Love them or loathe them, airline meals turn 97 years old this year. That's an awful lot of chicken or fish. The first was served back in 1919 on a Handley Page flight from London to Paris where, sensibly, they chose to serve only sandwiches and fruit. Almost a century later the scale of airline meals is staggering, nowhere more so than at the Emirates Flight Catering facility in Dubai.The airline, one of the world's largest, prepares up to 180,000 meals every day for more than 400 daily flights to 142 destinations.
Some 65% of all the airline's meals are made in Dubai. The rest come from its catering stations around the globe, with 24 in the Asia Pacific region alone.
In 1919, the first airline meal was served by Handley Page Transport on a flight from London to Paris. Passengers were served a pre-packed lunch box that cost 3 shillings (about Dh35 today, on a retail price index basis).
Almost a century later, at one of the largest airline kitchens in the world, the Emirates Catering Facility, is capable of producing 115,000 meals per day.
In celebration of the launch of Emirates’ new non-stop service to Tokyo on 28th March, the award-winning airline has pulled out all the stops to ensure that its passengers enjoy a truly Japanese experience, even before they have arrived at Narita International Airport.
Spongy omelettes, lukewarm coffee and a bread roll past its best used to be all passengershad to look forward to as they sat back and waited for a meal to break up the monotony of a flight. But times have changed and Dubai is now home to the world’s biggest and most advanced in-flight catering service, proving it is possible to enjoy top-notch food at 30,000ft.
The Emirates Airline catering service produces tens of thousands of meals every day, not just for its own flights, but also for dozens of other carriers.
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