Flight kitchens gear up to serve hot meals to Indian carriers

MUMBAI: After a gap of five months, flight kitchens in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru etc will begin producing hot meals for Indian carriers from next week. Though it’s a small step in their long journey towards normalcy, the kitchens have got busy adjusting to the new normal which calls for hassle-free meals, disposable cutlery, trays etc.
“Pre-COVID, our flight kitchen in Delhi used to prepare 40,000 airline meals a day, today it does 5000 meals. For Mumbai the number was 20,000 airline meals per day and today its not more than 1500-2000 meals,” said an official from Ambassador’s Sky Chef, which caters to airlines like Air India, apart from foreign carriers.
In the past few months, the in-flight catering company rustled up cold meals like sandwiches, breads for Air India Vande Bharat flights; meals for foreign carriers, cargo flights, international charter flights. Other in-flight catering companies, like TajSATS supplied food to frontline health care workers and took ground orders.