Catering to your aircraft in Sofia.
Sofia sits at 1,742 feet, with winter fog on the plateau and a long summer of ski-season and Black Sea charters passing through. We cook and pack for the galley you actually have, and hand it to your FBO or handling agent at LBSF.
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.
In-flight catering in Sofia City Province starts with what the Bulgarian table does well in a galley. Shopska salad is tomato, cucumber, pepper and sirene cheese: we pack the vegetables whole and the cheese grated apart, so nothing weeps on the drawer shelf. Tarator, the cold cucumber and walnut soup, travels chilled in a sealed pot and gets its dill at the last moment. Banitsa is baked the same morning and goes into the oven just before service, so the filo stays dry.
Sofia sits under Vitosha, and the local specialities follow the seasons. In summer, the private jet menu leans on white cheese, grilled peppers and kyopolou, the smoked aubergine and pepper spread. In winter, kavarma and slow-cooked lamb with rice travel better and hold longer. Rose products from the Valley of Roses, jams, Turkish-delight style sweets and rosewater, give the inflight menu something that is unmistakably Bulgarian. Bulgarian yoghurt goes on the private jet food list for breakfast and for tarator.
Ask a Sofia kitchen what survives a long leg and the answer is lyutenitsa, sirene, roasted peppers and sourdough. We build the private jet menu from those: cold plates with local cheeses and cured sausage such as lukanka, hot mains that carry a Thracian sauce, and a breakfast built on yoghurt and honey. For guests who are new to Bulgarian food, we keep spice mild and note any nuts or dairy on the card.
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.
Runway 09/27 at Sofia is cold and clear from May to October, then fogged and de-iced from December. Private jet catering at LBSF is built around that swing: salads that survive the dry cabin in July, hot dishes that hold on a de-icing delay in January. Inflight catering for a Gulfstream or a Citation is packed by seat number, with aviation catering notes for the handling agent. In-flight catering for a long leg to the Gulf gets a second service in the drawer, and cabin crew meals ride in their own labelled box. Business aviation catering and executive jet catering orders at SOF go through one brief; for a delegation, diplomatic flight catering follows protocol, not the kitchen.
Business jet catering at Sofia is usually a short brief with a precise galley. Corporate jet catering for a Citation or Falcon leans on shopska salad, grilled fish and a Bulgarian cheese board; VIP flight catering adds rose desserts and wine. For charter flight catering, a private jet chef can write a bespoke menu and send it with the seat plan. Luxury inflight catering for a long leg gets a second service in its own sealed box.
When a delegation lands at LBSF, the menu is cleared first and cooked second. Government flight catering and head of state flight catering follow the protocol office, not the kitchen. VIP aviation catering has an allergen line for each guest, and state visit aircraft catering is delivered to the aircraft with a named contact.
A gluten-free guest in Sofia meets bread and filo at every turn: banitsa, mekitsi, sourdough all carry wheat. We keep gluten-free dishes on a separate board and in a separate sealed box, marked by seat number. Kosher and halal orders are cleared before the kitchen starts, vegan versions replace sirene and yoghurt with plant alternatives, and kids meals come mild and cut small. Allergen-free requests are written on the label in plain words, and special meals travel in their own labelled tray.
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.
Crew meals on a Sofia turnaround are on request and invoiced like the rest of the order. Flight crew meals travel in boxes marked CREW, built for the jumpseat: banitsa, grilled chicken, rice, salad, one hand on the controls. Pilot meals for captain and first officer can be two different dishes when operator policy asks for it, and cockpit meals are packed to be eaten without cutlery gymnastics. Crew catering at LBSF is often ordered with the passenger menu; crew meal boxes can be hot or cold, and different meals for pilots are written on the order.
At LBSF, we hand the order to your FBO or handling agent and they carry it airside. FBO catering is arranged by slot; the general aviation terminal knows when we arrive. Catering delivery to the FBO and ground handling catering are coordinated so the handling agent catering step is a single call.
Galley catering at Sofia depends on the type: a light jet takes a trolley, a larger aircraft needs a high loader at the door. Airside catering delivery runs through your handling agent, who opens the gate and escorts the van to the apron. Aircraft provisioning on the Gulfstream and Global class is planned around the door height and the galley, so we tell you what we load and where it goes.
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.
Sofia Airport is the main hub of Bulgaria and the base for much of the country's general aviation. Airport catering here is shaped by winter fog and a long ski season. FBO services and ground handling services are available at the general aviation terminal, and business aviation hub traffic grows around summer Black Sea charters.
Inflight catering and in-flight catering at Sofia are planned around the season. Aviation catering for ski charters differs from summer repositioning, and business aviation catering for executives to the Gulf differs again. Executive jet catering needs a precise brief; diplomatic flight catering follows protocol; cabin crew meals ride in their own box.
Bulgaria is in the EU, and Sofia handles Schengen and non-Schengen flights. For catering, that means meat and dairy for third-country destinations are declared, and leftovers landed from outside the EU are disposed of under rules your handling agent knows.
Average rating from the cabin crew and pilots we cater for.
“Keeping the galley organised at Sofia Airport meant planning grilled salmon with a lemon dressing for 12 guests with a revised passenger count in mind. The Galley Girls labelled the salads in line with our brief, so the cabin team could identify the relevant portions quickly. For flight catering services, that attention to cabin service sequence made the order noticeably easier to manage. Keeping the desserts identifiable helped the colleague taking over service understand the order without another long explanation.”
“Menu approval at LBSF covered beef fillet with roasted potatoes for 4 guests, leaving us to organise the service around an evening cabin service. For airline catering, that attention to meal organisation made the order noticeably easier to manage. I asked The Galley Girls to review the main courses quantities against the passenger brief, and the proposed portions made sense. We also checked the sauces before approval, which helped avoid a second round of questions later in the preparation.”
“I wanted chicken skewers with a couscous salad for 4 guests at SOF, packed sensibly for a cabin team dealing with a family lunch request. This experience of crew meals gave us a useful reference for managing galley preparation on another departure. With several people involved, The Galley Girls kept the sandwiches and delivery arrangements together in a concise order update. We could account for the desserts before passing the boxes to the cabin team, without a lengthy unpacking exercise.”
Think of the cost as a function of the aircraft: a light jet at Sofia asks for a short list, a heavy jet for a longer one. Local cheeses and vegetables cost less than imported seafood. Send us the type and the seat plan.
Sofia works well for first-wave departures. We plan from your slot backward, not from a fixed delay, and last-minute orders are handled with the produce available that day.
For a long leg from SOF, customs sees the food list first. We prepare it with each dish, allergen and origin, and keep the second service in its own sealed box.
A special-meal request is the best reason to order rather than bring. We label every box by seat and write the allergen line, so cabin crew serve without guessing.
Catering and charter are two orders. At Sofia, the charter covers the aircraft; food is separate. One Bulgarian product, say rose sweets, is added when you ask.
Tail, pax and diets — a flight attendant takes it from there, day or night.
