DOHA, Qatar: Qatar Aircraft Catering Company (QACC), the aircraft catering subsidiary of Qatar Airways Group, has reached a new milestone in its road to recovery from the challenges of COVID-19 after preparing more than 16 million meals for passengers travelling on-board Qatar Airways, Qatar Executive and other airlines departing from the award-winning Hamad International Airport (HIA) in 2021.
Located at HIA, QACC operates an ultramodern 69,000 square metre state-of-the-art facility, with the capacity to supply 175,000 meals per day. As of today, QACC is now serves more than 100,000 meals per day, highlighting Qatar Airways’ remarkable growth and recovery over the course of the last 20 months.
Catering Services Acting Senior Vice President, Mr. Sascha Von Wolfersdorf, said: “Reflecting on this milestone after what has been aviation’s most challenging chapter, it is encouraging and reassuring to see travel back on the path to recovery. This achievement underpins QACC’s flexibility and agility to cater to the increase in demand, with the uptick of travel.
“I am optimistic about the future and confident we will see further growth. This is why we have invested in plans for a second unit that will involve acquiring and installing new production lines, to help meet the future catering needs of Qatar Airways that aligns with its continuous growth and the anticipated demand for travel around the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™.”
The catering subsidiary played a pivotal role in helping Qatar Airways win the ‘Best Food & Beverage’ APEX Passenger Choice Awards® for the year 2022 and the Skytrax award for the ‘World’s Best Business Class Onboard Catering’ for the year 2021. In addition to scooping two awards from the Onboard Hospitality Awards 2021, the gold winner for ‘Catering Innovation of the Year’, and the Readers’ Vote award for the ‘Best Onboard Snack in Business and First Class’.
QACC is also pursuing an in-house laboratory accreditation that will reduce costs and unlock future revenue streams by allowing it to become an authorised food testing facility for the State of Qatar. In addition, QACC is planning a greenhouse farming project that will lead to self-sufficiency in micro-herbs and green vegetation to help reduce the carbon footprint caused by imported goods.
QACC is proud to be the first in-flight catering business in Europe and the Middle East to attain Food Safety Systems Certification in manufacturing FSSC 22000 V5 Category C (III) in 2020. This certification proves the vigorous hygiene and food safety practices implemented by the business, which also formed a solid foundation in COVID-19 crisis management and preparedness.
