British Airways has confirmed it will scrap free food and drink on its short-haul flights and instead offer passengers the opportunity to purchase snacks and sandwiches provided by Marks & Spencer.

A deal between the airline and M&S was rumoured to be on the cards earlier in the month, but the UK flag carrier today formally unveiled the agreement between "two Great British companies".

The changes will be rolled out on services in and out of Heathrow and Gatwick from January 11 next year, with Stansted and London City to follow by the summer, by which time fliers will be able to avail themselves of items from M&S’s usual range, including a ploughman’s sandwich, a bacon bap, or a bag of Percy Pigs sweets. The retailer will not be providing on-board drinks.

In-flight food on BA flights will come courtesy of M&S next year Credit: © 2016 Bloomberg Finance LP/Bloomberg

The items will have “small” mark-up on prices in M&S stores but will otherwise be the same. Cash will not be accepted on flights, with payment only possible via credit or debit card. However, cabin crew will accept BA’s frequent flier points, Avios, with a £3 ploughman’s sandwich, for example, costing 375 points. M&S said it had carefully researched its selection for the BA service, given how flying at 30,000 feet dulls the taste buds, but has not yet created bespoke offerings for air passengers.

BA said the deal was motivated by the demand of passengers to have more choice in what they eat and drink, but critics believe the move marks the end of an era for the UK flag carrier, with the loss of free food and drinks on flights seen as the final breakdown of the barrier between the traditional airline and its low-cost rivals, such as EasyJet and Ryanair.

Telegraph Travel’s consumer expert Nick Trend said: “There is now very little to distinguish between BA and its no-frills rivals when it comes to short-haul flights, though nowadays most people travelling to Europe choose their airline based on fare price and convenience rather than whether they get anything free on the plane.”

But British Airways chairman Alex Cruz said BA was “really, really far from being a low-cost airline”.

“What BA is offering is a product that is a lot more competitive, but because of a lot of different features and products and the quality of what we do, I am not worried about the comparisons at all,” he said. “While the low-cost airlines have had to become more sophisticated to expand their reach, our attitude is still very much different to theirs.”

BA will no longer offer free food on short-haul flights Credit: ALAMY

Cruz said the complimentary food and drink in Club class would remain unchanged, and that BA would be contacting customers already booked on flights in the New Year to explain the changes, but could not guarantee they would receive free M&S food.

The assumption was that by forcing customers to pay for food – as is the wont of low-cost airlines – BA would be lowering its fares, but Cruz said that ticket prices had been falling, were already very low, and that the introduction of paid-for food and drink would not have an additional effect.

It was in May that news first broke that BA would start charging for food, but the journey the airline has taken to move closer to its low-cost rivals began a long time ago. It was in April that BA streamlined its six existing ticket options down to three, with the cheapest, Basic, not including checked luggage, changes to flights or pre-selected seating.

But it was back in 2013 that the airline first announced “no-frills” fares, trialling hand luggage-only tickets on eight short-haul destinations from Heathrow, expanding it to 32 routes a month later.