KLM Cuts Free Beer, Wine And Cheese Sandwiches In European Economy — And Calls It “Hospitality”

KLM will stop serving complimentary beer, wine, soft drinks and its familiar cheese sandwich in European economy starting in October. The airline calls the replacement buy on board “Grand Café KLM” and says it will strengthen the “warm and hospitable experience” onboard. That’s dumb. I guess a service cut is an airline executive’s idea of Northern European hospitality. Under the new model: Most European flights will include complimentary coffee, tea, water or orange juice and a stroopwafel. The shortest flights will offer only water and a stroopwafel. Beer, wine, soft drinks and substantive food will become buy-on-board. Passengers will be able to preorder meals such as a poke bowl, Caesar salad or pancakes. Onboard purchases may include a salmon-and-egg wrap, croque-monsieur, yogurt with fruit and seeds and other snacks. KLM has not disclosed the exact launch date, final menu or prices. The change applies to European economy. “Passengers will benefit from greater choice, more flexibility, and an offering that better reflects a wide range of preferences and needs,” according to Bas Gerressen, KLM’s Executive Vice President of Inflight Services. KLM says passengers can now “tailor the service” to their preferences. They can tailor it by paying for things that were previously included. KLM Is Adding Choice—And Taking Away Service There’s nothing wrong with selling better food onboard. The current sandwich doesn’t appeal to everyone, and plenty of passengers would prefer to pay €10 or €12 for a real meal rather than receive something they don’t want. Indeed, most European airlines already do this. KLM’s offering will still be better than some. British Airways offers a snack and water freeLuftansa and SWISS are water and chocolate SAS offers coffee, tea, and water The real outlier is notable. Air France still offers a snack or sandwich, and a wider array of complimentary beverages including beer and wine. KLM is owned by Air France. What’s the worst part here is KLM ‘telling customers its raining.’ They could introduce preorder meals and buy-on-board food while continuing to provide a complimentary beer or soft drink. These are separate decisions that KLM is packaging together and telling you that you’re better off when you have to pay. That said, I like stroopwafels. United proved passengers love stroopwafels. They’re Dutch. And they’re cheap. https://viewfromthewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/20240105_151218.mp4 This Was Always A Revenue And Cost-Cutting Project KLM began announced a plan in October 2024 to improve operating results by €450 million, identifying expanded catering trials and cabin-product and seating changes that, together, were supposed to produce at least €100 million in annual revenue. The airline was honest at that time, and didn’t gaslight customers that this was an expression of hospitality. And it’s significant in the context of KLM’s recent financial performance. They earned €68 million operating profit for the first half of 2026 and said it was “critically evaluating every euro.” KLM began testing buy-on-board service in February 2025 on flights to Oslo, Porto and Lisbon. It later expanded the experiments to routes including Madrid, Valencia, Ljubljana, Helsinki, Edinburgh, Geneva and Belfast. During the trials, passengers reported prices around: €5 for a Heineken €7 for wine €3.25 to €5 for soft drinks €6 to €7 for sandwiches €12.50 for preorder meals Passengers Actually Became Attached To The Cheese Sandwich It’s easy to make fun of KLM’s cheese sandwich. It’s two slices of dark bread with cheese and a spread. Versions have included mature Beemster cheese with black pepper mayonnaise, fig chutney, honey mustard mayonnaise, curry mayonnaise or pesto. KLM nevertheless turned it into a small expression of Dutch identity. Its wrapper declared that “homemade sandwiches are a typical Dutch tradition” and promoted Beemster cheese made in a certified climate-neutral dairy. Passengers developed a strange affection for it. One recent Instagram post calls the sandwich the best part of a KLM flight. Another passenger photograph shows the mature Beemster and black-pepper mayonnaise version served between Amsterdam and Geneva. A Reddit “sandwich appreciation” thread includes passengers saying that they ask for extras, take them home and consider the sandwich one of their favorite parts of flying KLM. One commenter calls losing it “the adult version of learning about Santa.” Another passenger explained that the sandwich signaled that their journey was beginning or that they were coming home. Some considered it dry, tasteless and embarrassing. But a small complimentary item doesn’t need to delight everyone to create value. It needs to be distinctive, inexpensive and appreciated by enough passengers that its absence is noticed. KLM accomplished that and is now throwing it away. Beer Is Even More Basic To KLM’s Brand KLM and Heineken once went to extraordinary lengths to serve draft beer inflight. In 2016, the airline introduced a specially designed beer trolley using Heineken’s BrewLock keg system. It used air pressure rather than a conventional carbon dioxide cylinder, with an insulated trolley and specially trained cabin crew. KLM actually served draft Heineken on Amsterdam – Curaçao flight KL735 on August 31, 2016. It was presented as part of KLM’s Dutch identity alongside Dutch food, Bols products, Delft houses and Dutch design. I covered the beer trolley when KLM announced it. The claim that it was the world’s first was questionable because ANA had served draft beer in domestic economy in 2010. The Heineken trolley never became a regular service item. A Gategroup executive later said it had not received regulatory approval before KLM flew it, although there’s no indication the airline was fined. Still, the episode tells us how KLM once viewed beer: an inexpensive and recognizable piece of Dutch hospitality. Now they’re charging for the beer. It’s Striking How Air Canada Is Moving In The Opposite Direction Air France KLM’s CEO is the former President of Air Canada, so this is a striking example. In 2025 Air Canada expanded complimentary beer and wine to economy passengers on every flight. The airline concluded that food and drinks are relatively inexpensive ways to improve customer satisfaction and distinguish them from some competitors. KLM was the original sixth freedom airline carrying passengers from one country to another over its Amsterdam hub. Most airlines served their local market primarily, at least on one end of the journey. It also means they’re competing with all ohter hubs, and asking passengers to choose them rather than default to them for schedule or price. Yet they’re stripping out a cheap, visible differentiator and hoping passengers value the opportunity to buy a €7 sandwich. One option could have been to retain one complimentary beer, wine or soft drink and charge for additional drinks. KLM could also have preserved the benefit for Flying Blue elites. Topics on this page