A pack or bowl of nuts has become fairly well associated with the standard inflight snack. If you’re stuck on the ground and unable to fly, you can compensate by ordering some American Airlines first class nut mix just to help recreate that one small part of the travel experience.
What’s the situation?
With business dropping significantly due to the pandemic, the sudden reduction in flights has created a ripple effect down many supply chains. The most noticeable outcomes have been the early retirement of some aircraft and the delayed delivery of other jets. However, there are many more ramifications for the air travel industry.
In fact, the company responsible for supplying American Airlines with its first class nut mixes is trying to clear out its inventory of the product(s).
According to One Mile at a Time, a typical year will see the nut company roast 2.4 million pounds of nuts, most of which go to airlines for onboard service. However, with airlines operating at reduced capacity and frequency, fewer nuts are being served. Therefore, the company has 70,000 bags of nuts that need to sell.
This is how Kim Peacock of GNS Foods and GreatNuts.com describes the situation via One Mile at a Time:
“I have 50,000 pounds of nuts American Airlines and United didn’t want! We’re feeling sad. We’re sitting on a lot of nuts.”
What’s the deal?
Greatnuts.com is selling American Airlines’ first class nuts in 1.25lb bags. Those bags can be ordered as single bags or batches of five or six containers (of course, the price per unit goes down with larger orders).
5-packs of nuts are about $43, while a 6-pack is closer to $49. Furthermore, bags come in either “mixed” or “aloha”.
A March 2020 post on FlyerTalk.com describes the discovery of the Aloha mix:
“I recently flew from Kona to the mainland on AA and LOVED the nuts. I asked the FA where they get them. She said they are called Aloha Nuts, but did not know the vendor. She gave me a second helping. The candied pecans, cashews, candied pineapple, etc. Just perfect.”
A description of the regular “mixed” nuts says that the bag contains almonds, cashews, pecans, and dry roasted pistachios.
Other similar situations
This, unfortunately, isn’t the first instance we’ve seen of an airline supplier selling surplus food. At the start of May, we saw Russian carrier Ural Airlines sell its own inflight meals.
“Everything is like in an airplane, except for the view from the window,” the airline mentions in a Russian Instagram post introducing the special service. Apparently, the service was put in place for residents to get a taste of travel without leaving their homes.
Meals have also been donated to those in need – something that was also done by American Airlines at the start of this pandemic.
Do you have any plans to place an order for these nuts? Let us know in the comments.