This past Friday I had the opportunity to tour an airline catering facility at SFO, along with about 40 other FlyerTalkers. It was fascinating, and I'll most definitely look at airline food differently from now on, knowing how much work goes into it. The tour started out with a visit to the conference room, where…
Continue reading: Trip Report: Tour of an airline catering facility
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Did they should you how they prepare coach meals?
Did they talk about the (presumably different) budgets that different airlines have for their meals?
But we almost had to pry you away from the hot nuts being prepared! 😉
They mentioned that airlines costed meals and in some circumstances they directed to the "point" of where to obtain supplies and what supplies to use in preparing a meal. No numbers were mentioned, but it was laid at the foot of the airlines - GG can only do what they're given to do...
Besides - we looked excellent in the hairnets 😀
Oliver, didn't specifically see how coach meals were made, since we seemed to be there during the quieter time of the day as far as preparation goes.
As for the budgets, apparently the airlines tell the facility what kind of food they want and what quality, and then the facility will make the meal type and let the airline know the price.
I'd love to see the document in which the airlines describe the food they want.
I thoroughly enjoyed the tour. I can just imagine what the mad house it can be during the early morning hours to get all the meals to all the transpac flights leaving around mid-day and all the PS flights in the morning.
This tour ranks up there with my Pan Am Airport hanger visit ( MIA) and Royal Carribean Cruise Line visit. Pan Am folded a month after my visit, and I have refused to go on any cruise after seeing how cruises are run from the perspective of a cruise line worker.
I have a more positive feeling about GG tour, and will continue to enjoy their food.
Interesting, UA_Flyer! Out of curiosity, was the tour done by RCL directly? If so, I'm surprised they'd have a tour which would portray the job of the cruise line workers negatively, as bad as it might be.
The RCL tour was done by the RCL directly. I took a transportation management class as an MBA elective at U of Miami, and we did several tours including a tour of a cargo carrier and its operation (also involve airport security and custom) at MIA, RCL and others.
The RCL tour was nothing negative. It was like spending a day at a restaurant kitchen and all the sudden you found yourself losing appetite. The RCL tour was done a few hours before the ship was ready to sail for its voyage to the Caribbean Sea. Our tour was a "back stage" tour not the front end. There were hundreds of workers working behind the scenes including covered in grease in the bottom of the engine room. Waiter/maid quarters look like refugee camp...
It was a very interesting MBA elective class.
Thank you for that amazing report and pictures. To answer the first comment, economy meals are frozen entrees that come in boxes.
The cost of the meal is no longer the issue. The cost today is in the security of the facility, the 2nd security company to inspect the carts, the 3rd security unit to guard the carts after they are prepared...the 4th security unit to inspect and seal the truck, the 5th security inspection as the truck enters the airport (AOA area), the 6th security inspection to break the seals on the truck, etc. So, a business class meal on a NRT, HKG or FRA flight will be over $120 -- with only about $30 for the meal.