Airline bans passengers food

Exeter-based low-cost carried Flybe will ban passengers from eating their own food while onboard the company's aircraft.

The airline, which operates around 40 routes across Europe, said that the ban was put in place to protect passengers with allergies who were worried about other customers eating potentially dangerous foodstuffs in the confined cabin.

Despite this claim, the Air Transport Users' Council (ATUC) has already criticised the decision. An ATUC spokesperson, James Fremantle, told the Scotsman newspaper: "It would be mean for an airline to do that.

"It appears to be a way of forcing passengers to pay extra to buy food. We do not like passengers being forced into a corner like this.

"We do not see why an airline should refuse to let passengers bring on their own food unless there is a health or safety reason to stop them doing so."

Recently, Flybe became one of the first airlines in the UK to offer eco-labelling on all its flights to allow passengers to see what emissions a flight would produce.