Plane passenger who asked for gluten-free meal receives banana

A plane passenger was left sorely disappointed when he received his gluten-free inflight meal - and it turned out to be a solitary banana.

Martin Pavelka, from London, was on a nine-hour All Nippon Airways flight from Tokyo to Australia when he received his rather lacklustre breakfast.

See also: Vicious fight breaks out on All Nippon Airways flight in Tokyo

See also: Airline cremated giant bunny 'without owner's consent'

Mr Pavelka suffers with coeliac disease, and so must avoid gluten in his diet.

He was on the second leg of his trip to Australia and others were tucking into a full cooked brekkie when he got his banana, complete with a 'GF' sticker on it and even a packet containing a knife and fork, reports the Metro.

According to the Standard, he said: "As a coeliac, I always order gluten free meal on my flights. Sometimes they are bland, sometimes they are actually much better than the ordinary meal service.

"On this flight, I was left literally speechless. One single banana arrived. All other passengers were served full breakfast meal. This was a nine-hour flight. Although definitely gluten free, the banana did not keep me full for very long.

"When the stewardess came to me, she said: 'We've got a special meal for you' and I got the banana. I asked 'is this a joke?' and she just said "I'm really sorry, that's the gluten-free meal'."

Mr Pavelka added that he had expected more considering he had paid £1,200 for his ticket.

He also said that some of the other passengers were also "laughing a little bit" at the meagre breakfast.

A spokesman for All Nippon Airways told Aol Travel that the banana was not all the passenger had to eat for the journey, explaining: "ANA takes great pride in providing an exemplary customer experience for all passengers, and for this one passenger we did not meet his expectations. We have apologised to him personally and as a result of his experience we are reviewing our policy on gluten free options and how they are served.

"During an international flight on the Tokyo-Sydney route, there are two food services. The first service is a full meal an hour after departure and the second is a snack service two hours before arrival. To accommodate the various food and dietary needs of our passengers, there are several food options including gluten free that are selected when a passenger purchases their ticket.

"On this specific instance, the passenger ordered a gluten free meal and then a gluten free snack. The banana he ordered was the gluten free snack option.

"We make every effort to meet our passengers needs and in this situation felt we accommodated our guest's additional food requests inflight by providing an additional regular meal as well as an entrée from the regular menu for his snack."