Every day around 3 million airline passengers in the skies over the US eat and drink on flights. Many are regular tea and coffee drinkers who’d welcome a cup of their choice. But offered one, they are likely to reply with a firm “No thank you” or a less polite “No way.”
A long-established truism in air travel is that the water used to make tea and coffee is dangerous. This dates to a still widely cited EPA study in 2004 that concluded that disease-causing pathogens “could be” contaminating the water of 15% of airlines: bacteria, salmonella, e-coli, and viruses. A Hunter College, New York City, report published at the end of 2018 added support for this.
It included a questionnaire on water sanitation sent to 10 US airlines and one Canadian. Only a few responded. The resulting report highlighted a lack of frequency and thoroughness of cleaning, poor quality water handling in many international airports’ trucks and storage, and limited regulatory oversight. The EPA/FDA/FAA jointly administered Airline Water Safety Act, for instance, requires disinfection and flushing of pipes and tanks just 1-4 times a year.
The Hunter Study listed the practices of several airlines, implying that they were not fully adequate in addressing the scale of the problems. Delta disinfects its tanks four times a year and cleans taps and surfaces between each flight. Delta staff attend “drinking water service training sessions” annually. American Airlines routinely disinfects water tanks, trucks, and catering carts.
Many articles list the opinions of airline cabin crews. These are impossible to evaluate in that they are selective, not random, and opinions based on experience and personal views. They seem very much an even split between “It’s safe” and “You’ll be sorry.” Some flight attendants are very firm that they and most of their colleagues entirely avoid drinking tea and coffee in flight. Others report no problems in their often-long experience and view the issue as just one of the widespread compromises inherent in air travel along with air, food, passenger coughs, and colds, etc.
All in all, the evidence is blurred. One point that should carry weight is that there does not seem to be even one documented instance of passenger or crew illness from drinking tea.
The safe-sorry issue seems likely to merit more rigorous research and improvement in practice. More and more airlines are adding gourmet afternoon teas to their offerings as well as upgrading their breakfasts. Examples are Virgin Atlanta, FinnAir, Singapore Airlines, Air France and TAP. Several of these involve partnerships with top of the line tea providers, such as TWG. Obviously, these demand the highest level of water quality and safety.
In addition, there’s a largely underserved market segment of passengers who don’t want to load up on alcohol, dislike sodas and are motivated in their drink choices by wellness, functional specialty, and flavor.
If they believe, correctly or incorrectly, that airline water is not safe, then they will reject an otherwise pleasing addition to their flight experience and the airline miss out on adding to and upgrading their passenger service. This is a market waiting to be filled. Virgin Atlantic, Cathy Pacific, and Austrian Airlines are just a few instances of carriers offering gourmet afternoon tea as a specialty service. How about in the economy, too?