Airline denies vegan food, rises hackles of animal activist

A Chembur-based animal rights activist who was denied a vegan meal on board a Jet Airways flight, and ended up travelling on empty stomach for over 10 hours, has written to the Jet Airways management, questioning their decision to withdraw serving vegan food without any notice to its travel agents or customers.

Siva, who travels to Delhi regularly for official purpose alleged that incidentally while he was served a vegan meal on July 21 by the same airline, on July 28 on his Mumbai-bound flight from Delhi he was informed by the cabin staff that they had discontinued the option.

"Being in a series of meetings on July 28, I could not eat anything post 2 pm till I reached the Delhi airport, and since my flight was at 7.45 pm I decided to eat onboard itself. However after the flight took off I was in for a surprise as I was told that there was no vegan meal but only vegetarian and non vegetarian meal options available, and clearly the vegetarian meal was not suitable for vegans," he said.

He further alleged that his official tickets were booked by a leading travel management company and they had confirmed to him on email that Jet Airways had issued no circular or intimation on this change in policy, and even enquiries with ClearTrip confirmed the same. "This is a serious issue concerning personal choices, health safety and principles, and to make such a broad policy change without advance intimation is unethical and cruel," Siva wrote in his letter. He also wrote that since he was forced to skip meals onboard, it was only post midnight that he ate after reaching home and ended up with serious acidity causing discomfort, health and productivity lapses.

Stating that worldwide, more and more countries, institutions and airlines are expanding their vegan and other allergy-friendly options Siva wrote that his letter should be treated as complaint letter. He demanded and urged that Jet immediately reinstate these choices and ensure basic customer needs are met. A Jet airways spokesperson said "Jet Airways guests can choose from multiple meal options including 24 special meal types. However, going by trends, we have seen certain special meal options have a higher consumption pattern than others on our domestic flights."

No demand 

A source in the airline said that vegan food was found to be low in demand on domestic routes and hence discontinued based on periodic reviews, and channel partners were informed about it. If the passenger did not get the meal there are chances of its unavailability.