Catering to your aircraft in Fairford.
Fairford is a Gloucestershire plateau that goes quiet for most of the year and wakes up in July for the air tattoo. We write the menu for the aircraft you fly in, pack it for its galley, and pass it to your FBO.
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.
England's Cotswolds and the Gloucestershire lanes around Fairford give a private jet menu real local material: Double Gloucester, Gloucestershire Old Spot pork, asparagus from the Vale of Evesham in May and June, Cotswold lamb in spring, and cider from the Three Counties. We plate nothing for you; we pack for your re-plating, so a roast loin of Old Spot travels sliced and cold with its apple chutney in a pot, and the cheese comes as a board you build in the galley.
On an inflight menu for Fairford, the region does the talking. Gloucestershire gives us cheese, pork, lamb and cider apples; England gives us strawberries, asparagus, smoked salmon and a proper afternoon tea. Private jet food from this part of the country travels well: pies, terrines, cured meats, a Cotswold ploughman's board. Local specialities are packed by temperature, sauces apart, each tray marked with its seat number for the cabin crew.
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.
Gloucestershire stone, Cotswold fields and one long runway: EGVA is quiet most of the year and very busy in July. Private jet catering at Fairford is built for both. Business aviation catering and executive jet catering for corporate arrivals, diplomatic flight catering for state movements, cabin crew meals for those who work the cabin. Every order is packed for the galley you actually have, marked by seat, and passed over by your handling agent.
Business jet catering at Fairford is usually a small brief: corporate jet catering for a party of six, a luxury inflight catering lunch that waits in the drawer, a private jet chef who writes a bespoke menu around the season. VIP flight catering for executives and charter flight catering for a repositioned cabin both start with the galley you have.
A state visit aircraft landing at EGVA needs government flight catering that is cleared, traced and quiet. State visit aircraft catering at Fairford follows the movement order: head of state flight catering and VIP aviation catering are written by a small team who know the protocol, cook to the delegation's dietary file, and keep every name off the labels. The aviation catering is passed to the aircraft through the handling agent.
Fairford's own produce is dairy-heavy and wheat-heavy: cheese boards, pies, scones, ale in the gravy. Special meals are therefore handled as a procedure at the pass. Kosher, halal, vegan, gluten free and allergen free dishes are cooked and packed on their own surface, sealed, and marked by seat. Kids meals are cooked for small appetites and small galley ovens. Tell us the restriction and the seat, and we write the rest.
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.
At EGVA the crew eat only if you ask: the dishes go on the order and onto the same invoice as the cabin. Flight crew meals for a long rotation, pilot meals that one hand can eat, crew catering for a layover, cockpit meals packed apart from the guest trays, crew meal boxes with the seat marked, and different meals for pilots when the operator's policy asks for it. Cabin crew meals for the long summer days of the air tattoo are packed the same way, one box per person, seat marked.
FBO catering at Fairford is handed over at the aircraft by your handling agent. Catering delivery to the FBO runs through the general aviation terminal, and ground handling catering is agreed with the handling agent catering contact before the slot.
Aircraft at EGVA range from light business jets to the large transports that use the field during the airshow. A light jet takes its trays by hand through the main door; a larger aircraft needs a high loader to reach a raised galley door. Galley catering is packed to the type, and aircraft provisioning for a bigger cabin is agreed with your handling agent so airside catering delivery meets the right equipment at the right door.
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.
RAF Fairford is a military airfield in Gloucestershire that opens to civil and business aviation on request. Airport catering here runs through the general aviation arrangements, and the FBO services and ground handling services at FFD are arranged by your agent, who also names the door where the trays are handed over.
Fairford is not a daily business aviation hub, but during the air tattoo the field fills with executive jet catering orders, business aviation catering for visiting delegations and diplomatic flight catering for official guests. FBO services are arranged by your agent for those weeks. Inflight catering and in-flight catering are agreed in advance, aviation catering is handed over at the aircraft, and crew meals and cabin crew meals are packed apart from the guest trays.
UK border rules restrict the import of some meat and dairy, so catering for aircraft arriving from outside the UK is planned around domestic ingredients. Your handling agent and the FBO services desk can confirm what an inbound flight may carry before anything is cooked.
Average rating from the cabin crew and pilots we cater for.
“Service planning came first at EGVA, with 5 passengers choosing a mezze selection with flatbreads and a changing departure schedule influencing our preparation. The sauces came from The Galley Girls in divided catering boxes, with a packing list that matched the contents. Separating the canapés from the first service items helped us avoid opening boxes we did not yet need. For airline catering, that attention to catering handover made the order noticeably easier to manage.”
“Menu approval at FFD covered a charcuterie board and fresh bread for 10 guests, leaving us to organise the service around a late menu amendment. The confirmation from The Galley Girls showed the salads clearly enough for us to check the planned service quantities. It was useful to see the canapés listed separately when checking how much space the complete order would require. I would discuss crew meals with them again, especially when catering handover needs careful coordination.”
“Having 11 guests request grilled salmon with a lemon dressing at RAF Fairford meant planning the portions carefully while accounting for a changing departure schedule. The Galley Girls kept the crew provisions separate from the finishing elements, which gave us control over the final presentation. For our team, the strongest part of their FBO catering was how they handled cabin service sequence. Keeping the sauces aside until service helped preserve the presentation while we dealt with the boarding tasks.”
A delegation flying through Fairford will see the price move with menu complexity: plated hot courses with sauces apart cost more than boxed cold service. Season matters too, since English strawberries in July are not a December fruit. Send us the details and we price it plainly, invoiced apart from the aircraft.
Fairford's lead time is mostly a customs conversation. We confirm what can be served given the flight's origin and the current UK import rules, then cook around it. Seasonal produce makes it easier in summer, and last-minute orders are handled without a fuss.
Customs and access go together here. The handling agent clears the vehicle through the airfield gate, and the food itself must comply with UK import rules if any of it came from abroad. We source domestically, which makes the whole handover clean.
Special-meal requests are exactly what we are for. A kosher dish, a halal plate, a nut-free child's meal: cooked apart, sealed and marked. Bringing food from home adds customs risk and loses the labelling the crew relies on.
Charter price covers the aircraft; food is separate. Send the tail and we check the galley layout before we cook, because a narrow-body with one oven needs a different packing plan from a large transport with several.
Tail, pax and diets — a flight attendant takes it from there, day or night.
