Catering to your aircraft in Baghdad.
Baghdad International shares its field with the old New Al Muthana air base, and the apron you land on is often a security-screened one. We cook and pack for the galley you actually have, and hand it over at the aircraft through your handling agent.
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.
Baghdad is a river city, and its table comes from the Tigris: masgouf, carp split open and grilled upright beside a fire, is the dish people name first. For a private jet menu it does not travel as a hot course; we serve it chilled and flaked, with the tamarind and tomato sauce packed apart. Local specialities travel better when each one is treated for what it is.
Kubba, samoon bread, dolma and kleicha date cookies make up the inflight menu most Baghdad passengers ask for. Private jet food built on these is mostly forgiving: flatbread re-crisps in a warm oven, dolma holds in its own cooking liquid, and dates keep for the whole rotation. Local specialities from the Baghdad Governorate suit a galley that has one small oven and little counter space.
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.
Baghdad sits at 114 feet above sea level on a flat, hot plain, and that shapes how food travels from the kitchen to the cabin. Private jet catering for ORBI is packed to hold through the heat of the ramp, with inflight catering for business aviation and aviation catering for state movements both prepared against the same seat plan. Executive jet catering, diplomatic flight catering and cabin crew meals are ordered the way you would order anything else on this trip.
Most business flights through ORBI carry a delegation or a small executive team. We handle business jet catering, corporate jet catering and charter flight catering with a bespoke menu agreed before the aircraft lands. VIP flight catering and luxury inflight catering follow the same brief, cooked by a private jet chef.
Delegations that fly into ORBI often need menus approved by an office. We provide government flight catering, head of state flight catering and VIP aviation catering with ingredient traceability. State visit aircraft catering is arranged with the protocol contact named in the order.
Halal is the working assumption for most Baghdad uplifts, so we treat it as the baseline, not an exception. The allergens that need watching here are sesame in tahini and hummus, tree nuts in date pastries and rice garnishes, and dairy in the yoghurt sauces. Kosher, vegan, gluten free, allergen free, special meals and kids meals are each packed in a separate box, marked by seat, and never shared with the guest trays.
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.
A Baghdad turn leaves little time at a table, so the crew meals we pack for ORBI are built for a jumpseat and one free hand. They are ordered on request and invoiced like every other line. When the operator wants different meals for pilots, the captain and the first officer each get a separate box: flight crew meals and pilot meals marked CREW, with cockpit meals kept out of the passenger drawers. Crew catering that cabin crew can eat standing in the galley goes in its own crew meal boxes.
FBO catering at Baghdad is delivered through the handling agent and the general aviation terminal. Ground handling catering and catering delivery to the FBO are agreed against the slot, and handling agent catering is cleared for the security that applies on the apron.
Wide-body and large VIP types are loaded from a high loader, which the handling agent arranges on the apron, so we ask for the type and the galley layout before we pack. Galley catering is portioned to fit the oven and the drawers you have, and airside catering delivery is cleared through the security that applies to the old air base apron. Aircraft provisioning is confirmed against the tail and the seat plan.
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.
ORBI is the main airport for Baghdad, and airport catering here is shaped by the security of the shared air base. General aviation traffic is mostly government and corporate, and FBO services and ground handling services are arranged through your handler.
Baghdad is a business aviation hub for delegations and executive travel. Inflight catering, in-flight catering and aviation catering follow the cabin brief, and business aviation catering and executive jet catering are packed for the aircraft. Diplomatic flight catering and cabin crew meals are ordered the same way.
Iraq regulates food import and restricts alcohol and pork. Customs may inspect catering at the apron, so we keep an ingredient list with every order and source locally where we can.
Average rating from the cabin crew and pilots we cater for.
“It was the packing plan I cared about at Baghdad International Airport / New Al Muthana Air Base, with 8 servings of roasted vegetable bowls with separate dressings and two separate meal services to consider. I needed the crew provisions checked against the revised brief; The Galley Girls answered without sending us through another lengthy exchange. My main takeaway from this business aviation catering order was the practical approach to portion planning. There was no need to reconstruct the snack boxes quantities from several messages during the final departure checks.”
“Small packing details became important at ORBI: our 12 passengers wanted prawn salad and small fruit plates, and we had two separate meal services. I appreciated the emphasis on packing arrangement throughout the jet catering arrangements. The Galley Girls confirmed the handover contact and identified the canapés, making the catering delivery easier for our team to track. Knowing where the sauces were packed meant the crew could begin the relevant checks as soon as the order arrived.”
“The cabin briefing at BGW included 5 passenger meals, a request for beef fillet with roasted potatoes, and instructions addressing a tight boarding window. For VIP flight catering, that attention to written menu details made the order noticeably easier to manage. The Galley Girls used a readable packing list for the salads, which helped when two colleagues checked the order together. The canapés were also listed clearly, which made it easier to pass instructions between crew members during preparation.”
There is no single answer because the Baghdad weather window changes what we pack. Winter departures allow hot lamb dishes; July needs chilled courses and more insulation. Both are invoiced as separate lines.
For ORBI, the aircraft decides how much we can pack. Larger cabins give us room for hot courses; smaller ones lean on chilled boards. Last-minute orders are handled.
Iraq controls food import, and alcohol and pork are restricted; meat and dairy need clear provenance. We pack from local ingredients where we can, so the customs question mostly never arises.
You can carry your own, but we suggest ordering the local products instead. Iraqi dates and flatbread are a good example: fresh, cheap and no customs paperwork.
No, charter and catering are separate. At ORBI a tight turnaround changes how we pack, so give us the slot when you order.
Tail, pax and diets — a flight attendant takes it from there, day or night.
