Inflight retail must deliver on three fronts:
- Passenger satisfaction
- Operational efficiency
- Commercial performance
The airline in question was carrying a large, underperforming range with little clarity on what was working and what wasn’t. Our challenge was to streamline the range – without compromising customer choice or brand perception.
Our Approach: Category Management and SKU Discipline
We implemented a category management strategy, treating each category (food, drink, boutique, gifting) as a standalone business area. This allowed us to evaluate each SKU based on:
- Sales contribution
- Passenger relevance
- Margin performance
- Operational practicality (e.g. load weight, handling time)
From there, we redesigned the onboard range to include only products with a clear role. This was supported by:
- Space planning to improve product placement and visibility
- A revised promotional strategy focused on passenger need states
- A full redesign of the inflight brochure to align messaging and layout
- Ongoing range performance reviews to keep optimising over time
“Identifying the range was too large and not satisfying passengers needs, we dramatically reduced the number of SKU’s and increased space available for products that were needed. This led to improved product availability , reducing sales service complexity for the cabin crew , driving sales onboard and customer satisfaction.“
Mark Evans – Head of Trading
The Outcome: Higher Sales, Lower Load
By reducing the range to just 44 SKUs – less than half the number typically carried by competitors – and cutting the total weight to 11kg, we created a leaner, smarter product offer that delivered results.
Key Results:
- Every SKU contributed meaningfully to revenue
- Simpler restocking and faster service onboard
- Reduced waste and improved load planning
Why It Worked
This success came down to three things:
- Data-led decision making – letting the numbers, not opinions, shape the range
- Passenger relevance – aligning products to real onboard needs
- Operational simplicity – making the offer easy to deliver, track and restock
Our approach proves that inflight retail doesn’t need endless choice to be profitable. It needs the right products, clearly positioned, with strong performance backing every decision
