Catering issues: Malaysia Airlines can only serve hot food from mid-November

Malaysia Airlines advertises the high quality of its products and services, both at the airport and in the air. In addition to comfortable seats and friendly staff, the airline is particularly proud of its food and beverage offerings. But the airline has had a problem with this since the beginning of September, a big problem at the time.

The reason: Malaysia Airlines has parted ways with its catering partner Brahim’s Food Services after 26 years of cooperation. Negotiations between the airline and the company are said to have begun in November 2022, but even after months of negotiations there was no agreement. Maybe it was a bit surprising. The contract expired on August 31 without the airline entering into another contract.

Nuts and biscuits instead of hot meals

Passengers felt this immediately. At the beginning of September, the airline was no longer able to provide hot meals on domestic and international flights in Asia. In times of need, packed meals such as baked goods, desserts, cakes and drinks were provided – depending on the class of travel and the duration of the flight.

Malaysia Airlines has now announced that it will fully reinstate food and beverage service on all routes from mid-November. From the third week of September onwards, the range of hot meals can be gradually increased again, especially in Business Class.

Your food must be halal

This was made possible thanks to the acquisition of ten new high-lift trucks, which were acquired earlier than planned, the airline announced. Ten more are scheduled to follow in the coming weeks. The vehicles allow prepared hot food to be loaded onto the aircraft at the appropriate temperature without compromising food quality and safety standards.

The airline has a list of the most important ones questions and answers They posted on their website about the catering disaster. Among other things, it stipulates that travelers are allowed to bring their own food. It must comply with international regulations regarding hand luggage, cannot be heated on board and must be halal.

Long distances are not affected

Malaysia Airlines has also set up a temporary distribution center at Kuala Lumpur International Airport to prepare food, which currently comes from eight different suppliers, for loading. Long-haul flights to London, Auckland, Jeddah, Medina, Osaka and Tokyo-Haneda were not affected by the change. The food supply has already been transformed into a new catering company.