Gone were the days of brackish peanuts and lukewarm apple juice, today’s flyers can satiate their sugar cravings right in the air.

According to a recently published annual report from the Nội Bài Catering Services (NCS), a company specialized in manufacturing inflight meals, flyers spent nearly VND22 billion last year on bubble tea products both in airports and during flights.

The report states that nearly 63.5% of bubble tea cups were sold during flights, netting NCS over VND2.3 billion every month. NCS was founded in 1993 first as a catering factory with Vietnam Airlines as its most major stakeholder today.

Each tea portion, branded as Lotus Sky Tea, costs VND50,000, including white pearls, and must be ordered at least 24 hours before the flight. Passengers can pick from plain or taro flavors. The bubble tea initiative was announced back in May 2022, available on flights from Hanoi to Saigon, Đà Nẵng, Nha Trang, and Phú Quốc.

After years in the red due to the pandemic, 2022 was the first year NCS recorded profits again, with a reported yearly revenue of VND410 billion, a three-fold increase compared to 2021 and amounting to 60% of the revenue before the pandemic.

Vietnam Airlines have made significant moves in localizing its inflight culinary choices in recent years. In August 2022, the national carrier completely overhauled its menu, adding many more ostensibly Vietnamese items like mì Quảng, bún thịt nướng, bún chả, among others.

In the same month, passengers on domestic VNA flights received a free bánh Trung Thu each as part of the airline’s Vu Lan (Vietnamese Mother’s Day) celebration.

[Photo via Vietnam Airlines]