Royal Dutch Airlines, Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij KLM, president Pieter Elbers has officially opened the new World Business Class food production with a Robot at KLM Catering Services (KCS).
KLM Catering Services (KCS) took the new innovative robot for the production of meals for Economy Class. So far, KCS called themselves “the only company in the world” to implement such innovation into catering services.
KCS, the company which provides catering services to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, announced that the new robot system was implemented for production in a backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to KCS, the system would cut passenger meal production costs as well as adjust the meal trays.
The new robot system reduces handling costs and facilitates the process of adjusting the food trays. This not only makes production cheaper, but also more flexible and customer-oriented, as more products can be covered on different types of trays. Special requirements of passengers can be met more easily. The production is also twice as big as the previous system, i.e. 30,000 units.
The robot system embodies a great piece of innovation and investment in the future. We now only use a fraction of the capacity of 30,000 meals a day. Nonetheless, I’m pleased we’ve taken this step. After all, we must continue to innovate and look to the future – especially now,“ earlier in September 2020 announced Pieter Elbers, the President and CEO of KLM.
“It’s important to continue to innovate and invest, even in these difficult times. It serves to increase the quality of our products. I’m very proud that KCS is the only catering company in the world to apply such mechanization,“ stated Maarten Stienen, the Managing Director of KCS.
The implementation of new technology is one of the first steps into the mechanization process of catering services. According to the CEO of KLM, it should increase passenger-centricity and help to serve a wider array of meals on different types of trays. Pieter Elbers also said that the technology will help to meet a larger number of various special meal requests.