20 AAA 313 Flight Catering Management

UNIT II

Chapter 2.1

2.1.1Airline Catering Industry

It is possible to dine in five-star luxury while travelling at 600 miles per hour, six miles above
the surface of the earth. To the average person, now used to air travel, this may not seem
remarkable. But the average person is unaware that there may be over 40,000 separate items
loaded onto a Boeing 747 (popularly known as the jumbo jet). This load occupies 60m 2 and
weighs six tonnes and the loading time may be less than 50 minutes.
In view of this, some might say that it is not just remarkable that air travellers may dine so
well; it is remarkable that they can do so at all.

Like passenger railroads and cruise lines, the first commercial airlines catered specifically
to wealthier classes. These customers demanded the finest service and were willing to pay the
price. En-route meals served two purposes: stay the hunger and pass the time. The airline
companies also gave their thought on catering aspects. As technology advanced, so did the
catering possibilities. Inflight catering presented a unique set of challenges for the cooks and
crew serving the food. First airline meals was served by Handley Page Transport on 11
October 1919.

A BRIEF HISTORY

   Early commercial foodservice: former military pilots created the first airlines after World
War I. Their purpose was mail delivery, not passenger transport. Passengers were gradually
included on flights...Since passengers were considered an necessary evil by the pilots who ran
...the airlines, no thought was given to any foodservice for them, although the pilots and other
members of the crew might sometimes share a box lunch sandwich or a thermos of coffee
with them. It was not until 1936, with the development of the DC-3, that American Airlines
introduced the first airplane galley. That galley was quite primitive by modern standards as
there was no electrical power available for heating foods or beverages, and all hot foods and
liquids were boarded at ready-to-serve temperatures and held in hot thermoses.

  Three years later, the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the first aircraft with a pressurized cabin that
permitted commercial flights above the weather, was developed with a galley no more
advanced than that of the DC-3. By the mid-1930s, airlines were beginning to realize the
importance of inflight foodservices and were becoming concerned about both the quality of
the food products available and the high prices charged by the airport terminal restaurants
where they usually bought their food supplies. United Airlines was the first airline to
recognize the marketing potential of inflight foodservice as the competition of airlines
increased.  United airlines build its own flight kitchens at airports where its flights landed.
The first experimental kitchen was completed in Oakland, California in December 1934.
Operating its own kitchen was so successful for United that it built a chain of twenty kitchens
throughout the United States.

  Pioneering caterers: Marriott was one of the earliest inflight caterers as a result of

innovative actions by William Kahrl, the manager of a new Marriott Hot Shoppe across the
road from Washington's Hoover Airport (now Washington National Airport) in the late
1930s. 

  Around 1945, Pan American worked together with Clarence Birdseye and Maxson
Company to create the convection oven, which would allow frozen foods to be heated on
board the aircraft. Maxson called the first convection oven it designed the Whirlwind Oven: it
had a heating element in the fort of a fan and held six meals. Soon afterward, the microwave
oven was developed; it has since become the industry standard in aircraft food service
preparation. The first meal trays were served on pillows on passengers' laps, until trays have
been developed with lids that would serve to elevate the food in front of the passengers.
Finally, foldout service trays were installed in the seat backs.

2.1.2 Menu Planning

Menu planning is the process of deciding what you will eat for each meal, including main
dishes, side dishes, and desserts. It also entails knowing how many meals to plan for and
when to serve them. Daily activities and scheduling variations may complicate the menu
planning process.

Menu planning in food service means planning a menu for the restaurant, or a food service
establishment. A menu is a detailed list of options offered to the customer when they come to
eat or drink at the restaurant or bar. They offer a wide variety of choices, and are priced
differently based on the ingredients used, time taken to cook the dishes, or the season and
availability of ingredients used. Menus can be different based on the meals of the day, such as
breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Menu planning in food service helps the chef take charge of the
kitchen, keep a tab on available ingredients, and help the restaurant make a profit.

Generally, a food menu, beverage menu, and drinks menu or bar menu can be found in the
restaurant. A typical rule of thumb is to keep the list in a menu under 30, so as to be able to
manage it well. Other than that, there are static menus that never change, and which the
customers use to select what they have always liked or wanted. A daily (or single-use) menu
has a very short length, and is usually changed on a daily basis. Cycle menus run for a
specific length of time only, and are more popular in non-commercial food services, such as
hospitals, schools, institutes, universities, etc.

A well-planned menu helps earn money, and save both money and time. If the ingredients are
planned and shopped well, the restaurant also saves on storage space, not to mention the
accolades and loyalty of its returning customers.

While planning a menu, the name of the food item, followed by a short description of how it's
prepared, the scale of hotness, its replacements or variants, and finally a price is given for the
convenience of the customer. It is important to plan the restaurant menu well, as it is directly
related to the profit margin of the restaurant business.

2.1.3 Purchasing for flight catering

A supply chain is complete system of producing and delivering a product or service, from the
sourcing the raw materials to the delivery to the consumer. The supply chain includes all the
aspects of the production process, activities to be performed at each stage, information need
to be communicated, natural resources transformation into useful materials, human resources,
and other components that go into the finished product or service.
A supply chain is a network between a company and its suppliers to produce and distribute a
specific product to the final buyer. This network includes different activities, people, entities,
information, and resources. The supply chain also represents the steps it takes to get the
product or service from its original state to the customer. Airline companies develop this
network to reduce their costs and remain competitive in the business area. It enhances
production cycle faster. Supply chain management is a very important part of the business
process. There are many different links in this chain that require skill and expertise. When
supply chain management is effective, it can lower a company's overall costs and boost
profitability. If one link breaks down, it can affect the rest of the chain and can be costly.
Supply Management or Supply Chain Management :
The term supply management refers to the act of identifying, acquiring, and managing
resources and suppliers that are essential to the operations of an organization. Also known as
procurement, supply management includes the purchase of physical goods, information,
services, and any other necessary resources that enable a company to continue operating and
growing.
It is a systematic business process that goes further than procurement to include the
coordination of pre–production logistics and inventory management, along with budgeting,
employees, and other key information to keep the business running smoothly.
In service industry, supply chain is meshwork chain structure, relying on information
platform and logistics platform, combining suppliers, logistics processing and distribution
centre, catering enterprises, customer, and providing the logistics service, information
service, product service and customer service. Service–oriented catering supply chain has
features like :
Customer satisfaction : it is utmost important factor for service industry. Today consumers
not only concern about the price but also the taste, safety, quality and nutrition of food.
Quick frequency : The products are consumed of at a very fast rate; also the kinds of
product are variety. The service–oriented catering supply chain should improve the ability in
dealing with variable demand and production flexibility.
Logistics : fresh fruits and vegetables are to be transported have to be equipped with cold
chain logistics equipment. So the logistics capability of catering industry service supply chain
has higher requirements in comparison to other industry.
Stability : The price and the quality of raw materials are fluctuating. While the enterprise
clients wish to avoid risks, they hope the price, quality, and variety of food has a stable
situation.
Information : information is very crucial element of any management. Continuous
improvement in information level helps in preventing bullwhip effect. Information detection
methods can effectively monitor food in transportation in the process of storage quality.
Objectives of Supply Chain Management :
The flow of manufacturing costs means the process of using raw materials and labour to
finished product that can be delivered to a customer. A supply chain management system not
only reduces the cost but also reduces complexity of the manufacturing process. Supply chain
management aims to :
(a) The plan or strategy
(b) The source (of raw materials or services)
(c) Manufacturing (focused on productivity and efficiency)
(d) Delivery and logistics
(e) The return system (for defective or unwanted products)
(f) Minimize shortages and keep costs down
(g) Make recommendations to improve productivity, quality, and efficiency of operations

2.1.4 Large scale food manufacturer

We all like to complain how boring, even disgusting, airplane food is. In fact, an entire
website is devoted to posting photos by passengers of airline food: the good, the bad and the
downright ugly. But there are airlines that actually serve excellent food at 30,000 ft. It should
come as no surprise that most of these airlines also feature in my top 10 lists of the world’s
best airlines for longhaul Business and the most luxurious First Class suites in the sky. Here’s
a list of my 10 favorite airlines when it comes to above standard inflight dining.

SWISS INTERNATIONAL AIR LINES

Swiss’ “Taste of Switzerland” program was designed to highlight different regions of the
country on flights throughout the year. First Class passengers dine as if they were in a
gourmet restaurant, and enjoy meals inspired by the country’s best Maîtres de Cuisine.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS

The award-winning on-board chefs and food & beverage managers of the flagship airline of
the United Arab Emirates are recruited from the finest Michelin-starred restaurants around
the world. Their goal is to offer an inflight dining experience that equals that of a five-star
restaurant.

CATHAY PACIFIC

In First Class, Cathay Pacific was one of the first airlines to have rice cookers, toasters and
skillets on board their aircraft, enabling the flight attendants to prepare freshly steamed rice,
toasted bread and eggs cooked to the passenger’s liking. Carefully prepared and selected by
Cathay’s food culinary team, the dishes in all classes are a celebration of China.

AIR FRANCE

Given the high culinary standards of the French, it should be no surprise to find Air France on
my list of the best food in the skies. With its refined details, considerate service, intense
flavors, and porcelain tableware, Air France’s meal service is a truly pleasant experience.

QATAR AIRWAYS

Four celebrity chefs have been chosen to create Qatar Airways’s unique and diverse à la
carte Business and First Class menu: Nobu Matsuhisa, Tom Aikens, Ramzi Choueiri,
and Vineet Bhatia. Together, they spent months adapting and testing their specialty dishes for
Qatar’s customers, taking into account not only flavors and spices, but how the taste buds are
altered at 30,000 feet.
TURKISH AIRLINES

Turkish Airlines certainly knows how to impress its customers when it comes to airline food
& gastronomy. A chef in starched whites and towering toque greets boarding passengers at
the plane door as if to welcome them into a restaurant.

SINGAPORE AIRLINES

Singapore Airlines’ stellar culinary reputation is guaranteed by its collaboration with world-
acclaimed chefs who own Michelin-starred restaurants, like Singaporean culinary maestro
Sam Leong, Suzanne Goin of Los Angeles’ Lucques, Carlo Cracco of the Michelin two-star
restaurant of the same name in Milan, and Matthew Moran of one of Sydney’s finest
restaurants.

EVA AIR

Taiwan based EVA Air has one of the best (and most underrated) Business Class products in
the world. Its Business Class catering really stand out as extraordinary and is on-par with
what you are served in the First Class cabins of most other airlines.

AUSTRIAN AIRLINES

Austrian Airlines serves the best airline food and has its meal service down to an art. First,
the food comes from DO & CO, a catering company that has upscale restaurants and cafés in
cities like Vienna, London and New York. Then, to make certain the delectable dishes are
complimented by the perfect drinks, Austrian Airlines has hired an on-board sommelier to
develop wine pairings for its Business Class passengers.

2.1.5 Tray and Trolly preparation

The complete catering process of airlines consists of several main steps as given below,

1. Flight kitchen receives order of the meals to be served onboard for forthcoming flights.
The order is based on a meal plan already prepared in advance for the different flights
operating at any given day.

2. Kitchen staff checks the different meals requested on the menu and prepares a plan for
preparing the meals in advance.

3. Kitchen staff cooks the meals and make portions of the meal ready to be served to
passengers and crew.

4. This cooked food is generally not sent straight away to the airplane. It is first cooled down
at a storage temperature.

5. The meals that are now in the form of packages are loaded on meal trolleys. Several fully
loaded meal trolleys become ready to be transferred to the aircraft and are sent to flight
kitchen loading bays.
6. The flight kitchen loading bay is a place like any other logistics facility loading area where
a designated gate is assigned for parking a truck with its rear bumper aligned with the bay
gate so that from the facility’s side, it appears as if things are being transferred from the
facility to a room. All meal trolleys are loaded up into the Aircraft Catering Truck.

7. At this point, the meal trolleys leave the Flight Kitchen and the Aircraft Catering Truck
travels to reach the aircraft stand where the respective aircraft is parked. There are several
security checkpoints the truck goes through before it finally reaches the aircraft.

8. New meal trolleys cannot be loaded on the aircraft until the existing meal trolleys whose
meal packages have been consumed on flight are removed. Therefore, at the time when Flight
Kitchen is loading up the new truck, another truck that reaches the aircraft as soon as it
arrives lines up with the aircraft so that crew could unload all of the existing meal trolleys
from the aircraft onto the Aircraft Catering Truck.

9. It is the responsibility of Ramp Supervisor and airline crew to make sure that the unloading
of old catering supplies and meal trolleys is finished by the time the freshly loaded Aircraft
Catering Truck reaches the aircraft stand. It requires coordination between ground staff, crew
onboard and flight kitchen.

10. Once all of the existing catering supplies (mainly used up meal trolleys) have been loaded
up on the truck, it leaves allowing the freshly loaded truck to engage with the aircraft.

11. At this stage, airline crew gets busy transferring all of the meal trolleys from inside the
truck to the aircraft. After all meal trolleys have been transferred into the aircraft, the catering
truck is disengaged and removed from the aircraft. This same catering truck that brought
freshly loaded meal trolleys remains on apron. It is used for unloading consumed meal
trolleys from the next flight of the airline.

12. Meanwhile, the Aircraft Catering Truck that had picked the old meal trolleys returns to
the Flight Kitchen where all meal trolleys are unloaded. All contents of the meal trolleys are
emptied and washed including servicing of the meal trolleys themselves.

2.1.6 Aircraft loading

The inflight meals that have been prepared and cooked in our kitchens are transported to the
aircraft by catering trucks, along with all the other items required for inflight service (snacks,
alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, tableware and so on) and inflight shopping products.
Transporting and handing everything over to the cabin crew is the job of our Loading Group.
This is not simply a delivery service. Our meticulous loading and handover service helps the
cabin crew to serve meals to passengers smoothly.

Loading Group

The inflight meals and other items prepared by each section are gathered by the Loading
Group. After the quantity and quality of each item have been checked, everything is loaded
into catering trucks, and taken to the aircraft’s galley (kitchen). After loading is complete,
there is a detailed handover to explain the menu and quantities of meals to the cabin crew.
It may seem that the main work of loading takes place in the airport, but the careful checking
by the Loading Group before departure is vital to ensure the high quality of our service.

Referance

http://abhishekrrajan.blogspot.com/2020/04/airlines-catering.html

https://study.com/learn/lesson/menu-planning-overview-importance-food-service.html

https://theluxurytravelexpert.com/2020/05/04/top-10-airlines-best-inflight-food/

https://aviationlearnings.com/how-aircraft-catering-works/