This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article amuse bouche catering adding citations to reliable sources. An airline meal, airline food, or in-flight meal is a meal served to passengers on board a commercial airliner. These meals vary widely in quality and quantity across different airline companies and classes of travel.
Paris route in October of that year. Passengers could choose from a selection of sandwiches and fruit. In the late 1920s, Western Air Express was one of the first airlines to serve in-flight meals in the United States. A United Airlines international economy meal from Washington, DC to Zürich. The type of food varies depending upon the airline company and class of travel. Caterers usually produce alternative meals for passengers with restrictive diets.
These must usually be ordered at least 24 hours in advance, sometimes when buying the ticket. Some airlines also offer children’s meals, containing foods that children will enjoy such as baked beans, mini-hamburgers, and hot dogs. Religious diets, including kosher, halal, and Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain vegetarian. Vegetarian meals, typically further defined as either lacto-ovo or vegan meals. These meals may follow a particular cuisine such as Asian cuisine or Western cuisine.
In the case of Israeli airlines El Al, Arkia, and Israir, all meals served are kosher-certified by Rabbis. Before the September 11, 2001 attacks, first class passengers were often provided with full sets of metal cutlery. Some airlines also made the switch to plastic cutlery in economy class to recover costs resulting from passenger theft, of which metal cutlery tends to be a common item targeted. In May 2010, concerns were raised in Australia and New Zealand over their respective flag carriers, Qantas and Air New Zealand, reusing their plastic cutlery for international flights between 10 and 30 times before replacement. Both airlines cited cost saving, international quarantine, and environmental as the reasons for the choice. For cleanliness, most meals come with a napkin and a moist towelette. First and business class passengers are often provided with hot towels.