Catering Archives - Page 3 of 16

Emirates has reinstated its iconic Onboard Lounge on its A380s

Emirates revamps premium onboard experience

By Alexander PrestonCatering, FeaturedNo Comments

Following a thorough health and safety review Emirates has resumed the operations of its A380 Onboard Lounge and Shower Spa.

The A380 Onboard Lounge, which serves First and Business Class customers, will transform into a take-away bar with limited seating capacity and social distancing protocols in place. The bar continues to serve wines, spirits, soft drinks and pre-packaged lounge bites for customers to take and enjoy in the comfort of their own seats. Customers can also make their orders from their seats if they prefer. The social areas in Business Class on select Boeing 777 aircraft and in First Class also re-opened with pre-packed snacks for customers to grab and go.

First Class customers can once again have a shower at 40,000 feet. Luxury spa products will be provided in individual amenity bags to each customer. The sets include pamper essentials from award-winning, organic and sustainable Irish brand VOYA, a disposable bath towel and a menu to choose additional amenities.

From 1 November, Emirates’ onboard dining experience will return while observing strict hygiene protocols. Customers in all classes will enjoy multi-course meals and choose from a complimentary selection of beverages including wine and beer, as well as juices and soft drinks. Cocktails will also be served in premium classes. In Economy Class, customers can choose from two wines; in Business Class, customers can choose from six wines including port and champagne, while in First Class, customers will have a selection of 11 wines including a dessert wine, port and Dom Perignon champagne.

The Emirates app has also been enhanced to allow customers on board to browse the menus on their personal devices both online and offline with the latest app update.

Emirates will soon launch a welcome drink in premium classes called Vitality Boost in First and Business Class. The airline’s chefs and nutritionists have created a refreshing blend of apple, ginger and hibiscus to give customers a health kick on their journey. The vegan, nutrient-rich drink is packed with antioxidants, and free from gluten and added sugar. The health drink will be a staple on board and continually refreshed to offer different flavours. Customers can also choose from a range of welcome drinks including champagne and other juices.

October 21, 2020

Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Mr. Tewolde GebreMariam and U.S. Ambassador Michael Raynor signed a memorandum of understanding in which the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will provide Ethiopian farmers and food producers technical assistance and access to financing

Ethiopian Airlines to support local farmers for in-flight meals

By Alexander PrestonCatering, FeaturedNo Comments

Ethiopian Airlines has partnered with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to enable the carrier to source locally grown produce and ingredients for preparing in-flight meals for global passengers.

USAID will provide Ethiopian farmers and food producers technical assistance and access to financing in order to ensure they are able to meet the airlines’ standards of quality and volume to serve its customers. These new business linkages will help farmers and local agribusinesses reach a prominent new market and increase their revenue streams – with annual sales as high as US$10 million in total – while providing Ethiopian Airlines farm-fresh ingredients sourced directly from Ethiopia, reducing the need for foreign suppliers’ processed foods for their catering services.

USAID support will help Ethiopian Airlines identify local suppliers for the list of catering materials the airline might potentially require, as well as provide support to farmer cooperative unions, youth groups, women groups and other local agriculture businesses to enable them to meet production requirements. A US government loan facility also will expand access to financing for local companies, farmer cooperative unions, and others to expand their operations as needed to meet the Ethiopian Airlines quality and supply demands.

This partnership agreement will run through December 2022.

Image: Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Mr. Tewolde GebreMariam and U.S. Ambassador Michael Raynor signed a memorandum of understanding in which the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will provide Ethiopian farmers and food producers technical assistance and access to financing.

October 20, 2020

Finnair brings in-flight dining home

By Alexander PrestonCatering, FeaturedNo Comments

Finnish flag carrier Finnair has begun trialling the sale of ready-made Nordic in-flight Business Class-inspired meals.

The ready-made meals are just available in one Finnish store – the K-Citymarket Tammisto, located near Helsinki Airport, in the city of Vantaa. If the pilot is successful, Finnair could increase production and expand to other stores.

The specially developed concept meals have been designed by Finnair’s own top chefs and hand-made in the airline’s dedicated Finnair Kitchen. Helsinki customers can now choose from the airline’s fusion of Finnish and Asian signature dishes, such as Finnish reindeer and beef in teriyaki-radish sauce.

Marika Nieminen, Finnair Kitchen VP, said: “We want to offer the opportunity for a Finnair experience and everyday luxury at home, now that travel has been restricted in many ways.

“At the same time, this is a new business opening for us and employs our chefs in Vantaa. As so many of Finnair Kitchen’s employees are temporarily laid off, the project enables us to create new work and employment for our people.”

Juha Stenholm, Finnair Kitchen Head of Product Development, said: “The meals are inspired by Nordic and Japanese flavours and seasonal ingredients. The menus include, for example, Finnish reindeer and beef in teriyaki-radish sauce, which draws on Tokyo’s street food culture.

“Our food cultures are united by the appreciation and emphasis of ingredients and their natural flavours in food, and it is evident in these meals as well. We are excited to bring flavours from our Business Class easily available to the grocery store.”

Kimmo Sivonen, K-Citymarket merchant, based at Tammisto, said: “It is very important for us to provide our customers with quality food, easily and effortlessly: ready-made portions bring variety to home-made cooking.

Two main course options are available throughout the week from Monday to Sunday and an additional appetiser from Friday to Sunday. The menu changes every two weeks.

October 20, 2020

Qatar vegan meals for business class passengers

Qatar Airways serves up first fully vegan range of dishes in business class

By Alexander PrestonCatering, FeaturedNo Comments

Qatar Airways has introduced its first range of fully vegan dishes to its à la carte menu for business class passengers on all flights.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker said: “We always strive to provide our customers with authentic and indulgent experiences in the skies. We are delighted to incorporate a vegan main course choice to our on-board menu, offering our passengers yet another lifestyle choice that redefines the expectations from a five-star airline.”

Using only the freshest locally and internationally sourced ingredients the vegan dishes include smoked moutabel, spiral courgettes and arrabbiata sauce, tofu and spinach tortellini, Asian barbecue tofu, noodles, scallions and shiitake, fried tofu with vegetable tajine, cauliflower couscous and kalamata bruschetta, and chickpea flour omelette.

The meals are available to all business class passengers flying from the airline’s Doha hub, Hamad International Airport, and selected flights into Doha.

October 14, 2020

Brahim's Airline Catering offloading to customer aircraft

Focus Dynamics enters in-flight catering provision

By Alexander PrestonCatering, FeaturedNo Comments

Malaysian investment holding company, Focus Dynamics Group Bhd has acquired 12.19% stake in in-flight catering service, Brahims Holdings Bhd.

Brahim has the world’s largest halal central kitchen, spanning 59,000 square meters, capable of catering up to 60,000 meals per day out of its central kitchen in Sepang, Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Focus Dynamics’ with its plans for digital cloud Kitchen services, E-kitchen network and other flagship outlets, sees this acquisition as the key step to establish a solid platform of operations to cater for its expansion and growth plans. “With collaborative access to a large central kitchen, reliable and proven track record and a complete logistics network, fusing modern concepts and enhancing user experience becomes a matter of technology adoption, which is what Focus Dynamics is all about” said Benson Tay, Executive Director.

According to Focus, this platform allows the company to accelerate its plans to develop a complete, end to end network of providing commissary kitchen services for corporate clients, existing partners, shadow kitchen networks and cloud kitchen services as well as its own portfolio of restaurants and entertainment outlets. Establishing this cornerstone relationship with Brahims also opens the doors for an international trading network via airlines and in-flight catering services for Focus’ brand of products.

“We are excited with the direction, and we hope to be able to speed things up significantly with this association. Having access to the largest central kitchen in Kuala Lumpur and with a strong existing portfolio of clients, we will be able to turnkey a few concepts into operational viability far quicker than an organic approach,” Tay added.

Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas

October 12, 2020

Transavia and Just Eat Takeaway.com launch ‘in-flight delivery’

By Alexander PrestonCatering, FeaturedNo Comments

Dutch low-fare airline Transavia has partnered with Just Eat Takeaway.com allowing passengers to order a meal of their choice for their flight.

Transavia and Just Eat Takeaway.com developed the pilot programme in cooperation with Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Dutch caterer iFleat.

As of the end of September, meals can be ordered through Just Eat Takeaway.com up to one hour before the flight, from ten different meals at the Transavia Restaurant.

The meal is freshly prepared by iFleat, which is responsible for logistics and culinary interpretation and delivered directly on board.

The selection includes vegan salads, fresh sushi and authentic Indonesian rendang, amongst others. The meals are freshly prepared and directly delivered on board by Just Eat Takeaway.com, after which the cabin crew serves the meals to the passengers.

The partners expect this cooperation to minimise food waste. With in-flight delivery, payment is settled up front, and Transavia knows which passengers pre-ordered a meal. This lowers the number of meals that are prepared and brought on board but not consumed.

Marcel de Nooijer, CEO of Transavia, said: “It is important to keep innovating and further improving service for our customers, especially in these unprecedented times. We’re starting modestly by offering this meal service on four flights. However, we have confidence in this great concept and hope to expand it further as opportunities allow.”

Silvie Cremers, Global Sales Director at Just Eat Takeaway.com, added: “This special cooperation, which makes it possible to serve fresh meals on a plane, is a great step forward. We are very proud to be the first to offer this service and are confidently looking forward to the further roll-out of in-flight delivery.”

The first-of-its-kind service is currently available on four flights from Amsterdam to destinations in Greece, Portugal and Italy. The programme is expected to extend to more flights and airports where Transavia operates, such as Rotterdam The Hague Airport and Eindhoven Airport.

October 6, 2020

Emirates Flight Catering to form Kosher Arabia

By Alexander PrestonCatering, FeaturedNo Comments

Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC) has signed an MOU with CCL Holdings to establish a new partnership called Kosher Arabia.

A a dedicated production facility for kosher food will established at EKFC’s premises in the UAE with production expected to begin by January 2021.

Kosher Arabia is certified by the Kashrut Division of the Orthodox Union (OU) which will work in partnership with the South African Union of Orthodox Synagogues (UOS) to provide the highest level of excellence in kosher certification to Kosher Arabia.

The experienced culinary team at EKFC will handle all food production, while CCL Holdings will provide certification and production supervision including support for menu development and foodstuff procurement.

According to Saeed Mohammed, CEO of Emirates Flight Catering the partnership will cover all food channels and is exploring opening restaurants across Dubai and the GCC.

Ross Kriel, founder of CCL Holdings, and President of the Jewish Council of the Emirates (JCE) said: “Kosher Arabia was set up to supply kosher food to meet the growing demand in the UAE, not only from the Jewish community here but also from other consumers looking for healthy and halal-compliant options.

September 18, 2020

dnata expands Dublin catering capacity

By Alexander PrestonCatering, FeaturedNo Comments

dnata has begun operations at its new catering unit in Dublin, following an agreement with Aer Lingus, which sees it now provide in-flight catering services to the airline at four airports in Dublin, Shannon, Cork and Belfast

The state-of-the art facility, located in the Dublin Airport Logistics Park, covers an area of 6,300m², is equipped with the latest technologies and has a capacity of over 30,000 meals a day.

The new centre quadruples dnata’s catering capacity in the Irish capital, enabling the company to deliver 40,000 in-flight meals a day for customers.

Robin Padgett, dnata’s Divisional Senior Vice President for Catering, said: “It is great to be operational at our new, ultramodern catering centre, the 65th production facility in our global network. Despite the impact of COVID-19, our team and our partners have managed to deliver a quality operation on budget, as planned. We look forward to serving more customers in Dublin, both in the air and on the ground, with a team of highly-experienced culinary professionals.”

Between its facilities in Cork and Dublin dnata currently serves six airlines.

September 15, 2020

Insight Lite from Lumatics tracks unused meals from Etihad flights

Etihad and Lumitics join forces to fight in-flight food wastage

By Alexander PrestonCatering, FeaturedNo Comments

Etihad Airways and Singapore food technology start-up Lumitics are trialling the use of computer vision and machine learning in order to reduce food wastage on Etihad flights.

The partnership will see Etihad and Lumitics track unconsumed Economy class meals from Etihad’s flights, with the collated data used to highlight food consumption and wastage patterns across the network. Analysis of the results will help to reduce food waste, improve meal planning and reduce operating costs.

Mohammad Al Bulooki, Chief Operating Officer, Etihad Aviation Group, said: “Etihad Airways started the pilot with Lumitics earlier this year before global flying was impacted by COVID-19, and as the airline scales up the flight operations again, it is exciting to restart the project and continue the work that had begun. Etihad remains committed to driving innovation and sustainability through all aspects of the airline’s operations, and we believe that this project will have the potential to support the drive to reduce food wastage and, at the same time, improve guest experience by enabling Etihad to plan inflight catering in a more relevant, effective and efficient way.”

Lumitics’s product Insight Lite will track unconsumed meals from a plane when it touches down at an airport. Using AI and image recognition, Insight Lite is able to differentiate and identify the types and quantity of unconsumed meals based on the design of the meal foils, without requiring manual intervention.

September 14, 2020

THAI Catering offers in-flight meals at THAI Airways HQ

THAI Catering extends special meals offer

By Alexander PrestonCatering, FeaturedNo Comments

THAI Catering has extended its sale of high-quality meals prepared by its international chefs at THAI Head Office’s lobby to its restaurant.

In addition, the special meals will be available at THAI Silom and Larnluang offices around mid-September.

Throughout July and August, THAI launched “Destination Menu by THAI Catering” by five THAI Catering international chefs under “The Taste of Travel” concept to order through LINEMAN, GrabFood, and at participating Puff & Pie bakery stores.

Varangkana Luerojwong, Managing Director, THAI Catering, said that the “Destination Menu by THAI Catering” dishes were launched in response to the popularity of food delivery service

The special menu was based on THAI’s five destinations by five international chefs of THAI Catering under the concept “The Taste of Travel”, and included dishes celebrating Arabian, Chinese, French, Indian and Japanese cuisine.

September 11, 2020

Catering

Image: Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Mr. Tewolde GebreMariam and U.S. Ambassador Michael Raynor signed a memorandum of understanding in which the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will provide Ethiopian farmers and food producers technical assistance and access to financing.

Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas

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