In an area of generating revenues and rising customer expectations, airlines strive to improve systems and processes in order to reduce cost and focus on providing enhanced customer experience. The Inflight Catering Management Solution automates the end-to-end operations of the airline's in-flight services. Airlines and caterers collaborate to present a rich experience to the passenger while effectively managing their costs.

Meal Planning: The application helps in providing good meal variety to the customer by providing a facility to manage menu grids across cycles based on the route. Similarly, a catering schedule based on the departure time and flight duration can also be maintained. Meal wastage is also tracked after each flight thus providing useful insights for fine-tuning the uplift.

Inventory: The solution helps in efficient management of the catering equipment inventory across the network. It also helps in efficient tracking of the consumption of bonded store items at a flight level.

Galley Load Plan: 3D computer simulations help planners to implement and optimize aircraft galley load plans for each flight taking into consideration the loaded weight and available space. The application enables creation of sub-containers (trays & drawers) & container packing (trolleys and standard units) that can be used to create a highly detailed galley load plan.

Budgeting and Invoicing: Budgeting for in-flight services costs viz. meal, equipment and bonded stores costs can be created in the application. Caterers can submit their monthly invoice directly on the application for processing and reconciliation against the meal order figures.

Tracking of Reports: Catering-related voyage reports are passed on to the application and they can be tracked to closure. This information serves as an input to the performance of the caterer.

Minimized Fuel Consumption: An optimized galley load plan means that the flight carries only what is necessary, thus resulting in lesser fuel consumption and higher profit.

Invoice Reconciliation: Invoices received from the caterers can be reconciled against the agreed prices in the menu grid, lowering chances of wrong payments.

Response to Change: Templates available in the system allow users to respond quickly to changes in airline routes or aircraft types.

Trend Analysis: All catering-related information is available in a single system, allowing generation of trend reports and business intelligence.

Offering an ambience of on board excellence, whilst controlling costs across the supply chain is a key differentiator in the airline business today. An integrated solution that spans all aspects of catering such as meal planning, budgeting, forecasting, galley load planning etc. while connecting all partners involved in the service delivery will go a long way towards achieving this.