KLM is successfully using AI to more than halve food waste on board, with the largest improvements being intercontinental flights from the airline’s hub at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
The airline announced on February 6 that after three months of testing the AI model TRAYS, the company achieved up to 63% less food waste.
TRAYS predicts the exact number of passengers that will be on a flight using historic information. According to the airline and depending on the class, around 3-5% of passengers who have booked a flight are no-shows.
The analysis of the AI test run revealed that the airline discarded 1,3kg less food per intercontinental flight, which translates to 111 000kg less food waste per year for all KLM flights catered from Schiphol.
“The application of artificial intelligence contributes enormously to improving our flight operations and making them more sustainable. Combating food waste is a good example of this, resulting in tens of thousands fewer meals being wasted on flights each year,” said Marjan Rintel, KLM CEO.
The implementation of TRAYS is part of Kickstart AI, a Dutch initiative led by KLM and other companies dedicated to accelerating AI adoption in the Netherlands’ business community.