Inflight Catering Market Size, Share and Growth Analysis 2025-2033

Global Inflight Catering Industry: Key Statistics and Insights in 2025-2033

Summary:

• The global inflight catering market size reached USD 13.8 Billion in 2024.

• The market is expected to reach USD 18.7 Billion by 2033, exhibiting a growth rate (CAGR) of 3.39% during 2025-2033.

• Asia Pacific leads the market, accounting for the largest inflight catering market share.

• Meals account for the majority of the market share in the food type segment, as they are most important part of the journey.

• Low-cost carriers hold the largest share in the inflight catering industry.

• On the basis of the aircraft seating class, the market has been classified into economy class, business class, and first class.

• The rising air passenger traffic is a primary driver of the inflight catering market.

• Technological advancements and the demand for customization are reshaping the inflight catering market.

Industry Trends and Drivers:

• Demand for customization:

Today's guests expect meals tailored to their personal characteristics, such as vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, halal, kosher or low-carb. In response to this, airlines are offering more choices in meals. This gives passengers the ability to choose meals that suit their lifestyle and dietary preferences, increasing satisfaction and, thus, loyalty. Being increasingly health conscious, tourists prefer to eat meals that help maintain or improve their health. To meet the needs of such passengers, airlines have now introduced low-calorie, organic and allergen-free meals. Customers' attraction to such options has also forced catering service providers to create more healthy and flexible dishes.

• Technological advancements:

Pre-ordering meals is now a common practice, which is why many airlines provide applications and websites for this. This helps passengers choose meals according to their preferences and dietary restrictions. Therefore, airlines can reduce food waste and improve the efficiency of the supply chain. But they also use such information to understand passengers' tastes and food preferences. This enables providers in the catering industry to modify their meals, forecast on food demand, and increase customer satisfaction.

• Increasing air passenger traffic:

More passengers are flying every day, and thus there is a need to provide them with food on the plane. Current airlines serve more passengers from all segments of society. This also increases the requirements placed on food consumption to meet various dietary restrictions and requirements from short flights. Inflight catering is particularly and directly affected by the increase in airline traffic, especially in long-haul and international markets. Such flights typically provide more food than flights served by other airline companies during the same period. Therefore, there is always a need to ensure that several meals and many different types of snacks are available, so airline organizations need to ensure that they stock a variety of food items.

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Inflight Catering Market Report Segmentation:

Breakup By Food Type:

• Meals

• Bakery and Confectionary

• Beverages

• Others

Meals represent the largest segment as they are essential for enhancing passenger satisfaction and comfort during flights, especially on long-haul journeys.

Breakup By Flight Service Type:

 

• Full-Service Carriers

• Low-Cost Carriers

Low-cost carriers account for the majority of the market share due to their affordability, leading them to capture a significant portion of the inflight catering market by offering a variety of paid meal options to passengers.

Breakup By Region:

• North America (United States, Canada)

• Asia Pacific (China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Others)

• Europe (Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Russia, Others)

• Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Others)

• Middle East and Africa

Asia Pacific enjoys the leading position in the inflight catering market on account of rapid growth of air travel demand, a rising middle class, and the expansion of both full-service and low-cost airlines in the area.

Top  Inflight Catering Market Leaders:

The inflight catering market research report outlines a detailed analysis of the competitive landscape, offering in-depth profiles of major companies. Some of the key players in the market are:

 

• AAS Catering Co. Ltd

• Abby's Catering

• Cathay Pacific Catering Services (HK) Ltd. (Cathay Pacific Airways)

• DO & CO Aktiengesellschaft

• Emirates Flight Catering (The Emirates Group)

• Flying Food Group

• Gategroup

• Jetfinity

• KLM Catering Services Schiphol

• LSG Sky Chefs (Lufthansa AG)

• Sats Ltd. (Singapore Airlines)

• Saudi Airlines Catering

• Universal Weather and Aviation Inc.

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