How does private jet catering work?
Catering on a private jet is much different than the typical catering you would expect at a private party or private event. Catering on a private plane typically depends on the length of the trip taken and the size of the aircraft used. For example, most heavy jet charter trips include a flight attendant. When this is the case, often, the flight attendant will prepare and arrange the catering for the passengers.
When a flight attendant is not present for the charter flight, it is common for the pilots to set up the catering before passenger arrival and departure of the flight.
Catering on a private jet can be anything from a boxed lunch to a 5-course meal. At Trilogy Aviation Group, when our team arranges catering for our clients, we are always sure to make sure we are on the same page with our clients when it comes to their needs and wants.
It is paramount to us that we provide our clients with the best value by being transparent in our communication, as well as thorough in our work to ensure we are providing value.
Many factors determine which is the best vendor to use for private jet charter trips. These factors depend on where the trip is happening and the nature of the catering request. The vendors we typically use are local kitchens, affiliate network vendors, uber eats, as well as even utilizing the pilots of the aircraft to pick something up for the charter flight.
What is a local kitchen vs. affiliate network?
A local kitchen in the jet charter catering world is a kitchen or a vendor that is located within a 25-50 mile radius of the departure airport. The benefit of using a local kitchen is that it often provides the best value because extra markup is avoided by using the affiliate network.
One downfall of using a local kitchen would be that sometimes, they cannot handle every catering request that the client wants. Local kitchens sometimes are unable to fulfill the alcohol requests of our passengers.
Our affiliate network is primarily catering brokers that can service our clients worldwide. Typically affiliate network companies do have local kitchens in the higher utilization areas. Affiliate network vendors are often used for complicated or multi-leg catering orders, requests in remote areas where we may not be able to locate a local kitchen.
Affiliate vendors can handle alcohol and food requests and often can execute complicated orders seamlessly.
Trilogy Aviation Group will utilize the pilots or flight attendants on the aircraft or food delivery apps in certain situations where the client has a specific food or simple beverage request. We will utilize these services because we are often able to save on delivery fees that catering companies may charge. We then pass on these savings to our clients to ensure they receive the best value.
Why is private jet catering so expensive?
Catering on a private jet charter is often very expensive for a variety of reasons. The top reason that the price gets inflated is that providing high-quality catering requires more resources to go into the planning, execution, and delivery than your typical restaurant dining experience.
Another reason pricing can get inflated with flying private is that the portions are often much larger than the average meal expectation at a restaurant. Our team at Trilogy always does our best to communicate this with the client so we can avoid excess food and plan the proper amount. Because catering can get expensive, we do our best to be efficient as possible when it comes to the meticulous planning of a jet charter trip.
What is the difference between light catering and full catering?
Light catering on a private jet charter is going to be free and included in your flight. Light catering is not something you can request; it is the inclusive stock that the charter aircraft comes pre-stocked with that is included in the charter.
Typically, light catering will be an assortment of light snacks individually wrapped, assorted hard liquor selections, as well as various soft drinks and water.
Full catering for a charter trip is any catering that is requested by the client and is billed after the charter. This can be anything from a bottle of champagne to a 5-course meal.
Our team at Trilogy Aviation Group is training to provide the best value possible from request to trip end. This includes setting up catering and ground transportation if needed and ensuring we are receiving the best price possible.
