Cathay Pacific - Betsy, The First Airline Beer

Cathay Pacific - Betsy, The First Airline Beer

Frequent travellers already know that food tastes different thousands of miles in the air. For example, the combination of dryness and low pressure reduces the sensitivity of your taste buds by 30% according to a study commissioned by Lufthansa.

Over the past few years, different airlines have developed menus to specifically address this challenge including selecting wines that are optimised for drinking in pressurised cabins.

Having looked at food and wine, the next frontier for airlines is beer.

Last Summer to coincide with the Rio Olympics, KLM teamed up with Dutch brewer Heineken to serve draft beer via specially designed “air kegs”

Cathay Pacific has now gone one step further by actually developing the first beer brewed specifically for airline passengers.

Brewed and bottled by the Hong Kong Beer Co, “Betsy” is named after Cathay Pacific’s very first aircraft, a DC3. It is being offered to Business and First class passengers on London Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester flights over March and April.

Cathay Pacific says that it worked with the brewery for five months to get the taste, which is designed to reduce bitterness, right. A ‘tasting panel’ including beer aficionados, restaurant managers and frequent flyers was additionally invited to test it prior to launch.

According to Cathay Pacific Head of Catering Aaron Claxton, ““We all know that food tastes very different while in the air, primarily because of the cabin pressure and the dullness of your taste buds affects the way you taste your food. When it comes to drink and beverages, we do a lot of work on how we pair our wines with the food we offer.

That has been beyond the realms of possibility when it comes to beers – there is no way you can take a product that is brewed on the ground for consumption and actually match it in the air.

In addition to being offered on UK flights, ‘Betsy’ will be available in the Cathay lounges at Heathrow and Hong Kong, as well as in a number of restaurants owned by the airline’s parent company, the Swire Group.

As an airline ‘first’ the launch of Betsy generated considerable media attention worldwide following its February 21st launch event in Hong Kong, this included outlets ranging from Fox News to Food and Wine.

Key Take-Away

Cathay Pacific has come up with something that is not only new, but very much on trend. A report last year showed that the popularity of craft beer in the UK was continuing to grow with no signs of slowing down.

The average craft beer drinker is also aged 35+ with 1/5 having a postgraduate degree, tying in with the profile of many premium class passengers.