I recently had the pleasure of visiting Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC)! Based at Dubai International airport (DXB), EKFC provides airline, events and VIP catering, plus ancillary services including laundry, food production and airport lounge food and beverage.
By passionately promoting excellence and efficiency, they’ve become industry leaders serving an average of 225,000 meals daily and providing ancillary services to 100+ airline clients.
My personalized tour of the facility covered airline catering processes and touched on operational and supply logistics. It was amazing to see how many small pieces need to come together behind the scenes to make everything work for Cabin Crew and customers on board!
EKFC East Wing and EKFC West Wing make up an impressive facility, spanning 174,000 square metres. A 4.2km-long electric monorail and a 2.4km-long conveyor system enable the quick transferring of clean items from the equipment cleaning area to the production kitchen for food plating, and on to the operational areas for flight packing. The facilities also feature a vacuum waste system with pipes over 600 metres in length. Both facilities feature the latest systems in hygiene, energy saving and automated food production equipment.
EKFC West Wing is the newest premium facility, dedicated to all Emirates Premium Class servicing for over 250 flights per day. Additionally, EKFC West Wing provides over 10,000 meals per day for the airport lounges, delivering the best Dubai has to offer in fine dining on one of the world’s youngest aircraft fleets.
The EKFC East Wing facility services all other airlines landing and departing from DXB and Al Maktoum International Airports. This includes flydubai and 100+ airline customers. In addition to these commercial carriers, EKFC East Wing services private aviation and VIP flights as well as provides food and beverage services to 19 airline hospitality lounges located at Dubai International Airport’s concourses and DWC.
With a multitude of different menus and dining concepts offered onboard by EKFC airline customers, diverse menu designs and delivery to each airline customer’s specification is a testament to the skills of the Flight Catering teams.
EKFC is composed of over 6,000 employees, including chefs experienced in every culinary tradition, from sushi (for Japanese routes) to regional curries (for flights to the Indian sub-continent) and every cuisine in between. The team of international chefs are comprised of 69 different nationalities, each bringing years of unique culinary expertise to the customer.
Operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, EKFC is always responsible for providing full in-flight catering services, with each meal meeting the requirements specified by their customers.
Aside from catering operations and the support services that EKFC provides, I also learned about the do’s and don’ts of on board food handling as well as Emirates’ current investments and how Cabin Crew can contribute to these initiatives. I also had the opportunity to share my ideas and suggestions while engaging with some of the EKFC experts.
To learn more, I encourage you to take a look at Aviation Blogger Sam Chui’s video: “World’s Largest Airline Kitchen – Emirates Flight Catering”.
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Disclaimer: My posts are my personal views and do not represent the views of my company.
