Ratiporn Chomrit
IAB324 Nutrition and Airline Catering
Chapter 4 Menu Planning in Airline

Menu Planning
The menu in any foodservice operation, whether it be a restaurant or airline cabin,
fundamentally defines the service concept.
It has a major impact on customers expectations with regards to
- Image
- value for money
- the nature of experience.
This chapter is therefore concerned with the menu development process in flight catering,
the factors that influence menu decisions, the development of standard recipes and product specifications,
and the issue of using branded items as part of the on-board offer.

Importance of Menu Planning
1. To meet dietary requirements: Airlines must cater to passengers with specific dietary needs,
such as gluten-free, vegetarian, etc.
2. To comply with regulations: Airlines must adhere to food safety regulations.
3. To provide cultural preferences : Different regions and cultures have different food
preferences, and airlines must plan their menu accordingly to appeal to a diverse passenger base.
4. To manage inventory and waste: Proper menu planning helps airlines manage food inventory
and reduce waste by ensuring they prepare the right amount of food.
5. To enhance the passenger experience: A well-planned menu can enhance the passenger
experience and contribute to a positive brand image for the airline.

Steps to plan the menu
1. Menu Planning – prepare all the raw material which using in the production process.

Steps to plan the menu
2. Menu Development – After planning, we will start with developing the recipe in order to reduce cost
and make the taste better. Because higher altitude food appear to less salty.

Steps to plan the menu
3. Menu Design – Display the meal to make it more attractive and prepare a menu card (ingredients,
production process)

The menu planning process in airline catering typically involves several steps:
1. Assessing passenger preferences and dietary needs –
. The airline needs to be concern of the preferences and dietary restrictions of the target
passenger, as well as staying updated about current food trends. Moreover, purpose of travel (business,
travel, student), class of airline (first class, business class, economy class), charter and scheduled flights
Besides, there are uncontrollable factors that might affect passenger preference.

The menu planning process in airline catering typically involves several steps:
1. Assessing passenger preferences and dietary needs –
1.1 Captive Situation : Passenger can not choose any meal option.
In every class of passenger, they have no chance to choose the meal due to limited of flight time.
1.2 Semi Captive Situation : Passenger can choose meal option up to 2 types.
Normally the passenger have alternative meal to choose at least 2 choices, 4choices for business and first class.
1.3 Free Market Situation : Passenger has a freedom for meal selection.
Passenger who order a meal before flight (Pre-Ordering Meal and Special Meal).

The menu planning process in airline catering typically involves several steps:
2. Production Cost : Airline catering needs to plan for a material cost.
Actual cost can be divided into 3 type
2.1 Standard Recipe Cost – Ingredients
2.2 Garnish Cost – Decorations
2.3 Supplementary Cost – Bread, Salad cream, Seasoning

The menu planning process in airline catering typically involves several steps:
3. Preparation - Good preparation make process of production successful.
Moreover, there are factors that help the process complete such as
3.1 Equipment – various types of equipment make task better.
3.2 Staff – Delegation helps everything much easier.

Menu Arrangement
- The menu in airline catering can be changeable or rotation.
- Menu cycle will be change on cycle every 3 months.

Menu Arrangement
Advantage
• arrange each category of foods in the cycle helps, provider easier tasks to handle
• Chefs and staff are familiar with procedure in each of the cycle
• Easier for Catering to analyse popularity on their food.
Disadvantage
• When short of ingredients for that cycle, it’s hard to find any substitute.
• Rotation rate of ingredient is very low, because of circulation cause of each cycle.
• Catering Cost is high, because of employment period has to last until the end of cycle.

Menu Card
Menu Card : Introduce passenger to know the detail of food and beverages in each flight and specific time to
serve the meal.
Menu Card details
1. List of food order – With food sequence and detail of each dish
2. Picture of food for clear understanding – Some of passenger may not understand English language.
3. List of beverages and alcoholic drinks – for first class and business class will be provided with wine list.
4. Language

Western Meal
Western Meal consists of Meat, Fat, Milky ingredient for those who live in cold territory.
Most ingredient is differ from Thai Food.
There are other aspect that different from Thai meal such as
• characteristics of food,
• side dish,
• serving style,
• eating style.

Western Meal
Normally western meal can be divided into 6 meals
 Breakfast 06.00-09.00
 Brunch 09.00-11.00
 Lunch 11.00-14.00
 Snack 14.00-17.00
 Dinner 17.00-21.00
 Supper/ Light Meal 21.00-24.00

Breakfast
Breakfast – First meal of the day, to refresh the body. Usually serve with hot beverage.
Breakfast can be divided into 2 types
• Continental Breakfast
• American Breakfast
Continental Breakfast – Toast, Croissant, Butter, Fresh Fruit, Juice, Yoghurt, Cereal,
Tea and Coffee
American Breakfast (ABF) – same as continental but ABF will also serve with hot meal
Egg - Fried egg, Scrambled egg, Omelet, Poached egg and Boiled egg
Meat – Ham, Bacon, Sausage, Small steak and Lamp chops

Brunch and Dinner
Brunch – (09.00-11.00) Normally serve ABF with main course, soup and salad.
Dinner –
• Appetizer (Salad and Salad Dressing)
• Soup
• Main Course
• Bread Selection
• Cheese
• Desserts
• Beverages
• Tea, Coffee

Equipment
Airline Catering need to prepare all the equipment which using for inflight-
service for cabin crew.
Cutlery - Stainless, Plastic depend on the class of passenger
Newspaper – Cancel during Covid-19
Ear Set
Travel Set, Amenity Kit – Eyeshade, Earplug, Toothbrush, Toothpaste, Comb, Perfumes,
Cream or Lotion, Sock
Napkin, Tray Mat, Bread Tong, Ice Tong, Wing Opener, Coffee or Tea Pot, Ice Bucket, Bread
Basket, Wine Basket,

Catering arrangement issues
• Food
• Product Research
• Customer
• Airlines Route, Aircraft and Flight Patterns
• Airline Service Strategy
• Flight Type/ Class
• Caterers
• Menu Design

Thank You