJet takes this extremely seriously and has put the necessary processes in place to ensure that this cannot happen again.

"All easyJet crew operating the Tel Aviv flight are given a full briefing before each flight, that includes cultural awareness. We include such information as part of our cabin crew training courses."

What a blunder on the part of catering. I'm confused as the article stated te provisioning took place at TLV. I can't imagine Kosher flight kitchen at TLV would make such a serious mistake and that they would have pork and bacon sandwiches in the first place. I'm most disturbed by some of the comments posted however.

Unfortunately not all Flight catering out of TLV is Kosher. I am pretty sure that even the non Kosher ones do not serve ham or bacon, but one should be aware that not all meals from TLV are Kosher. If you are not flying EL AL and want a Kosher meal you must make a special request in advance

Unfortunately not all Flight catering out of TLV is Kosher. I am pretty sure that even the non Kosher ones do not serve ham or bacon, but one should be aware that not all meals from TLV are Kosher. If you are not flying EL AL and want a Kosher meal you must make a special request in advance

Many airlines do serve ham and/or pork out of TLV, especially in business and first.

I'm not clear why offering a bacon sandwich should be offensive, given that around the world many people eat bacon sandwiches. Surely the answer is just to decline the offer.

It's extremely poor that they omitted to load *any* Kosher food at all, and I think that's well worthy of complaint. But people of all nationalities and religions travel by air across the world on airlines from all different countries, so if something doesn't suit you just decline it.

FWIW, the incoming Tel Aviv flight used to work one of the Geneva flights I frequent, and didn't have catering reloaded at Luton before it went out. This resulted in nasty "non dairy creamer" being served with the tea and coffee instead of milk, which tended to draw one or two complaints (it was just about tolerable in coffee, but utterly foul in tea). So it goes both ways...

Neil