Airline Unveils Wine Bottle of the Future -- And It's (Gasp!) Plastic
The new Pettle, designed for air travel, weighs less and is sturdier than glass.
Science solves problems both great and small. Air New Zealand felt it was wasting fuel by toting around heavy glass wine bottles, which were also troublesome because they can break or be used as a weapon. So how could the airline save on fuel costs while retaining wine's traditional appearance for its customers?
Enter the Pettle, or PET (polyethylene terephthalate) wine bottle, the new container being tested by Air New Zealand. Made entirely of plastic, the screw top Pettle weighs a mere 32 grams (a little more than an ounce) per 187ml bottle, as opposed to its 154-gram (5.4 ounces) glass counterpart -- and is much sturdier. The product is also 100 percent recyclable.
The Pettle, which was jointly designed by Alistair Dunlop, the airline's inflight procurement manager, and plastics technician Chris Watkins, is the product of three years of research and trials.
For Dunlop, the most important thing was that the Pettle look and feel exactly like a typical glass wine bottle. "We felt at the time I commenced this project that the customer may not accept plastic bottles," he said. Dunlop said that, in the first four weeks of using the bottles on board, customer feedback was very positive, with people saying that they didn't notice the difference.
The winery has also conducted taste tests and chemical-composition tests to ensure that the taste of the wines is not altered by the plastic container.
Currently the Pettle is used only for the airline's wine selections -- which are custom-produced by New Zealand's largest wine company, Montana (known as Brancott in the United States) -- and only on flights between its home country and Australia.
The airline plans to switch over to Pettle bottles on all flights in early 2004, pending the outcome of further tests to make sure that it has a shelf life of at least six months and that the containers can withstand handling and changes in atmospheric pressure.
Then the company hopes other airlines and wineries around the world will use the Pettle, for which a global patent is pending. "We want to share this technology with as many as possible so that we can all benefit from this innovation," said Dunlop.
Of course, Air New Zealand, which co-owns the rights with Watkins' company, Honeylands Naturally Ltd., stands to gain a profit on every Pettle sold, regardless of where it is served. "It is anticipated that production in year three (2006) of this project will reach some 20 million bottles, which in turn will deliver a generous return to the airline in revenue generated from royalties," a company statement said.
Dunlop said Montana has already decided to try a 750ml Pettle on new releases in the New Zealand market, for serving at sports and summer events.
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