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Emirates’ new flight kitchen to cater to rising onboard meals

DUBAI — Emirates Airline’s onboard meals from Dubai have now been supplied from a new purpose-built flight catering facility that is the most modern and largest of its kind in the world.

The $120 million unit, with a design capacity to produce 115,000 meals per day, became fully operational at the start of this month.

The new flight kitchen is exclusive to Emirates Airline while the old kitchen will continue to serve all other carriers. Both facilities will be operated by Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC), which is 90 per cent owned by Emirates and 10 per cent by Dubai’s Department of Civil Aviation (DCA).

The new unit covers a total area of nearly 50,000 square metres, spread over four floors, and services around 95 departures and 90 arrivals per day. It has been designed by the EKFC management team in consultation with a German industrial design company.

The old and new kitchens incorporate preparation areas for Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Arabic and Continental meals, a special kitchen for Emirates’ range of 24 special meals, a training kitchen section and an area that produces staff meals.

Currently, Emirates Flight Catering produces 26 million meals per year, a number that is expected to rise to 45 million in 2014. Not only meal numbers are increasing; the company’s asset value, at present Dh900 million, is expected to almost double to Dh1.6 billion in the next seven years.

• UAE