Air Culinaire Worldwide Has Found a Recipe for Growing Its Inflight Catering Network

Walking through Air Culinaire Worldwide’s global headquarters in Tampa, Fla., during the week of the 2016 NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference in January, Liona Geraci, marketing coordinator, provided us with a behind-the-scenes look into the world of business aviation catering. During the tour, she noted where a wall was removed to expand into an adjoining office space. This expansion has provided ample room to allow growth to continue.

Local executive chefs and general managers manage the day-to-day services in the 21 current kitchens owned and operated by the catering company. Each kitchen hires and trains team members with corporate support.

Customer service representatives staff the client services department at the Tampa headquarters 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to take the orders — 70 percent of which are requested to be ready on an as-soon-as-possible basis. The sales team takes ownership of the order and then works closely with the team at one of the owned-and-operated kitchens or with one of the many local vendor partners in the Air Culinaire Worldwide Network, which are vetted and contracted to fulfill orders.

A team of vendor management professionals, who together speak five languages, coordinate with local catering vendors around the world where Air Culinaire Worldwide does not have a major kitchen. 

Air Culinaire Worldwide provides 80 percent of packaging materials and containers to its vendor partners. The company selects specific packaging for different aircraft based on interior size, color scheme and client preferences. Air Culinaire Worldwide pays attention to the variety of finishes of silverware, napkins and baskets, such as these in a Tampa storage room, to coordinate with the aircraft where the meal will be served. This attention to detail is necessary when the catering business handles approximately 600 orders per day. Each order ranges from a single passenger to a full-capacity large-cabin aircraft and serves customers ranging from political campaigns and sports teams to VVIP individuals in the Middle East and medevac flights on various different aircraft.

In addition to its global client services hub, Air Culinaire Worldwide’s Tampa headquarters hosts a nine-seat training center adjacent to the kitchen. Training occurs throughout the year in Tampa, London and Long Beach, Calif., for corporate flight attendants and corporate flight departments.

The most popular training covers food safety and plating of the food. In addition, Air Culinaire Worldwide has developed a five-day training course, a variety of cultural and dietary-related courses and also tailors training to the specific needs of flight departments.