Airline Catering Planning: Production, Operational & Galley Planning Explained

1. Why Planning Decides Everything in Aviation

The most important thing in aviation is planning. Interestingly, even before an aircraft has finished assembly in the manufacturer's hangar, it has already been technically planned for a specific airline and cabin configuration. For many airlines, on-time performance — and the reasons behind delays — are directly proportional to how well they plan.

That is exactly where CATCAL — Catering Calculations — began. The need for an application like this came from one requirement: building the infrastructure needed to perform flawless airline catering planning and calculations.

Airline catering planning covers the entire process from purchasing the food, beverages and service materials to be served, all the way to the galley position each item will occupy on the aircraft. The more accurate these plans are, the easier and more efficient the work becomes — and the higher on-time delivery performance climbs.

Technically, everything is connected like a spider's web. Purchasing depends on production planning, operations depend on production planning, and galley planning depends on all of them.

2. Purchasing Planning

Purchasing planning determines how much of each product is needed, and in which quantities and batches it should arrive over time. Its core input is production planning — which is a complete discipline in its own right.

3. Production Planning: The Brain of the Operation

Production planning covers the daily production plans, and it plays the role of the brain of an airline catering company. Its job is to bring together thousands of parameters in one place and calculate them flawlessly:

• Customer requests arriving throughout the day
• Passenger numbers
• Aircraft types and seat configurations
• Menu content, menu cycles and rotation changes
• Special meals (SPML) and pre-selected meals
• Buy-on-board (paid) products

This is the origin of the CATCAL name: the initials of CATering CALculations.

The hardest part is that these parameters never stop changing. While one passenger buys or changes a ticket online, another changes their mind about the meal they pre-selected. This forces planning calculations to stay permanently dynamic.

Many companies handle this complexity with older, simpler methods: data flowing from customer portals is transferred into proven, secure systems such as SAP or Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Navision) and processed there. After all calculations are complete, the production planning department prepares production plans and forward-looking forecasts for Purchasing, the Kitchens, Preparation and Operations — each according to the time window that unit needs.

During the day, multiple updates (issues) are released, and each unit receives them through a different channel. The most common method is still physical distribution of printed plans. CATCAL's goal is to make this process live and digital.

Based on known operational risks, management may also add a planned extra production quantity on top of these numbers, known as a buffer.

For finance teams, production plans act as a compass. If production planning is the right hemisphere of the operation's brain, the left hemisphere is operational planning.

4. Weighted Catering Average

One of the most distinctive financial performance measures built on production planning is the weighted catering average.

Every airline's agreement with its catering kitchen is different. Although a few management models are well known and widely accepted in the market — such as cost-in, cost-plus and closed-book models — in reality each agreement is managed under its own terms. Some catering kitchens credit their customer only through delivery notes, while others may manage very high-volume financial flows on the airline's behalf.

The weighted catering average shows how many passenger meals were served during an accounting period, and at what cost. The exact calculation method can vary from airline to airline. The one thing that never changes is this: for the calculation to be correct, the planning system must be completely trustworthy.

5. Operational Planning

Production planning decided what will be produced, how much, and for which flight. But how should the operation that carries out this production be planned?

This is where many airline kitchens fail: these decisions are still managed entirely manually and based purely on experience. For good efficiency, financial results and operational success, the entire operation must be run in line with the production plan.

The production plan tells you how much money you will make. The operational plan determines how much it will cost you.

With today's technology and AI, planning and tracking these activities has become far easier. This is exactly why CATCAL is tailored to each kitchen and why we question the efficiency of off-the-shelf packages: every catering kitchen, every location — even the workforce composition — can completely change these values. From the number of building cleaners to how many chefs are needed in a kitchen and at what time, an operational plan is as broad and as unique to that kitchen as a fingerprint.

A large part of operational planning is driven by flight deliveries: how many drivers and high-loaders are available that day, when each delivery is due, how long it will take, and who should be assigned to the next flight. These must be planned and tracked digitally. Otherwise, human error and unfair task distribution appear — problems that quietly reduce staff performance. CATCAL was developed to solve exactly these problems, adapting a unit-specific solution to the brand standards set by management.

6. Galley Planning

Galley planning is usually the responsibility of an airline's Inflight Onboard Service (OBS) team. They define both the content of the onboard service and the galley loading plans for their own aircraft. Several respected airline catering galley planning applications exist in the market for this purpose — such as Paxia's galley planning solution and IFCS Galley XAI.

The CATCAL Galley Designer was designed more for in-flight kitchens than for airlines. Some catering companies manage large airline hubs, and airlines have delegated galley planning to them as well.

Galley planning is like an online order being delivered flawlessly to your door instead of any of the thousands of doors in your neighborhood. There is only one way to make that possible: flawless addressing, labeling, a correctly directed delivery team, and confirmation of delivery. But unlike parcel delivery, in aviation timing draws the thin line between success and failure.

On top of that, galley planning must take many mandatory parameters into account:

• How planned products relate to each other
• Which galley of the aircraft each item belongs to
• Which service type it belongs to
• Weight and loading height
• Which equipment will be used
• Waste management
• Occupational safety
• Aircraft balance
• Maximum carriage capacity of each galley position
• Weight reduction to improve fuel efficiency

7. Common Galley Planning Mistakes

1. Ignoring safe container weights

A standard-size container in a galley must stay within a defined safe weight range. Otherwise, the loading staff or the cabin crew can be injured during loading or service.

2. Uneven meal distribution on twin-aisle aircraft

On a twin-aisle aircraft, dividing meals equally between two trolleys makes service easier for the crew and gets passengers served faster. Uneven distribution slows the whole service down.

3. Planning liquids above electrical panels

Galleys contain electrical panels. Positioning liquids above them is a flight-safety risk — a small detail that must never be missed.

4. Plans made far from the aircraft

Differences in experience are the biggest handicap here. A plan made at a desk in an airline's headquarters with a ready-made loading application may not match the real aircraft.

5. Crews "fixing" the plan on the aircraft

When loading teams rearrange items on the aircraft based on their own experience, the immediate problem may be solved — but over time it creates a serious standardization problem. The plan and reality slowly drift apart.

Solving these problems is one of CATCAL's core goals. CATCAL is a next-generation in-flight catering management system developed for the real operations of catering companies, not only airlines.

8. Common Planning Mistakes

1. Treating passenger numbers as fixed

Today everything runs on mobile phones and cloud systems. Passengers buy their own tickets online and decide for themselves what they will eat on board. Publishing issues in fixed, standard quantities prevents calculations from being accurate. With many airlines removing system time locks, live planning has become mandatory under today's conditions.

2. Over-consumption errors

Every unit builds its internal plan based on the production plan. When one department over-consumes or creates unnecessary waste, it puts other units — and finance — in a difficult position.

3. Incomplete waste tracking

No matter how flawless the plan, aviation — as the name says — is about the air. In an industry where anything can happen at any time, delays and unplanned changes are inevitable. Directly disposing of unused or excess products without recording them is one of the biggest problems in the system. All wasted products must be recorded so that end-of-period calculations reconcile.

4. Manual workarounds

CATCAL — like any system — only provides the infrastructure. Feeding it, running it and being honest with it is entirely the responsibility of its users. When new needs arise in the operation, intervening manually based on personal experience, instead of giving feedback to the development team, creates serious problems in the system over time.

9. Frequently Asked Questions

What is airline catering planning?

Airline catering planning covers the entire process from purchasing food, beverages and service materials to the galley position each item will occupy on the aircraft. It includes purchasing, production, operational and galley planning.

What does production planning do in a flight kitchen?

Production planning combines passenger numbers, aircraft configurations, menus, menu cycles, special meals and buy-on-board products into daily production plans and forecasts for purchasing, kitchens, preparation and operations.

What is a weighted catering average?

It is a financial measure showing how many passenger meals were served during an accounting period and at what cost. The calculation varies by airline agreement, but it always depends on a trustworthy planning system.

Who is responsible for galley planning?

Usually the airline's Inflight Onboard Service (OBS) team. At some large hubs, airlines delegate galley planning to their catering company.

What is a buffer in airline catering production?

A buffer is a planned extra production quantity added on top of calculated numbers, decided by management to protect the operation against known operational risks.

What are the most common airline catering planning mistakes?

Treating passenger numbers as fixed, over-consumption between departments, incomplete waste tracking, and manual workarounds that bypass the planning system.

Conclusion

Purchasing, production, operational and galley planning are not separate tasks — they are one connected web. When any strand is weak, the whole operation feels it: in cost, in waste, and ultimately at the aircraft door.

Plan right, and everything downstream gets easier.