If there’s one part of flying that gets a hard rap, it’s the food. But you can’t say it’s not in some ways deserved. We’ve all been served at least one terrible meal on a flight, haven’t we? It may be the case that airline food is rapidly improving, thanks to a competitive marketplace and plenty of complaints from hungry fliers, but the quality of the fare still does depend on who you book your seats with.
Squishy mystery substances and scorching hot – yet strangely tasteless – sauces, the assault to our taste buds is all the more irritating as we, the passengers, don’t exactly have many options open to us, strapped into our seats as we are. What can we do to avoid this onslaught of nasty in-flight food? It seems the answer is simple – fly Turkish Airlines.
In a recent taste test, flight comparison site Skyscanner asked 100 passengers to tuck in and rate the food they were served on flights from 19 different international airlines, and Turkish Airlines clinched the winning spot easily. So, if you want to make sure you have the best menus and most flavoursome dishes on your next flights to Turkey, it looks like you’re best booking your seat on Turkish Airlines. With a rating of 86 per cent for its menu – which includes mouth-watering morsels such as stuffed eggplant and walnut pear tart – it seems the airline has hit on the holy grail of in-flight dining.
That said, maybe another reason for the high scoring is the flexibility they also offer, with children’s, Kosher, vegetarian and seafood options meaning no one should be left out – and stuck with only a packet of peanuts to nibble at – on a Turkish Airlines flights.
Singapore Airlines took second place in the survey, with a respectable 81 per cent and Ethiad were very hot on it’s heels with 80 per cent. Seeing as Singapore Airlines had masterchef Gordon Ramsay on their advisory board, you’d expect the quality to be high – did he let forth a volley of his customary swear words when he found out they didn’t make the top spot, we wonder.
Poor American Airlines definitely ended up with the wooden spoon however, coming at the bottom of the list with a measly 47.5 per cent. A figure that reflects particularly badly when you hear that more than half of the airlines were awarded 70 per cent or more. Added to that, Lufthansa, who were second from the bottom, still beat them by 5.5 per cent, with a score of 53 overall. Sounds like American Airlines need to pull their socks up unless they want to end up losing out to the people who know how to feed their hungry travellers well.