Tell us about your role in Tigerbites. How long have you been leading this?
I have been with Tigerair for eight years. Three years ago, I moved into the commercial department as a commercial coordinator with a focus on inflight products including our Tigerbites menu. We work closely with Gate Retail On-board for product selection and Jef Tan for menu designs. Our seasonal menu changes for summer and winter. We always have a theme in mind for Tigerbites and we let the theme tell the story. As a customer focused airline, we continue to review feedback and demand to ensure our inflight products meets their needs. It’s all about value and choice. So, our menu features a broad range of options, catering for every budget and taste, including a range of dietary preferences that are vegan-friendly, dairy-free and gluten-free. And all at great value prices too.
You’ve been in the airlines industry for a long time it seems. What’s changed?
The biggest changes in the airline food space over recent times have been overcoming outdated customer perceptions and expectations, particularly of budget airlines. Customers now expect high quality food packed with flavour that is satisfying, wide-ranging and value for money as well. The inflight experience with Tigerair today exceeds expectations on all these fronts.
Finish this sentence: A hungry passenger is…? our favourite type of passenger as they can trust that the on-board Tigerbites menu options will provide great food with great value for money in flight.
About “Street Eats at 30,000 Feet”: Did you come up with that slogan?
Yes, in conjunction with my manager. Together we created the theme and slogan at my persistent suggestions!
What was its inspiration?
Australians love being outside, they love being social and they love festivals. There has been a huge boom in street food, food trucks and food festival trends. So, we thought why not capture this in a fun way in flight? We looked at focusing our Tigerbites food options around tasty items that you can expect to find at your favourite food festival. The “Street eats at 30,000ft” slogan encapsulates the food festival trends that we are seeing on the ground so now we are taking them to the air, 30,000ft above the ground.
What is the all-time best seller on board?
We change our menu twice yearly and our best sellers often change seasonally. A tried-and-tested year-round favourite continues to be the jumbo all day egg and bacon roll and the pie and sausage roll duo pack from Villi’s.
Which is your favourite image from Tigerbites?
I have so many favourite shots images thanks to the Jef Tan and the team at Blackwood Studios. I can limit it to my two favourites, one from our winter edition of street eats at 30,000ft featuring the Tigerair food truck at night time starring one of our fabulous crew members behind the counter.
The lighting is great and it really sets a theme to tell the food truck story.
The other would be the back page of our current Tigerbites menu which is part of our Tigershop. It captures the imagination and innocence of a child, flying his toy plane dressed in a pilot’s goggles and hat.
