Which Continent Offers The Best Airline Meals?
Intro
With traveling to six continents in 2024 already, I thought it would be interesting to make a post about ranking continents around their airline meals. These days, airline meals have gone extremely downhill, but in certain places around the world, they are still decent. With that being said, let's get into it!
For obvious reasons, I will not be including Antarctica
Number 1: Asia
Asia has by far some of the best food offerings I have ever experienced from an aviation standpoint (and a non-aviation standpoint). The food in business class is top-of-the-line and something I would actually eat if I was at home. First Class, well, that is a whole different world.
Even in economy, I found that Asian carriers offer some of the best food that could rival certain business class meals on other airlines. Thai Airways offers meals to economy passengers on 50-minute flights, and Druk Air offers a multi-course meal in economy on flights from Delhi.
Number 2: Africa
This one might surprise the audience since who would have thought that Africa has the second-best food on airlines by continent? The part that stands out to me is that on every airline I flew, free food was offered to economy passengers. On flights over 1.5 hours, this was a more hearty meal, and on certain flights, it was more of a snack, like a sandwich. Keep in mind, all the flights that I flew had free-flowing wine, even on hour-long domestic hops.
Number 3: South America
Number 3 was a tricky one for me to decide, but I think South America slides in perfectly. Carriers in LATAM offer meals on transcon hops from Santiago-Sao Paulo, and on shorter flights such as Sao Paulo-Rio, they even offer plenty of snacks. GOL and LATAM are two fantastic carriers that go above and beyond for their passengers. Additionally, the food in the Business Class/Premium Economy is fantastic, especially LATAM!
Number 4: Europe
Europe is a tricky one when it comes to airline meals, as European carriers have sought to cut costs at any margin in economy. Oftentimes, when flying around Europe, you'll be lucky if you receive a snack, which is quite the contrast to African carriers. With that being said, I have to rank European carriers at number 4 since there long-haul meals are quite good. British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Air France, KLM, and even Lufthansa all offer decent meals in long-haul business and economy. To be honest, ITA is really holding the bar up for European Carriers 😉
Number 5: Oceania
Unfortunately, Oceania has to rank at number 5 for a variety of reasons. Virgin Australia left a bad taste in my mouth after they didn't provide anything free of charge on a 4-hour international flight. I know carriers down in Oceania have sought to cut costs at hurdles since the pandemic occurred, and it shows. In comparison to Asia, the offering down under is quite frankly sad. With that being said, Qantas long-haul Business and First Class have very decent catering, as well as international carriers offering flights down under.
Number 6: North America
I mean, do I even have to explain this? A 6-hour transcon flight will not be eligible for meal service on the economy, which I think is quite frankly horrendous. While some of the food in premium cabins can be good, it is typically very unhealthy food like American Airlines mac and cheese. American carriers have cut corners at every angle since the pandemic, and it's just not very pleasant to fly with them food-wise anymore.
Final Thoughts
I hope that with this list, I was able to give you a bit of insight into meals around the world, across the aviation world. With that being said, it's always a nice sight to see a meal being served, but the two continents that really stand out are Africa and Asia. Getting meals on virtually every flight and in every class is something that should be implemented around the world.
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