gategroup and Air Europa to enter long term global partnership for culinary and retail offering

Gate Gourmet and gateretail, two gategroup member companies, have been awarded a six-year contract to serve Spanish carrier Air Europa Lineas Aereas (Air Europa).

The Majorcan-headquartered carrier is 100% owned by the Globalia travel and tourism group and is a member of the Skyteam alliance. Air Europa flies to and from destinations across Spain, Europe, Latin- America, the US, Africa and the Middle East.

Effective 1 January 2020, gategroup will enter into a global partnership with Air Europa to bring a seamless and fully integrated end-to-end solution that delivers best in class inflight services, with a powerful balance of customer centricity, flexibility and excellence in culinary, operational and retail capabilities. This will be from a number of locations both in Spain, (including Air Europa’s main hub operations in Madrid), and Latin-America, where gategroup retains its current business in Sao Paulo (Brazil). Short, medium and long-haul flights will feature in the new contract covering Business and Economy classes culinary offering, as well as Duty Free services on long haul flights. Business meals and Buy on Board retail services will also be offered on short and medium haul routes.

Air Europa’s main hub will be operated from gategroup’s new, state-of-the-art facility at Coslada, near Adolfo Suarez Madrid Barajas airport.A cutting-edge kitchen at the new 9,000 sqm facility will allow the company’s chefs to showcase their talents and deliver innovative and creative meals to all classes of the airline’s guests. The fully digitalized kitchen features the latest culinary equipment, from mobile device cooking to fermentation and will enable Gate Gourmet Madrid to become a culinary competence center which leads the way in creativity and delivers new benchmarks in airline catering.

“We are delighted that our flexibility, commitment and innovation have been recognized as strong differentiators and will establish a strong foundation for our relationship with Air Europa,” says Xavier Rossinyol, CEO of gategroup. “Our value proposition conveys an exciting blend of technology, retail and culinary innovation which will allow Air Europa to deliver a superior offering to their passengers.”

Richard Clark, Deputy Managing Director Air Europa added: “We have chosen gategroup for its unrivalled world-class operational excellence, unexpected innovation, remarkable technological solutions, omni-channel retailing and desire to deliver increased customer satisfaction.”

Media inquiries

Nancy Jewell
njewell@gategroup.com

About gategroup

gategroup is the global leader in airline catering, retail-on-board and hospitality products and services. gategroup provides passengers with superior culinary and retail experiences, leveraging innovation and advanced technology solutions. Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, gategroup delivers operational excellence through the most extensive catering network in the aviation industry, serving passengers from over 200 operating units in over 60 countries/territories across all continents. For further information, please visit www.gategroup.com.

About Air Europa

Air Europa is a member of the SkyTeam alliance, formed by 19 airlines that provide access to a global network with over 14.500 daily flights to 1.150 destinations in 175 countries. The Air Europa fleet is one of the most modern in Europe. It consists of 51 aircraft with an average age of less than 4 years old. The company is part of the Globalia Group, the largest Spanish tourism conglomerate and it is a leader in environmental conservation processes. In 2018, the German environmental organisation Atmosfair rated Air Europa as Europe’s most efficient network carrier. In 2018, Air Europa transported more than 11 million passengers. More information about Air Europa can be found on its official website www.aireuropa.com or its social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram.

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