Delivering premium inflight culinary experience in a responsible manner

Travel and food go hand in hand. At its most basic, it’s an essential part of any trip but for foodies it could even be the whole purpose of the trip! At Cathay, we take this relationship with food seriously. Onboard and in our lounges, we aim to provide quality meals to get your travels off to a good start but, more than that, we aim to manage this process in a way that supports local producers and minimises waste.

When you’re handling 83,000 meals a day for 50 airlines, like our wholly owned subsidiary Cathay Pacific Catering Services (CPCS) does, it’s clear that your approach to catering can have a huge impact on the environment. Given the scale of this responsibility, we have made food sustainability a core part of our business strategy and operations.

In 2017, CPCS sourced 37,595 kg of their salad greens locally, accounting for 25% of their consumption. This allows us to support local farmers and lessen the environmental impact of our delicious fresh veggie supply. Also in 2017, CPCS purchased 379 tonnes of certified sustainable seafood, accounting for more than half of the seafood they have served.

An eco-conscious food journey goes beyond the food itself.  Since 2001, plastic cutlery on Cathay Pacific flights would be sorted, washed and reused for approximately two weeks before being recycled. We have also started to phase out single-use plastic straws and stirrers in our operations since 2018. Read more about how we rethink our approach on the use of single-use plastic here.