Special Report
“Passengers are looking for healthier and more home-style cooking when they fly”
operations all over Dubai. In all, I am responsible for 6,684 staff catering for 116 airlines.
What are passengers looking for when they eat in the air? Are tastes changing? Passengers are now looking for healthier and more home-style cooking. With Emirates focusing on “Dine on demand”, people are able to eat what they want, when they want. The need for salads and soups has increased as today’s passengers steer away from the traditional rich and heavy full meals to lighter options. They are more travelled, aware and have more knowledge about various cuisines and cooking processes, some preferring organic produce or more regionally produced food items that do not have such a high carbon footprint due to their source of origin.
Has the A380 changed the way you work at Dubai? What is the main challenge of catering for the A380? The main challenge with the A380 is the sheer increase in volume that the aircraft creates.
16
www.onboardhospitality.com
The number of meals that must be prepared has changed work timing requirements and equipment capacities. The bite size snacks in the additional lounge area served by the chefs require a craftsmanship detailing. The spa area has another snack area with health conscious energy drinks and nibbles. For the 14 First and 76 Business passengers configuration, intricate single kits are prepared at the Flight kitchen and these are individually plated on board by the chefs for the dine on demand concept at the convenience of the passengers. It must have been a challenge for the team
to initially get used to catering the A380. The process of putting together all the requirements for such a huge number of people is a logistical nightmare but as the flights increased and the days went by the staff got used to it. The team now views these aircraft like any other aircraft types, albeit with a bigger passenger load. Despatching the hi-loaders to the A380 flights
from the catering facility is still a challenge to date, as each A380 requires double the chiller space as a conventional aircraft and five
outbound bays, whereas conventional aircraft invariably only require three bays. Overall, from inception to date, catering an
A380 aircraft on the ramp is still our biggest challenge, especially as the aircraft has to be off-loaded and re-loaded with a fresh in-flight catering uplift, within a 45-minute time window. Simultaneously, positioning the catering uplift in the upper deck business class galley (due to space limitations and time), is a constraint. At the same time, carrying out the ready-to- board activity of dressing all 76 business class suites, within the allotted time frame, is quite a challenge. More often than not, the aforesaid becomes even more complex, when the inbound aircraft arrive after their ETA, reducing the transit time for turnaround flights, making it more crucial to meet the 45-minute window.
How important is recycling to Emirates Flight Catering? How green is the airline? Emirates Flight Catering takes its ‘care of the environment’ responsibilities very seriously. Already the company recovers 780 tons of cardboard packaging annually which is recycled into new paper products in Dubai and this
Above: Quality catering for Emirates Lounges; security is second to none
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76