Realistic settings for IFS

From USA Today-

"There might not be anything more consistently terrible, more chronically underwhelming than the food served on an airplane. Regardless of how hungry you might be, it's hard to get excited about sad slivers of chicken or limp strands of spaghetti that seem to have arranged themselves into a frown. But United Airlines has recently promised to start offering "restaurant quality" meals on flights, serving roasted duck and flat-iron steaks into the premium cabins on some flights. Meanwhile, economy class passengers can look forward to, um, a refreshed menu of food for purchase.

The entrees currently on United's Bistro on Board for-purchase menu range from $6.99 for a breakfast of fruit, gruyere cheese and zucchini bread to $9.99 for a Thai Curry Chicken Bowl (still a bargain compared to Icelandair's $16 chicken curry). But how much do the airlines actually spend on meals for each passenger?

According to Conde Nast Traveler, of the ten largest U.S. airlines who report their culinary expenditures to the Department of Transportation, United spends the 2nd most per passenger, forking out $6.03 per passenger for each cardboard tray of culinary delights (that dollar amount includes all cabins and both domestic and international flights). Some of the other per-person meal expenditures were:

American Airlines, $6.43

United Airlines, $6.03

Delta Air Lines, $5.36

Virgin America, $3.73

JetBlue, $1.39

The average for the ten largest domestic airlines was $3.61 per passenger, a number that was brought down by the fact that Spirit, Southwest and Allegiant don't serve meals during their flights.

According to the DOT statistics, air travelers had it so much better in the past. And so much worse. In 2001, American and United spent an average of $8 per person, but airlines' food expenditures have dropped more than 25% since then. The low point was 2007, when the average spend was $3.30 per flier.

Some scientists think that the inescapable noise of airline cabins contributes to the awfulness of their entrees. But the price tag — especially when you consider what passengers are paying — doesn't always help. Enjoy the duck"

With this article in mind, I created the following in game IFS to use for my own attempt at a realistic airline. Comments and suggestions to improve it are welcome.

Per Flight Costs: $780

Max Per Passenger Profit: $-0

Food Rating: 3 star

Accessories Rating: 3 star

Rating: 3 star

There might not be anything more consistently terrible, more chronically underwhelming than the food served on an airplane.

I assume this is talking about domestic flights only? I recently flew internationally on both All Nippon Airways and Cathay Pacific and the food was quite good.

In regards to the IFS I would say that I live in Australia so don't have much of an idea what service is like in the US, but here even the LCCs offer headphones for free. Further, I also find that food either tends to be all (breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks) free (full-service airlines like Qantas) or all paid (LCCs like Jetstar and Tiger Airways) and not a combination of both, but again that may be different in the US.

Other than these it looks fairly realistic, though I imagine could change drastically either way depending on carrier.

Last time I flew delta they charged for headphones....

Cost is relative... If a restaurant spends $6 on ingredients for a dish they will charge you around 5 times that amount. Your 30$ pasta dish probably costs them even less. I suspect this article is quoting the total cost to deliver a meal to an in-flight passenger, of which actual ingredients would not be the primary figure.

I guess the point I am trying to make is about realism. Airlines do not give away food and drinks to make guests happy. Beverage service actually makes a sizable profit. Flights to Las Vegas average 93$ in beverage sales per person....... thats rights.... per person... 93$.

The more I look into this the more it seems like 1 star max price is about the realist setting there is...

For players who use realistic settings, how do you set up your IFS meal service? Do you check options for breakfast, lunch and dinner for each or just 1 or 2 of them? I suspect I'm overpaying for my IFS by carrying all 3 meals onboard. I think if we could set schedules as well as service frequencies in this game this would go some way to solving that particular conundrum...

For players who use realistic settings, how do you set up your IFS meal service? Do you include options for breakfast, lunch and dinner for each long haul service or just 1 or 2 of them? I suspect I'm overpaying for my IFS by carrying all 3 meals onboard. I think if we could set schedules as well as service frequencies in this game this would go some way to solving that particular conundrum...

EDIT: On second thoughts, having tried to set up slimmed down versions it wouldn't have saved me very much money at all in the grand scheme of things...