Some thoughts on the new Economy meal service: It should be an improvement. It is not.

I have been served four meals under the new service routines with the new trays and dishes. Four very average meals is beginning to look like routine rather than the exception.

So what has gone wrong.

1. The tray size. Instead of the old larger trays with the Burj al Arab styled dishes spread around the tray we now have half trays with standard shaped dishes fitted onto the tray like a jigsaw. The trays are very cramped.

2. The dishes are smaller. Quantities reduced and I assume costs reduced.

3. The continental breakfast (served on morning flights to Europe and the USA) used to offer a choice of arabic mezze or cold cuts. Both were good sized plates. It might have been the best economy meal served on EK. Now there is no choice. Cold cuts only on a much smaller dish.

4. The warm breakfast croissant is now served cold. Indeed that it is a problem with all the bread. The old rolls in a plastic bag have gone and will not be missed. Bread is added to the tray by the crew. But the bread is not warmed maybe due to lack of space in the ovens.

The light bites tray is still there in a new form. The trouble is finding anywhere on the tray to store the accumulating garbage and wrapping.

The Kiri cheese is still there - with some crispy foccacia pieces, sweet chilli dip and cheese crackers.

5. The biggest problem with the old service was that drinks were served separately and unless you were among the first to be served then meals had often been eaten before drinks arrived. Now drinks are carried on the meal cart. And the crew double-end each cart with one crew serving the meal and the other serving drinks. This is good if you are among the first to be served. Otherwise it greatly slows down the meal delivery. So most passengers are now receiving their hot meal tepid, if not cool.

6. Coffee and tea are now served while the trays are collected. This creates some confusion (for crew and passengers). And again slows down the coffee service.

7. Special meals are served first as before. But you will need to wait for drinks from the general cart service.

8. The crew are not yet familiar with the new service routines. And most economy crew in Emirates are fairly (or very) new to the airline so have little real experience of making the service fast and efficient.

9. Although EK wants to carry out the meal service as soon as possible after take off on all four flights it has taken a surprisingly long time to begin the meal service. It may be that the carts take longer to set up as they now carry more meals in each due to the smaller trays.

It just feels like EK have not thought this through properly; and that the accountants rather than the service delivery team may have made most of the decisions.

Best just to sit back and watch ICE. Box sets of TV dramas maybe the best thing that ever happened to IFE.

Sorry - never got around to taking any pictures of the meal trays. Will try and do so in the next week.

airbus3888