How airlines feed hundreds of passengers at 40,000ft
Does food really taste awful at high altitude? Can you get a decent steak on a plane? How can dining help prevent jet lag? We answer these questions and many more.
Of all the challenges long-haul flying presents for airlines, feeding hundreds of passengers is surely one of the greatest. With no fly-through supermarket in the sky, it’s up to them to ensure there are sufficient meals, snacks and beverages to satisfy passengers in up to four cabin classes throughout flights of eight to 18 hours.
The process starts well before the kitchen, with in-house and consulting chefs devising recipes to fit an airline’s brief and budget before going before a selection panel to test for taste, appearance and suitability for tiny aircraft galleys. Most airlines then outsource those menus to industrial-scale catering companies, which work closely with the carriers to create and deliver meals to the aircraft as close to departure time as possible.
Qantas head of catering and beverage Neil Perry concedes it’s an extraordinary process that makes running a restaurant seem relatively straightforward.
“We start at the point of what we are going to get the caterer to do, how they’re going to pack it, what it can be chilled down to, what products they can source, what beautiful produce they can get their hands on, how crew can cook this and get it right, plate it beautifully and simply, and get it out, and do all the things they need to do with customers,” he says.
“We’re not just coming into a kitchen, cooking and putting it on a plate. There are a whole lot of steps it has to go through.”
Cultural influences of the airline’s origin point and destination are also part of the equation, as is the not insignificant issue of cabin altitude and the effect on the tastebuds. Cathay Pacific head of customer experience Bernard Mills says it’s well known that sweet, salty and umami flavours can be reduced by as much as 30 per cent in a low-humidity environment at high altitude, while bitter and sour tastes are unchanged. This explains why some meals don’t work at all in the sky, creating another layer of complexity. Mills says his staff try to work around that by carefully selecting ingredients, spices and seasoning to “hit the mark in terms of taste”.
“We do lean into lots of different culinary influences, so it’s not just Hong Kong or Chinese – we also look at Pan Asian, and an international representation that allows us to pick and choose in terms of flavour and other culinary influences,” he says.
Perry is not as concerned about the effects of altitude on taste. Although aircraft cruise at between 30,000 and 40,000 feet, he points out that advances in pressurisation mean modern aircraft such as the Boeing 787, A380 and A350 now simulate an altitude of about 6000ft or less. Newer planes are also quieter, reducing the risk of loud noise dulling the senses.
“There was a theory that in the older planes, when you opened your mouth the tastebud receptors were drying and dehydrating and masking flavour, so taste was deadened in the air,” says Perry. “Now modern aircraft mean travellers are not only getting better taste in the air, they’re arriving at destinations in better shape because higher humidity is a lot better for jet lag.”
As a result, Perry subscribes to the theory that if “it tastes really good on the ground, it’s going to taste good in the air”.
“I think it’s a bit of a cop-out that a lot of people think they have to over-season stuff, or they don’t worry too much about the quality because they don’t think it can be perceived in the sky,” he says. “But it actually is, so my philosophy is put the best food you can on the aircraft and people will enjoy it, and the same goes for wine.”
Singapore Airlines food and beverage director Damien Le Bihan stresses that his staff avoid adding extra salt or umami to offset what he calls the “muted taste perception at altitude”.
Similar to Perry’s approach, Le Bihan says Singapore Airlines’ focus is on “maximising natural flavour by using seasonal ingredients at their peak when taste, aroma and texture are at their best”.
“We select produce and proteins that retain character in a pressurised cabin, such as well-marbled meats and fattier fish that stay moist and flavourful after heating,” he says.
“Modern cooking methods and technology, like sous vide and controlled braising, help preserve the authenticity and integrity of each dish.”
Unlike most grocery items, airline meals don’t come with a kilojoule count, but there is the option of pre-ordering “special meals” such as vegan or vegetarian. On Qatar Airways, passengers can also choose from “low-calorie”, “low-fat” and “low-salt” meals.
Qatar Airways senior vice-president of product development and design Xia Cai says the perception that in-flight meals are unhealthy could not be further from the truth.
“A lot of time and effort is given to the meal design to avoid using extra salt and seasoning,” she says. “Today’s modern generation aircraft are much better placed to keep the flyer hydrated and get you to your destination in good shape, and the dining experience is aimed to do the same.”
The 2025 Skytrax World Airline Awards recognised Qantas as having the best on-board catering in business and economy on Australian and Pacific routes. Other airlines to pick up awards for in-flight meals included Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand, Turkish Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.
Australian Frequent Flyer editor Matt Graham says there is no doubt in-flight dining is a “core part of the experience”, particularly for premium passengers who have paid a lot of money and expect to be impressed. He nominates Turkish Airlines and Austrian Airlines as the most “consistently excellent” in business class meals, due to their use of catering company Do & Co, widely regarded as among the best in the business.
“Having said that, the best in-flight meal I’ve ever had was in Qantas domestic business class, flying from Broome to Perth,” says Graham. “I’m not sure if this is still the case but at that time, the Cable Beach Resort in Broome was providing the catering for Qantas business class departing from Broome. I enjoyed a fresh, perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned barramundi fillet with vegetables that really hit the spot.”
Fellow frequent flyer expert Adele Eliseo, of The Champagne Mile, says dining is a vital element of the in-flight service offering, because it “helps break up the flight and creates structure”. She says one of the most encouraging trends to emerge in the past decade, is the “dining on demand” option offered in premium cabins by select airlines, giving passengers the chance to determine when they eat en route.
“It allows passengers to align meals with their body clock, which is especially important on long-haul flights where strategic eating windows can help to reduce jet lag,” Eliseo says.
Pre-ordering meals is another way passengers can “take control” of their in-flight dining and potentially ensure a better standard of meal, while also helping the airline forecast demand and reduce waste. Cathay Pacific provides this option, adding a range of “signature dishes” on top of standard menu choices.
Mills says the “off-menu” choices add to the perception of “higher value” and are increasingly popular.
“They are the hero dishes that we know customers love,” he says. “We have a wok-fried lobster dish, a baked crabshell – those are the top two. We’re finding the vegetarian options are getting an increased uptake, so that’s something we want to be able to do well.”
Similarly, Singapore Airlines offers a “book the cook” option in every cabin class other than economy, allowing customers to select a main from a diverse range of flavours and dishes, including lobster thermidor and Hainanese chicken rice.
Although the dishes are typically well received by passengers, Perry says “book the cook” is not all it’s been made out to be.
“We’ve looked at ‘book the cook’ (at Qantas) and there’s an awful lot of frozen components that are thrown together to be able to do that,” he says. “For a catering centre to have more than the dishes that they’re currently working on requires them to essentially freeze all the components of those dishes. I don’t know if most people know that but when they’re getting their favourite Matt Moran or Gordon Ramsay dish, it’s probably come out of the freezer.”
Eliseo remains a fan of the concept, however, having pre-ordered a steak on a Singapore Airlines flight to Zurich in first class, despite her reservations about the ability of carriers to deliver that cut of beef well.
“When I travel long-haul I typically avoid steak. It’s an unforgiving protein to serve on board and it’s often dry,” she says. “However, I opted to pre-book the A5 Japanese wagyu Yakiniku on that flight, and it was an exceptional dish – melt-in-the-mouth, marbled beef grilled in traditional style.”
Eliseo’s “play it safe” options include curries and stews, which “tend to hold up well in the air”. Graham agrees, nominating a vegetarian curry on Fiji Airways as his best economy class meal thanks to its flavour.
“Personally, I’ll often choose a fresh cold option such as a salad if it’s available, as it’s probably going to be healthier and often tastes better too,” he says.
As for alcoholic beverages, some frequent flyers swear by the merits of avoiding liquor in the air due to the greater risk of intoxication and dehydration at altitude. Perry says it’s a personal choice, but for him a good glass of wine with a nice meal is a highlight of air travel, and Qantas makes every effort to ensure passengers are presented with a great selection.
“We work very hard on flying smaller parcels of wine and representing the small vineyards as well as the larger ones,” he says. “I think if you have wines that have got a beautiful fruit and structure, and importantly a bit of pizzazz and life, they work really well.”
Cathay Pacific’s wine, spirits and beverage manager, Ronald Khoo, agrees that “fruit-forward wines with more expressive flavours, softer tannins and lower oak work better at altitude”.
“Some examples of styles that work are shiraz, beaujolais, sauvignon blanc,” says Khoo. “At the end of the day, it’s a balance of all the components – fruit intensity, alcohol, acidity, tannins, oak – that we look out for.”
Perhaps the most important element of in-flight dining is choice. Airlines endeavour to deliver on that front by updating menus on a seasonal basis, and reviewing consumption patterns.
Cai says Qatar Airways conducts “offload checks” to identify what meals passengers are declining, or leaving most of when they are served.
“Offload checks are done three times a week, with an average of 10 different routes checked weekly by our chefs and catering partners,” she says.
“Apart from offload checks, meal samples from actual flights from at least two destinations will be sent to our office daily for taste-testing by the chefs to ensure standard.”
The good news for passengers is the amount of effort and thought that goes into in-flight dining is only intensifying in the name of competition for “high-value customers”.
Mills says the focus has shifted in recent years from on-board product, which is now of a similar standard across the big carriers.
“Fifteen years ago it was all about lie-flat seats, and dining to an extent was overshadowed by the race to flat beds,” he says. “There’s definitely been a switch to airlines wanting to elevate their dining experience as a way to differentiate them from the competition and, for the prices people are paying, food is becoming increasingly important.”
How meals are prepared in the air
It’s no secret that most of the food dished up at 35,000ft is pre-cooked on the ground and reheated on board, leading to mixed results depending on the meal and cabin class. Catering companies such as Emirates-owned Dnata use a blast chiller to preserve meals once they’re cooked, before loading the dishes into trolleys in readiness for transfer to aircraft.
Even steaks are pre-cooked, using a process that includes charcoal grilling to enhance flavour, with some caterers even going to the trouble of applying grill marks via a heated conveyor belt. “Medium” is the default cooking standard unless the passenger has pre-ordered rare or medium rare.
That’s not to say there is no cooking on board, despite facilities being limited to a purpose-built convection oven, sandwich press and occasionally a toaster.
In Qantas’s case, Neil Perry and team perfected a method of oven-cooking freshly made scrambled eggs for first and business class passengers, and crew might also sear steaks and vegetables in the galley.
Convection ovens are used in preference to microwaves because they can evenly heat multiple meals at a time, without drying out the food.
Perhaps the most important part of the process is the assembly of meals, with cabin crew working to precise instructions accompanied by a photograph to ensure consistency and quality.
Cathay Pacific delivers premium meals in a kit to aircraft, which are packed in a way that crew can quickly and easily plate 56 meals in a short period of time.
As head of customer experience Bernard Mills puts it, “it’s almost like running a restaurant operation with a team who are not chefs”.
On airlines that employ an on-board chef, such as Turkish Airlines, the role is mostly about assembling and presenting meals rather than cooking them, in an effort to enhance the in-flight dining experience.
What’s the best and worst meal you’ve ever had on a plane? Leave your answer in the comments section below.
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