Ovenable Board – Qantas Dinner Box

The ovenable nature of this dinner box is designed for ease of use by airline staff to transfer from oven to customers without involving other items of packaging. The contemporary shaped carton evokes a sense of being 'current' and the design gives the impression of the meal portion being generous in nature. Lastly, the ovenable item enables one item only to be involved in the preparation process, which is far more functional than previous methods involving packaging and re-packaging food which had their specific qualities - freezable, ovenable and finally suitable for service presentation and guest usability.

The design enables the catering company to pre-pack the meal, deliver to site and the airline staff to cook, then remove items straight from oven, to trolley, to guest without the need for other packaging items. The material withstands temperatures up to 230oC (for up to 30 minutes) in a range of ovens. - This packaging assisted a 'culinary overhaul' in a challenging time for Qantas, changing the meal service model which meant airline staff can spend less time on meal preparation and more time interacting with guests. This design has enabled Qantas to offer up to 50% larger meal portions in domestic economy and of a better standard due to better heat retention, and more hygienic due to less handling.

The Qantas Dinner Box is the only ovenable board application in Australia and has re-invented the meal service model for Qantas. It is the only board approved for use aboard Qantas in Australia. This ovenable board material is a market first in Australia, offering the convenience of baking on site and serving in the same package, while also offering a premium branding opportunity due to the high temperature inks which performs under extreme conditions, to ensure the customer's brand integrity is maintained and the ink does not discolour.

Due to Qantas's preference to serve their food options in ovenable board for hot meals and normal board for their salad options packaging options, and for them to look the same, this required making two different materials to look like the same thing. This required a specifically finished coating onto the otherwise white material, by printing a brown cardboard image onto ovenable board.

Qantas has been able to improve their offering in both quality and size, which has a large influence on guest perception. Using only one package throughout the supply chain saves time, labour and allows for quicker food service which results in happy customers and increases acuity of the Qantas brand. Our ovenable cartons have already seen a direct 20% reduction in in-flight meal service costs. Qantas previously paid a fee per item for each tray prepared pre-flight, contributing to 70% of meal service costs. Eliminating this laborious process means labour now makes up 30% of the cost of meal service, with food being 50% of the overall cost - allowing Qantas to spend more money on providing good service.