Catering to your aircraft in Knoxville/Maryville.
Football Saturdays, Dollywood season and fall color weekends set the rhythm at McGhee Tyson, so we pack the galley for those flights: cold platters that wait in the drawer, hot dishes labeled for the oven, and crew meals on request.
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.
Knoxville and East Tennessee give a private jet menu a clear local accent. Country ham with red-eye gravy, buttermilk biscuits, pimento cheese and smoked Appalachian trout are the dishes people ask for on the way out of Tennessee, and each of them has a galley-friendly version: ham sliced thin and served cold, biscuits packed to warm in the oven, pimento cheese in a sealed pot with crackers apart.
Fall brings apples from the Appalachian foothills, sorghum, and sweet potato in everything from soup to cake. Our inflight menu leans on these local specialities when they are in season, and we label what is cold, what goes in the oven and what is sauced at the last moment. For private jet food in Tennessee, the rule is simple: one hot item, one cold item, nothing that will not survive the climb and the cabin.
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.
On Saturdays in autumn the ramp at McGhee Tyson fills with jets for Neyland Stadium, and the galley orders arrive with them. Our private jet catering for KTYS is written by former VIP flight attendants: we cook and pack the order, label the drawers, and hand it over at the aircraft. The same kitchen handles inflight catering for the quiet weekday corporate flights, and in-flight catering for charter groups heading to the Smokies. Aviation catering here also covers business aviation catering for the Oak Ridge research traffic, executive jet catering for owner flights, diplomatic flight catering when a delegation visits the national laboratories, and cabin crew meals boxed for the crew.
Business jet catering at McGhee Tyson covers corporate jet catering for Oak Ridge and Knoxville executives, VIP flight catering for football weekends and charter flight catering for Smokies groups. Luxury inflight catering is built by a private jet chef around a bespoke menu, from a cold lunch to a plated dinner for the cabin.
Government flight catering at TYS follows protocol: menus cleared in advance, traceable ingredients and a named team. Head of state flight catering and state visit aircraft catering stay discreet, and VIP aviation catering for delegations visiting Oak Ridge is packed without any names on the labels.
Kosher and halal orders arrive at TYS mostly for corporate groups and for families flying to the lakes, and our procedure starts with a separate kitchen board and a sealed box. Vegan, gluten free and allergen free dishes are packed apart from the guest trays, with a card for the flight attendant. Special meals and kids meals are marked by seat number, never by name, so the card in the drawer matches the seat plan.
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.
Whoever flies the trip can ask for crew meals at McGhee Tyson, and they sit on the invoice as a separate line. Flight crew meals can be hot or cold, boxed for a quick cockpit lunch or plated for a longer ground stop. Pilot meals and cockpit meals are packed so they can be eaten with one hand, and when the operator wants different meals for pilots, the captain and first officer get separate dishes. Crew catering is labeled CREW, in crew meal boxes, so nobody opens a passenger tray by mistake.
FBO catering at McGhee Tyson means catering delivery to the FBO, passed to the handling agent at the general aviation terminal. Ground handling catering needs airside passes and an escort, so we coordinate with the handling agent catering team and deliver to the aircraft on your slot.
Galley catering at KTYS depends on the aircraft: a light jet takes cases through the door, a larger cabin may need a high loader at the stairs. Our airside catering delivery is planned around the tail number and the handling agent, so aircraft provisioning is staged by trolley and by drawer. Tell us the type and we pack for its galley, with oven-ready trays for small ovens and sealed cold boxes for large ones.
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.
Knoxville's airport is a busy general aviation field with FBO services, ground handling services and a customs presence. Airport catering here is planned around the football calendar, Smokies tourism and the research traffic to Oak Ridge.
McGhee Tyson acts as a business aviation hub for East Tennessee. Inflight catering, in-flight catering and aviation catering are ordered for corporate shuttles, business aviation catering for lab and manufacturing trips, executive jet catering for owner flights, diplomatic flight catering for delegations, and cabin crew meals for the crew.
Flights arriving from abroad clear US customs at TYS, and agricultural products such as fresh fruit, meat and dairy are restricted. Catering bought locally and loaded after clearance avoids the issue; we advise on what must be declared.
Average rating from the cabin crew and pilots we cater for.
“One detail shaped our order at McGhee Tyson Airport: a short ground stop, alongside a request for prawn salad and small fruit plates for 9 passengers. The Galley Girls labelled the snack boxes in line with our brief, so the cabin team could identify the relevant portions quickly. We could distinguish the desserts at a glance instead of lifting lids just to establish what belonged to each service. For private aviation catering, that attention to written menu details made the order noticeably easier to manage.”
“It was the packing plan I cared about at KTYS, with 7 servings of prawn salad and small fruit plates and a family lunch request to consider. The Galley Girls talked through the quantities of salads with us before confirmation, rather than leaving us to guess the portions. Our brief for business jet catering was met with a sensible plan for crew briefing. The quantities of sauces matched our service plan, leaving us comfortable with the order before the final briefing.”
“We kept the passenger brief simple at TYS: vegetable tartlets and a dessert selection for 8 guests, organised with several individual meal preferences in mind. For business aviation catering, that attention to portion planning made the order noticeably easier to manage. The Galley Girls prepared the sandwiches for assembly in the galley, with the accompanying elements easy to locate. It made a difference to have the starters ready without cluttering the galley work area during preparation.”
Two services on board is where the bill grows: a starter and a main for six cost more than a single platter, and a smoked trout course costs more than a cheddar and apple box. The cost of private jet catering at McGhee Tyson follows those choices, and we confirm the figure before the aircraft reaches the FBO.
For lead time at Knoxville, send the first headcount and tell us each time it moves. Last-minute orders are handled, and we keep sealed cold items flexible so a seat added late still gets a proper meal.
Customs rules for catering bite hardest on agricultural products. A delegation arriving from abroad at Knoxville may carry fruit, meat or dairy that must be declared or discarded, so the cleaner route is to order the return meals from us and load them after clearance.
Can you bring food in your own bags at TYS? You can, but a guest keeping kosher, or a child allergic to nuts, is safer with a sealed, labeled meal packed on a separate board. Special meals ordered from us come with a card for the flight attendant, marked by seat number.
Is catering part of a charter into Knoxville? No: you order it separately and it is invoiced on its own. When crew duty time is tight and the wait on the ground at McGhee Tyson drags on, meals ready and labeled at the FBO beat anything improvised.
Tail, pax and diets — a flight attendant takes it from there, day or night.
