Airlines Elevate In-Flight Dining with Premium Partnerships

For decades, airline food has been the punch line of travel jokes, but a new wave of premium partnerships and culinary innovation is transforming menus at 35,000 feet. Delta Air Lines kicked off this trend late last year when it teamed with Shake Shack to offer first-class passengers the chain’s signature burgers—preordered on select flights out of Los Angeles and New York—an item that quickly became Delta’s most popular in-flight meal. “A lot of people ask me, isn’t a burger fast food? What’s it doing in domestic first class?” says Ash Dhokte, Delta’s vice president of onboard service operations. He argues that Shake Shack’s quality and brand cachet make it an ideal fit, and building the capability to deliver a toasted potato-bun burger required nearly two years of reverse-engineering, specialized kitchen equipment and rigorous flight-testing to perfect every packaging and reheating detail.

Delta’s burger collaboration highlights the interplay between the science of taste and the artistry of menu design. As a plane ascends, cabin pressure and humidity drop—sometimes to desert-like levels—dulling passengers’ senses of salt and sweetness by up to 30 percent, according to a 2010 Lufthansa study. To counteract that effect, chefs boost seasoning, add robust spices and retool classic recipes for the altitude. Alaska Airlines enlisted San Francisco chef Brandon Jew of Michelin-starred Mister Jiu’s, who spent six months adapting his seasonal, ingredient-driven approach for transcontinental first-class diners. Drawing on trusted purveyors such as Stemple Creek Ranch, Jew and his team developed dishes like tea-smoked soy chicken and Japanese shio koji short ribs, carefully balancing flavors and reheating performance to evoke a sense of homecoming at 40,000 feet.

In Asia, Korean Air undertook its first food and beverage overhaul in fifteen years this spring, engaging chef Seakyeong Kim of Seoul’s Cesta to craft new menus across all cabins. Economy travelers can now enjoy modern takes on bibimbap with brisket, octopus or truffle oil, while business- and first-class passengers can choose items like duck confit, surf-and-turf with veal tenderloin and crab or steamed black cod. Chief Marketing Officer Kenneth Chang jokes that he “ate so many meals I thought I was going to throw up” during intensive taste trials, underscoring the painstaking process of selecting dishes that awaken taste buds at altitude and align with evolving passenger expectations.

Back in the United States, the rapid rise of in-flight culinary collaborations reflects intense competition for premium travelers. Delta’s Shake Shack burgers are cooked on the ground, flash-frozen and reheated by specially trained cabin crews, who fine-tune plating angles and packaging techniques through trial runs on live flights. Even seemingly simple sides, like French fries, remain elusive due to reheating challenges, though Dhokte hints that a crispy in-flight fry could debut in the future. Meanwhile, Alaska’s partnership with Jew emphasizes terroir and sustainable sourcing, and Korean Air’s comprehensive revamp signals a new standard for embracing local flavors and global fine-dining trends.

As airlines pour fresh investment into their galleys, passengers are noticing that meal service has become a strategic differentiator rather than an afterthought. From hand-crafted short ribs to gourmet burgers in first class, carriers are leveraging celebrated chefs and iconic brands to elevate the in-flight experience and drive ancillary revenue through preorders and fare-tier enhancements. In an era when every detail matters—from seat assignments to loyalty perks—a thoughtfully curated menu can leave a lasting impression long after wheels touch down. As Dhokte observes, “We’ve served millions of meals, but the opportunities to surprise and delight guests never end.” With each new culinary collaboration, airlines are finally winning back the high-altitude palate and rewriting the script on airplane dining.

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