Maggi for ₹193 at airport: Twitter says why not carry home-cooked food? Delhiites react | Trending

The two-minute instant noodle packs that are better known as a cheap solution to quell immediate hunger pangs have become a talking point among twitterati. Reason? Sejal Sud, a Chandigarh-based content creator en route to Singapore, tweeted a picture of her bill costing ₹193 for a plate of maggi. The tweet that soon went viral, reads: “Why sell something like Maggi at such an inflated price.” This was her way to imply how airport meals are overpriced, but little did Sud know that her maiden international flight will go through such a stir on social media. A screengrab of the tweet that went viral for was shocked about Maggi being priced at ₹193 at an airport. (Photo: Twitter and Shutterstock (For representational purposes only)) Sejal Sud was shocked at the price of food served at the airport on her maiden flight to Singapore. (Photo: Twitter) The tweet has thus sparked a debate as people share their choice between ordering Maggi at the airport and carrying home-cooked food. Sachita Sharma, a corporate lawyer residing in Delhi’s Moti Bagh, says, “There’s always an option to carry home-cooked food if one finds the airport outlets to be pricey because unlike movie theatres and some five-star hotels, one can carry one’s food when travelling in the airline. I, myself, constantly travel between cities due to work, and often carry home-cooked paranthas, wraps, or other such heavy meals from home because eating at the airport all the time is not always possible.” Some Twitter users feel Sud should have carried food from home if the price was so high for her. (Photo: Twitter) “But, there should be a cap on the rate of food items, at least the packed ones, because sometimes delayed flights makes it difficult to sustain at the airport,” says Nadeem Khan, a Portuguese teacher based in Jamia Nagar, adding, “Even if I cannot cook myself, I can surely get my food packed from a local city outlet rather than eating at the airport. It saves me money and gives better options to limit myself to the outlets at the airport.” A few Twitter users opine that Airports Authority of India should step in since the price of food offered the airlines is also extremely high. (Photo: Twitter) The influx in food price is not really the concern with some others. “Airports have already been handed over to private companies for millions, and thus the high fee of everything available there is certainly due to the commercial mindset. Such prices are necessary to generate revenue in order to manage such a vast infrastructure with a large capital investment. So Maggi toh bahut hi chhoti cheez hai, which costs probably ₹20 elsewhere but will cost an extra ₹173 when purchased at the airport,” says Tanishka, a financial analyst from Kirti Nagar. Other users schooled Sud about the reason behind the high cost of food at airports. (Photo: Twitter) Monish Sehgal, owner of a stand-alone food outlet at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in Delhi, says, “At airports, everything costs more be it inventory, staff and logics for the food retailers. Even for retail brands that have a chain, prices at the airport outlet are generally 15% to 18% higher than the eateries across the city. The employers also have to make sure to hire people or cooks with specific qualifications such as knowledge of English and the ability to comply with security guidelines. This, automatically increases their salaries, which results in spike in cost of foods available at the airport. So in addition to the hefty rents we pay, there are other factors that make food expensive at the airport.”Author tweets @maishascribblesFor more stories follow Facebook and Twitter ABOUT THE AUTHOR Manvi Singh writes on art, culture and campus, for the daily Entertainment & Lifestyle supplement, HT City. …view detail