Virgin Atlantic awards global in-flight management and UK catering business to LSG Sky Chefs
Industry-leading partnership model created
Sky Chefs, the world’s leading provider of quality in-flight catering, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Virgin Atlantic to manage the airline’s in-flight activities on a global scale and extend its catering services within the UK.
The five-year global contract will see LSG Sky Chefs supplying an extensive range of innovative in-flight and equipment management solutions to the carrier. It will involve the design, development and management of in-flight services as well as the warehousing and distribution, procurement and ownership of Virgin Atlantic’s equipment. Those activities will be transferred to LSG Sky Chefs step by step, starting immediately.
The catering contract, which commences on June 1, 2005, extends LSG Sky Chefs’ existing partnership with the airline to include Virgin Atlantic’s two UK hubs (London-Heathrow and London-Gatwick).
LSG Sky Chefs was selected as Virgin’s preferred partner after an extensive evaluation process and careful due diligence.
“We were impressed by LSG Sky Chefs’ ability to build tailor-made solutions’, said Paul Dickinson, Virgin Atlantic’s Director of Customer Services just after signing the contract in London. “We are confident that we have chosen the best partner in the market to support us in fulfilling our promise to the pas-sengers”, he continues.
LSG Sky Chefs’ Herman Anbeek, Senior Vice President Sales and Services said: “We feel honored by Virgin Atlantic’s decision. Our partnership has now grown to an industry-leading level. It enables us to work closely with one of the fastest growing and most innovative airlines”.
Virgin Atlantic – Since it was founded in 1984, Virgin Atlantic Airways has become Britain’s second largest carrier serving the world’s major cities. Now based at both London’s Gatwick and Heathrow airports, it operates long haul services to 23 destinations worldwide as far apart as Las Vegas, Shanghai and Sydney.