Thursday, August 20, 2009

International Ramadan?

I am off to London next week... the thing I asked myself this morning is how does the airline (Abu Dhabi national carrier Etihad) handle Ramadan?

I have a 1:30pm flight... right in the middle of the fasting period.  I am presuming that the airport lounge will be barren to all food and drink.  You cannot even have water during the day.

And when you get on the flight and I will be in business class, what happens to the complimentary wine before take off and then the nice food and drink during the flight?  They serve alcohol freely despite being a Muslim carrier and Muslims simply abstain, but what about the Ramadan period?

And you can eat after sundown during Ramadan.  Flight lands at 6:30pm in London which is 9:30pm in Abu Dhabi and 2hrs after "Iftar" which is the official time each day you can eat.  Will we be served a meal two hours prior to landing?  Will the plane assume itself to be on London time after take off and hence wont serve a meal at all because it will be fasting time during the entire flight?

Will the airline ignore Ramadan all together and offer full service to non-Muslims?

Intriguing!

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