For the second year running Kansai In-Flight Catering Co., Ltd. at Osaka Kansai International Airport (KIX) received the highest honors, the Platinum Award for Worldwide Excellence.
MONTREAL – On February 25th in Miami Beach, Florida, awards for the world’s best airline caterers were announced at a gala celebration featuring cocktails and dinner at the Raleigh Hotel Penthouse and Terrace. For the second year running Kansai In-Flight Catering Co., Ltd. at Osaka Kansai International Airport (KIX) received the highest honors, the Platinum Award for Worldwide Excellence.
The awards were presented by a global roster of major airlines participating in the Quality and Safety Alliances In-flight Services (QSAI), a programme developed and managed by Medina Quality. Awards are given across three geographic regions, Asia, the Americas, and Europe/Africa/Middle East. Gold, Silver and Bronze awards are named for each region, making for a total of nine honorees of which one accepts the Platinum Worldwide award as well. There were 220 catering facilities located across 50 countries in the running for awards.
The Worldwide Platinum winner for the second year in a row is Kansai In-Flight Catering Co., Ltd. at Osaka International Airport (KIX).
Here’s a full list of the award-winners for 2013:
- Platinum Worldwide: Kansai In-Flight Catering Co., Ltd. – KIX
- Gold Asia: Kansai In-Flight Catering Co., Ltd. – KIX
- Gold Americas: Goddard Catering Group – BON
- Gold Europe/Middle East/Africa: Saudi Airlines Catering Company – DMM
- Silver Asia: ANA Catering Service Co., Ltd. – NRT
- Silver Americas: LSG Sky Chefs – EZE
- Silver Europe/Middle East/Africa: LSG Sky Chefs – MUC
- Bronze Asia: AAS Catering Co., Ltd. – KIX
- Bronze Americas: LSG Sky Chefs – SCL
- Bronze Europe/Middle East/Africa: LSG Sky Chefs Airo Catering Services – KBP
Although most travelers associate in-flight meals with whatever airline they are traveling on, it’s in fact the earth-bound caterers, located in major airports working with airline food designers who prepare what comes rolling down the aisle at meal-times. These award-winners are recognized for their top marks in safety and quality audits.
Medina Quality has been conducting audits of in-flight caterers since 1983 and developed the QSAI programme in collaboration with its airline clients. QSAI is the world’s first auditing programme that allows airlines to monitor and improve in-flight food supplier compliance with internationally recognized standards while sharing program costs. QSAI is designed to ensure that airline caterers are rewarded for maintaining the highest standards of food safety and quality. Medina Quality offers clients a variety of services besides QSAI, including alleged food poisoning investigations, food and water microbial analysis results investigations, and alleged foreign body investigations. The company also develops management reporting tools with clients, including operations dashboards, supplier dashboards and performance snapshots.
The airlines that participate in QSAI include Aeroflot Russian Airways, Air Canada, Air Canada Rouge, Air France, All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
