Catering to your aircraft in Jimma.
A quiet apron at Jimma, high ground and coffee in the air: our crew packs the meal for your galley and your handling agent brings it to the aircraft.
We know the galley, the diet card and the 5 a.m. re-plate — because we lived them. So we built the caterer we always wished we could call.
Fourteen years on VIP and head-of-state cabins. Can plate for twelve in a G650 galley and still land it hot.
The one who reads every diet card twice. If it says no cross-contact, it means no cross-contact.
Answers at 5 a.m. when the leg moved overnight. Same-day swaps are her love language.
Jimma is the heart of Ethiopian coffee, and a private jet menu for Jimma starts with the cup: we can build the inflight menu around freshly roasted Jimma beans, served after a meal as a coffee ceremony would end it. Local specialities travel well when they are chosen for the drawer: injera with doro wat packed with the sauce apart, tibs kept hot in its own container, kolo roasted grain and spiced nuts as private jet snacks. Private jet food from Oromia leans on spiced butter, berbere, lentils and honey. Each dish is described with how it finishes on board, not just what it is.
Tail, pax, diets, timing. One message — no portal, no quote form. Answered at any hour, by a flight attendant.
Leak-proof boxes, marked by guest and restriction, with reheating times written on the lid.
Two minutes out of the drawer. Whatever you ordered for the crew comes in the same delivery, and one clean invoice follows.
At 5,500 feet in Oromia, Jimma is a coffee-country stop where the galley has to work with local produce and a short ramp. Private jet catering here means a brief built around what the region grows, packed for the oven you actually have, with inflight catering and aviation catering handled for business aviation catering at HAJM. Executive jet catering and diplomatic flight catering follow the same discipline, and cabin crew meals are packed apart from guest trays.
A bespoke menu for Jimma starts with the aircraft. Business jet catering and corporate jet catering are cooked by a private jet chef to the galley's capacity, with VIP flight catering and charter flight catering adding a coffee-ceremony finish and luxury inflight catering touches like honey and fresh fruit.
Government flight catering at Jimma follows protocol rather than the kitchen's habits. Head of state flight catering and state visit aircraft catering are cleared in advance, with VIP aviation catering handled quietly, each dish traced and sealed with a named team.
Kosher, halal, vegan, gluten free and allergen free meals are planned around Ethiopian cooking, where teff, lentils and spiced butter are everywhere. We flag where wheat or dairy hides, seal each special meal in its own box with a seat card, and produce kids meals on request. Special meals for Jimma are agreed with you before anything is cooked.
A sheet per guest. Separate boards, separate boxes.
Sealed, certificate in the same box.
Their own menu, nothing to cut at altitude.
Vegan, low-carb, light — composed, never compromised.
On a long day in Oromia, crew meals matter. Flight crew meals, pilot meals and crew catering are on request and invoiced with the order; cockpit meals are easy to eat in the seat, crew meal boxes are labelled CREW, and different meals for pilots mean the captain and first officer never share a dish.
At HAJM, we hand over to your handling agent: FBO catering, catering delivery to the aircraft, ground handling catering all coordinated through the general aviation terminal, with handling agent catering matched to your slot.
Whether a trolley or only boxes go up the steps at Jimma depends on the type you fly in. For galley catering, airside catering delivery and aircraft provisioning, tell us the type and its galley, and we pack for the door height and the carts or boxes your crew can actually take on board. Larger cabins may need a high loader through your handling agent; smaller jets take boxes by hand from the van.
Mention it when you orderCertified, inspected, with cold-chain records filed against your trip.
Whichever terminal you park at, handover is at the aircraft, on your slot.
Allergen sheet per guest, halal and kosher on request, sealed and labelled.
Itemised and trip-report ready, sent after the leg.
Jimma Airport serves the coffee belt of Oromia, with a modest terminal and a single runway used by regional carriers and the odd business jet. Airport catering for general aviation here depends on local sourcing, and our team plans around that.
Business aviation at Jimma is occasional rather than constant, a business aviation hub only in a loose sense. Inflight catering and in-flight catering for visiting jets, aviation catering, business aviation catering, executive jet catering, diplomatic flight catering and cabin crew meals are built to order, with FBO services and ground handling services coordinated by your agent.
Ethiopia restricts the import of fresh meat and dairy, so catering at Jimma is built on local produce wherever possible. Your handling agent can confirm what customs expects, and we agree the menu with that in mind.
Average rating from the cabin crew and pilots we cater for.
“Packing poached fish with steamed rice for 6 passengers at HAJM needed careful thought, especially given a small galley worktop. The Galley Girls grouped the canapés by service, which was more useful to us than simply receiving a list of dishes. The desserts were reserved for the next stage, so the worktop stayed clear while we prepared the initial dishes. Our brief for in-flight catering was met with a sensible plan for meal organisation.”
“For 4 passengers departing from JIM, the agreed menu was smoked salmon bagels and sliced fruit; our main consideration was a small galley worktop. The canapés supplied by The Galley Girls were straightforward to check against the written menu before the cabin handover. The order made vip inflight catering feel manageable because the catering handover had been considered beforehand. We could distinguish the sandwiches at a glance instead of lifting lids just to establish what belonged to each service.”
“Choosing a cheese board and savoury canapés for 5 people at Jimma Airport was straightforward; the challenge was making it work with limited fridge space. With private jet catering, careful attention to packing arrangement matters as much to our crew as the menu itself. The Galley Girls suggested sealed meal containers for the snack boxes, and that choice worked well with our storage arrangement. We placed the main courses in their planned storage area without first having to reorganise all the catering boxes.”
Start from the slot: a long stop at Jimma lets us plan tibs and doro wat, while a short one suggests cold plates. How much private jet catering costs here depends on that choice, not on the airport, and you order it like any other trip item.
What makes a Jimma order simple is that its best products are shelf-stable: spices, coffee, honey. Fresh fish or imported items need more thought, and we will say so when you ask. Last-minute orders are handled.
Food import rules in Ethiopia are stricter on animal products than on dry goods. For HAJM, we build the menu from what is available in the country, which keeps customs simple.
You can, subject to Ethiopian customs on animal products. For many aircraft the galley limits what works, so we usually pack the meal to suit that galley rather than reheat something unfamiliar.
No. You order catering for Jimma like any other service and it is invoiced on its own, whatever the weather window does to the schedule.
Tail, pax and diets — a flight attendant takes it from there, day or night.
