Catering to your aircraft in Rio de Janeiro.
Rio's city airport runs on short business hops and compact galleys. At SDU we plan the trays around one oven and one drawer, and the crew finds them at the FBO on the slot.
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.
Rio de Janeiro eats from the bay and the hills: grilled fish, black beans, farofa, tropical fruit, and a coffee culture that reaches the cockpit. A private jet menu for Santos Dumont starts there, and every inflight menu we write for SBRJ keeps the local specialities honest and the galley realistic. Private jet food from Rio de Janeiro travels well when you choose it by how it finishes: a moqueca that goes in the oven, a ceviche-style plate that stays chilled, a pão de queijo tray that waits in the drawer.
Private jet platters for Rio are built around cold cuts of Brazilian cheese, tropical fruit and heart of palm, the sort of plate a passenger picks at over the bay. Gourmet inflight meals follow the same logic, with a hot moqueca or a picanha course that re-plates cleanly. Private jet snacks lean on pão de queijo, brigadeiros and fresh coconut water in cartons. All of it is local specialities from Rio de Janeiro, packed so the crew can finish it in one oven and one tray.
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.
Santos Dumont (SBRJ / SDU) is a short city runway on the edge of Guanabara Bay, and the galley that lands there is usually a light jet or midsize with one oven and a small drawer. Private jet catering here is built for that galley: citrus-lean cold plates, a hot course that finishes in the oven, and boxes marked by seat. Around the bay the menu is Carioca, and the same brief covers inflight catering for a business shuttle to São Paulo as well as in-flight catering for a diplomatic delegation. We treat aviation catering at SDU as crew work, and our cabin crew meals are packed by people who have stood in that galley.
A typical business brief into SBRJ is a midsize jet shuttling to São Paulo, with a short flight and a single service. Business jet catering and corporate jet catering here favour light cold plates and one oven course, the kind of VIP flight catering a charter flight catering crew can finish alone. Our private jet chef writes a bespoke menu and luxury inflight catering stays clean, plated and labelled for the cabin.
When a delegation lands at Santos Dumont, the menu is cleared by protocol before the first pan is lit. Government flight catering and head of state flight catering keep a named team and a traced source; VIP aviation catering and state visit aircraft catering stay discreet from order to apron.
Special meals at Santos Dumont follow the Rio kitchen: cassava, wheat, shrimp and dairy sit in a lot of Carioca dishes, so allergen free means a separate board and a separate box, not a note. Kosher and halal orders are sealed and labelled at the source, vegan and gluten free plates swap the farofa and cheese for fruit, palm and grilled vegetables, and kids meals keep it simple with rice, beans and sliced fruit. Everything is marked by seat number so nobody opens the wrong 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.
On the SDU ramp, a crew meal is something you ask for when you book the trip, and it appears on the invoice as its own line, same as the guest food. Flight crew meals and pilot meals are boxed to be eaten one-handed in the cockpit, and crew catering is labelled by seat so nothing mixes with the guest trays. Cockpit meals travel in crew meal boxes, with different meals for pilots when the operator asks for it, and cabin crew meals stay separate from both.
At SBRJ the handling agent opens the door and we hand over. FBO catering and catering delivery to the FBO are coordinated with the general aviation terminal, and ground handling catering is planned around your stand; handling agent catering needs only the tail and the slot.
Most traffic at SBRJ is light and midsize jets, so the galley decides the loading: a drawer, one oven, a small cooler. Galley catering here is boxed to fit it. Airside catering delivery goes through your handling agent to the tail on the apron, and where a larger aircraft needs a high loader the aircraft provisioning is planned around the door height and the stand, never improvised at the steps.
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.
Santos Dumont is Rio's downtown airport, built on reclaimed land beside Guanabara Bay, with a single short runway used mostly by regional and business traffic. Airport catering here is shaped by that tight footprint and the busy general aviation ramp.
Rio's bay airport serves corporate shuttles, executive flights and occasional diplomatic traffic. Inflight catering, in-flight catering and aviation catering are written for that mix; business aviation catering, executive jet catering and diplomatic flight catering share a brief, and cabin crew meals are separate. It is a general aviation field where FBO services and ground handling services keep a small business aviation hub moving.
Brazil controls inbound animal and plant products, so imported meat, dairy and fresh produce on a foreign aircraft may be inspected and discarded. Food we load in Rio is local and needs no clearance; your handling agent can confirm any declaration for what the aircraft carries.
Average rating from the cabin crew and pilots we cater for.
“I wanted roasted chicken and seasonal vegetables for 4 guests at SBRJ, packed sensibly for a cabin team dealing with a tight boarding window. My main takeaway from this flight catering order was the practical approach to meal organisation. Instead of asking us to improvise, The Galley Girls explained how the sauces could be arranged during service. Keeping the desserts aside until service helped preserve the presentation while we dealt with the boarding tasks.”
“Before our guests boarded at SDU, we needed yoghurt pots and fresh berries divided into 10 portions suitable for different crew meal preferences. I would discuss flight catering services with them again, especially when final order confirmation needs careful coordination. We described our serving sequence to The Galley Girls and asked for the fruit plates to be packed accordingly. The sandwiches were reserved for the next stage, so the worktop stayed clear while we prepared the initial dishes.”
“As the person coordinating grilled salmon with a lemon dressing for 5 passengers at Santos Dumont Airport, I needed an arrangement that considered a revised passenger count. After a final adjustment to the breakfast portions, The Galley Girls gave us one revised order summary to work from. The note about the desserts was easy to spot, and we could brief the rest of the team quickly. For airline catering, that attention to galley preparation made the order noticeably easier to manage.”
Think of the cost as a list. Moqueca with coconut rice is one line, a heart of palm salad is another, pão de queijo for the second service is a third. How much does private jet catering cost at Santos Dumont? As much as the two services you choose, quoted before departure.
Call it a short chain: the request, the source, the clean board, the labelled box. A special-meal order into Rio runs through all four, and we tell you if your slot is tight. Last-minute orders are handled; send the restriction first.
Customs in Brazil treat inbound fresh food carefully. We build the menu around products sourced here, such as Rio fruit and cheese, which means nothing needs clearance beyond the normal paperwork your handling agent already knows.
Bringing your own food is possible and a customs matter, not a catering one: declare it to your handling agent. The weather window at Santos Dumont decides how long a tray sits, so we suggest items that tolerate a delay.
No. Catering is not part of the charter: you order it separately and it is billed as its own order. At SBRJ the handling agent controls the airside pass, so we coordinate with them to reach the aircraft on your slot.
Tail, pax and diets — a flight attendant takes it from there, day or night.
