The first airline meals were served up, or handed out, by Handley Page Transport on it’s flights from London to Brussels, starting on October 11, 1919. These meals were simple prepackaged lunch boxes containing sandwiches and fruit. The meals were not handed out by a flight attendant, or stewardess, but by a cabin boy as women had yet to be employed by airlines. The lunches cost the passengers 3 shillings, approximately 75 cents in American money, equivalent to £6.33 (~$8.15) in 2017. Not long after this, in 1927, two airlines started serving hot meals.
First Hot Airline Meals
The first hot meal served on an airliner was on May 1, 1927. These meals were served on the three-engined Armstrong Whitworth Argosies flown by Imperial Airways on their Croydon to Paris “Silver Wing” flights. The airline built galleys into the rear of the airplanes and served lunch and wine to as many as eighteen passengers.
The next airline to serve hot meals was France Air Union, which began serving much more complex meals in August of that same year. Not to be outdone by Imperial Airways which was serving its lunches on the ultra competitive London-Paris route, Air Union began offering its Rayon d’Or (Golden Ray) meal service onboard it’s Lioré et Olivier LeO 21 airliners.
These planes were not only faster than the competition, but the lunches were much fancier, consisting of what could be called haute cuisine. Passengers were served hors d’oeuvres, crayfish a la Parisienne, chicken chasseur, York ham in gelatin, salad Niçoise, ice cream, cheese, and fruit, with champagne, red or white Bordeaux, liquors, soft drinks, or coffee to drink. These meal were enjoyed in quite elegant, comfortable, and spacious cabins.
First U.S. Inflight Meals
While these hot meals were being served on European flights, the first inflight meals were being served on U.S. flights. Western Air began serving sandwiches from the Pig ‘n Whistle cafeteria in Los Angeles. These were served on the airline’s Fokkers airplanes flying from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Along with these meals came the first female flight attendants, needlessly called stewardesses instead of stewards.
Hot meals in the U.S. came soon after, on July 7, 1929, when Transcontinental Air Transport began serving passengers breakfast and lunch, as well as tea and toast in the afternoon. The breakfasts were bouillon and finger sandwiches’ while the lunches were most often boiled chicken kept hot in insulated thermos containers.
These paltry meals were served on fancy plates with starched napkins, however. This route from New York to Los Angeles was so long that much of the journey had to be made on trains. Unfortunately, while the passengers were fed while on the plane, the law of prohibition extended into the air, and there was no wine.
Modern Airline Meals
If there is one thing you may have noticed by what preceded this section, it’s that the early airlines were feeding very few people. Today, thousands upon thousands of passengers are fed onboard airplanes, and they are not just taking relatively short jaunts during lunchtime. The demand for airline food, and consumer expectations and preferences, have changed drastically. Air travel grew faster since those early days than anyone could have imagined.
Much has changed since those early days of boxed lunches. airline meals are made by huge catering facilities. Complete meals are reheated onboard with specialized equipment.
The first such meal service, on a more modest scale, was devised by hotelier Don Magarrell, responsible for designing the kitchens on the U.S. ship the SS Leviathon.
Magarrel designed the first segmented trays that would fit on a passengers lap and serve three courses in one meal. The trays were made of pressed-pulp paper, much like today’s disposable drink holders, with compartmetns for a main course, an appetizer, a salad (in it’s own paper cup), and a dessert. There were even holes for salt and pepper packets.
The meals would be delivered to the passengers covered by a decorative striped blue cardboard lid, with coffee, cream, and sugar on the side. It is said that these types of trays inspired Swanson’s first TV dinners.
Magarrell built a flight kitchen in Oakland California in August 1937 and hired a Swiss chef, formerly of San Francisco’s Clift Hotel to prepare the meals, which were loaded onto the flights with the hot parts kept warm in thermos flasks, to be dispensed before serving. 1,2,3
- Robertson, Patrick. Robertson’s Book of Firsts: Who Did What for the First Time. United States, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011.
- Guinness World Records. “First Inflight Meal.” Guinness World Records, 17 Oct. 2017, www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/498705-first-inflight-meal.
- Key.Aero. “Croydon: How London’s ‘First’ Hub Airport Captured the 1930s Air Travel Boom.” Key Publishing Ltd. 29 May 2022. www.key.aero/article/croydon-how-londons-first-hub-airport-captured-1930s-air-travel-boom.