AVIATION: Not by Bread Alone

• Share

When is a sandwich not a sandwich? Answer: when it consists of roasted breast of chicken, green salad, tomato, lettuce, a carrot slice and fried parsley—all on a piece of bread. At least that is the view of Pan American World Airways, which last week was embroiled in a heated metaphysical battle with its European competitors over the nature of Lord Montagu's invention. The International Air Transport Association has agreed that airlines may serve only sandwiches on their new cut-rate transatlantic flights v. free full meals on regular flights. Pan American, which still considers the sandwich a thin layer of filling between two slices of bread, charges that European airlines are evading the rule against free meals by serving sandwiches that are actually sumptuous repasts.

Pan Am singled out Scandinavian Airlines, Swissair, Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, which have been trying for years to outdo each other with fancy extras that sell more tickets, as chief purveyors of smorgasbord-type sandwiches on their flights. Samples (from the SAS menu): five slices of ox tongue, a lettuce heart, asparagus and sliced carrots—on a slice of bread; five slices of liver pate, fried crisp bacon, mushrooms and sliced tomato—on a slice of bread. Seconds are available for the asking, and SAS, for one, passes around a tray from which a passenger may take as much as he wants. But European airlines insist that they are perfectly within their rights just so long as a slice of bread is the underpinning for their repasts. Though they appreciate the free publicity provided by Pan Am's sandwich crusade, they intend to fight any move to make sandwiches more Spartan. Said a Swissair spokesman: "Every man is entitled to his concept of a sandwich."