BA scraps short-haul food & drinks

British Airways has axed all meals, except breakfast, on its short-haul flights in a bid to save £22m a year. Passengers on flights after 10am, which last less than two-and-half hours, will only be served drinks and snacks. They will not have the option to buy food. This in effect means meal bands 1, 2, and 3.

Currently passengers on short-haul flights typically get a small bar of birdseed on short flights, or a sandwich on longer ones. This will be replaced by a bag of nuts or another snack.

BA insisted it was still a "full service" airline, with those flying before 10am continuing to be served breakfast, however it's hard to square this with the inflight service.

In Business, there will also be cuts, with no more hot towels, while chocolates and Jacobs crackers are taken from first class passengers.

It's clear that BA is moving towards becoming a Budget carrier, which have always sold food and drink as an optional extra. For example Easyjet has revealed that the average passenger pays £10 per flight in so-called "ancillary revenues" - which includes items sold on board as well as checked-in baggage charges.