Special Report
The right place at the right time
Emirates Flight Catering in Dubai is one of the world’s busiest kitchens, supplying meals to 115 airlines in addition to Emirates. Jo Austin talks to the facility’s new ceo, Dilip Nijhawan, about the daily challenges of running such a hectic kitchen and his plans for future growth
Dilip’s first job in the industry was with Oberoi Sheraton Towers in Bombay in 1981. He swiftly moved up the ranks, joining Oberoi Flight Catering as gm in 1989 and then moved to Saudi Arabia at
Hotel Oberoi Trident from 1995 to 1999. The next ten years were spent at SriLankan Catering in Colombo as ceo. Over the past couple of years Dilip has worked as consultant to Oman Air and Emirates. He took over as ceo of Emirates Flight Catering in June this year. When not working, Dilip enjoys spending time with his wife and three daughters Hashikaa, Deveekaa and Ileshaa. He also enjoys playing chess, horseriding and swimming. He is director on the ITCA board.
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www.onboardhospitality.com
OBH: Can you describe the legacy you inherited when you moved to your current job with EKFC? DN: I moved into a unit which had grown from 900,000 meals in 1975 to 31,992,250 meals annually under my predecessor Haroon Siddiqui. I have a great team in place which runs the operation seamlessly, catering 100,000 meals plus for 311 flights per day without any major glitches. In fact, on July 15 this year we created 112,823 meals in just 24 hours! It is simply the biggest and the best catering operation in the world.
How do you find working and living in Dubai and what are your first impressions of working with Emirates? Dubai is a story that never stops intriguing the reader no matter how many times one reads it – recession or otherwise. It continues to amaze everyone, year on year. EK is an inter-woven element within its framework that cannot be viewed in isolation, in fact Dubai and EK are synonymous. Emirates’ vision is incredible. Its philosophy
has seen multiple opportunities, even in the worst of economic situations. When everyone
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