Flying Food Group sees strong growth as travel demand soars
This is a special feature from the April 2025 WTCE issue of PAX International on page 52.
Nicolas Rondeau, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Flying Food Group
In an interview with PAX International this spring, Flying Food Group (FFG)’s Nicolas Rondeau, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, reflects on 2024 as a remarkable year for the caterer. Rondeau attributes the increasing demand for FFG’s products and services to a near return to pre-pandemic travel levels.
“Contributing factors include the business rebound and business relations that require travel, but also a very strong demand for leisure travel, which was maintained at a high level even during the slowest months,” he says.
With both business and personal travel seeing continued growth in the last 12 months, allowing FFG to see high activity levels, strong load factors and increased demand, Rondeau expects to see similar if not greater opportunities for expansion in the year ahead.
“The upcoming 2025 flight schedule looks very promising from what has been published by our customers,” he reveals. “There is no downsizing in aircraft at key destinations and projects for route expansion.”
Flying Food Group provides catering services to Qantas Airways at several U.S. airports, including LAX, SFO and HNL
Frozen not forgotten
While FFG remains committed to delivering freshly prepared meals, the caterer’s frozen food offerings are expanding. The products are met with positive responses from both airline and retail customers. Rondeau says the increasing popularity of frozen meals is driven by affordability, consistency and extended shelf life.
After launching its first line of frozen meals for retail customers at its new frozen production facility in Newark, New Jersey last summer, FFG is setting its sights on developing inflight options.
“We worked with one of our large retail customers and invested in a frozen manufacturing facility to meet the demand,” Rondeaus tells PAX International. “As we gain experience with the retail [side] of frozen food production, we would like to enlarge our capabilities to provide a line of frozen entrees suitable for our airline customers.”
The expansion creates an opportunity for FFG to offer its customers cost-competitive menu options.
Flying Food Group provides catering services to All Nippon Airways at several major U.S. airports, including ORD, LAX and SFO
“In response to rising food costs, this innovation may provide an efficient way to offer high-quality meals while complementing our current selections,” says Rondeau. “One main benefit is that we will be providing quality products at a reasonable cost—the volume production could help mitigate the labour cost that keeps rising.”
Frozen food for airline customers is just one of the many areas where FFG expects to see growth alongside its new and existing partners this year.
“The outlook for 2025 is quite positive for us,” predicts Rondeau. “We will also face significant labour increases in some key markets that will make our challenge to remain competitive even bigger.”
