Delta caterer stops serving food
By Marilyn Adams
USA Today
Delta Air Lines' financial crisis spilled into passengers' view yesterday after the airline's main food caterer temporarily stopped service.
Gate Gourmet, Delta's primary caterer, quit serving Delta flights Tuesday night.
By late yesterday, Delta announced it had won a temporary restraining order from an Atlanta judge requiring Gate Gourmet to resume service.
Delta said the loss of food service resulted from a contract dispute. The airline declined to discuss the dispute or say how many flights were affected. It did not release a copy of the judge's order.
A Gate Gourmet spokeswoman did not return calls or e-mails.
Boston-based bankruptcy lawyer Jon Schneider said Delta's vendors may be denying credit to the airline for fear it will file for bankruptcy-court protection and stop paying bills. Vendors may be demanding cash, he said. Delta CEO Jerry Grinstein has warned that the airline might file for bankruptcy protection this month.
"For a relationship with a key supplier to deteriorate like that is a very bad sign," Schneider said.
Delta notified passengers in e-mails yesterday that it was "experiencing a problem with food service" and referred questions to its Web site. There, Delta advised passengers to arrive for flights early to get food vouchers and buy meals at airports before boarding.
By last night, the site advised passengers the airline was "beginning to resume catering on most flights."
Delta passengers normally receive a complimentary meal on long domestic flights and on international flights.
As a result of the disruption, passengers from the United States to Europe faced flights of several hours without meal service.
Gate Gourmet's action followed a similar one by caterer LSG Sky Chefs last week.
First-class passenger John Koon of Atlanta said that when he arrived for his flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico, he was given an $8 food voucher to buy an airport meal.
The catering glitch is the latest sign of the No. 3 carrier's slide toward bankruptcy court. Monday, it reached a tentative deal with its pilots union to stem a tide of early retirements.
So many pilots have retired to claim lump-sum pension benefits, the airline feared it might have to cancel flights.
Many pilots have retired early and taken half their pension in a lump sum because their pension plan could be dissolved in a bankruptcy case.
