[SH Transit] Why Did Your Airplane Meal Suddenly Get Good Again?

Chicken noodle soup. Tiramisu. A glass of champagne. If your last domestic flight surprised you with an actual meal instead of a bottle of water and a plastic-wrapped bun, that wasn't a coincidence. Airlines are spending more on food.

For years, meals on Chinese domestic flights were bare-bones. A bottle of water often stood in for a hot drink. A plastic-wrapped bun was often a substitute for a meal.

Free alcohol, once standard on full-service carriers, quietly disappeared. Pandemic-era cost cuts squeezed catering budgets hard.

That is reversing. Haagen-Dazs ice cream, coffee, fruit wine and champagne are showing up on domestic routes. These products used to be found mainly on international carriers.

Air China and China Southern have rolled out meals built around the cities where flights originate. Both airlines said they will refresh the menus monthly or seasonally.

China Southern, for instance, has added ginger-and-scallion salt-baked chicken from southern Guangdong Province, Changsha-style spicy chicken from central Hunan Province, and Hainan-style chicken rice, according to the airline.

The Guangzhou-based carrier said it now serves regional dishes tied to 16 cities, including Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai.

Hainan Airlines has brought in Intercontinental Hotels Group's Chinese restaurant brand Cai Feng Lou, along with a Michelin-starred Belgian restaurant, to design its business class menus. The airline has not disclosed which specific dishes the partnership has produced.

China Eastern's Starbucks play

China Eastern has gone furthest in rebranding what a Chinese carrier's cabin can look like.

The airline began serving Starbucks coffee in first and business class on its Shanghai-Los Angeles route this year.

It plans to extend the service to 12 other long-haul international routes and eight domestic premium routes, the Shanghai-based airline said.

Its drinks list now includes a huangjiu, or yellow rice wine, made with Zhejiang brewer Pagoda Brand. It also boasts a wine developed with state grain trader COFCO. Both are meant to bring Chinese-made drinks into cabins long dominated by Western wine and spirits.

Its "Nourishing All Things" menu changes dishes with China's 24 solar terms. On long-haul routes to South America, the airline has added instant noodle cups made with snack maker Master Kong. The seasoning comes pre-mixed into the noodles, so passengers don't need to tear open and stir in a separate packet.

The airline markets the cups as a late-night option for passengers who get hungry hours after the last meal service.

The money behind it

Catering spending at China's three biggest carriers has jumped more than 60 percent in two years. Air China, China Eastern and China Southern together spent roughly 8.6 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) on catering in 2023. By 2025, that figure had passed 14 billion yuan, according to the airlines' annual reports.

Air China spent 4.5 billion yuan on catering last year while the figure was 4.6 billion yuan for China Eastern and 4.9 billion yuan for China Southern. All three were up between 8 and 11 percent from 2024.

According to an airline industry insider, who was not authorized to speak publicly, fuel costs remain high this year and profits are still thin.

But the push to improve catering has not slowed, the person said, because carriers increasingly see it as tied to passenger loyalty.

Cost-cutting efforts now target fuel efficiency, route planning and procurement instead, he added.

Does better food sell more tickets?

A 2025 McKinsey survey of about 7,000 airline passengers found price accounted for 34 percent of what shaped their choice of flight. Checked-baggage allowance accounted for 16 percent. Food and drink accounted for just 6 percent.

Yet the same survey found passengers were willing to pay about US$27 more, on average, for better meals and drinks.

"Food is a weak variable in the purchase decision but a strong one in passenger experience and repeat business," said Yu Zhanfu, vice president at Management Professional Group and head of its transport, logistics and tourism division.

Meal quality rarely decides which ticket someone buys, he noted. But once passengers are in their seats, it shapes how they remember the flight.

That is especially true in premium cabins, where the goal is not to profit from selling food but to protect the brand and the fare premium those seats command, Yu added.

The United States consumer research firm J.D. Power found that when US airlines suspended alcohol service during the COVID-19 pandemic, satisfaction scores among premium economy passengers dropped 38 points. It fell 12 points among business and first class passengers.

A separate survey of more than 9,000 Chinese passengers ranked in-flight meals among the leading causes of dissatisfaction with air travel overall.

Now you can pay extra, too

China's full-service carriers are also borrowing a page from budget airlines: paid meals.

Air China and China Eastern both launched paid meal options in April. Prices range from light meals starting at 19 yuan (US$2.8) to custom dishes topping 200 yuan.

The China Air Transport Association (CATA) was quick to clarify that free economy meals have not been scrapped. Paid options are simply an add-on.

The model is already common abroad.

Singapore Airlines lets premium economy passengers pre-order from more than 200 new dishes served on porcelain, alongside a glass of champagne after takeoff.

Air France has brought Michelin-designed menus to premium economy on North American routes, paired with sommelier-chosen wine.

Qatar Airways offers business class passengers a "dine-on-demand" menu they can order from at any point in the flight, rather than at fixed meal times.

Brussels Airlines is rolling out new tableware and expanded hot meal choices across its cabins through 2026.

United Airlines now requires passengers on some routes to pre-book economy meals in advance. The American airline said the change will keep more than 40 tons of food a year out of landfills.

Yu cautioned against assuming China's paid-meal market will grow as large as those overseas.

Western carriers built their business around unbundling: pay for the seat, then pay separately for the meal. Chinese full-service airlines still include meals in the base fare on most routes, he said.

So is it working?

Whether better food moves the bottom line is hard to prove. Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific overhauled its catering and cabin products in 2024 and 2025.

Yet its passenger revenue per available seat kilometer fell 11.8 percent in 2024 and 10.3 percent in 2025.

Though it recovered in the first half of 2026, the airline credited that rebound to transit traffic through Hong Kong and strong cargo demand, not the food.

The broader industry backdrop is sobering, too. China's average economy fare fell to about 740 yuan last year and is still declining.

International flight capacity has recovered to 103.6 percent of 2019 levels. But international passenger numbers remain at just 84.5 percent, Yu observed.

Routes under 1,000 kilometers have lost about a third of their 2019 passenger volume. Price-insensitive business travelers are among those who have not come back, he said.

That leaves catering a signal to loyal, high-value flyers, Yu suggested, not a hook for price-shopping tourists.

It's unrealistic to expect one good meal to lift load factors directly, but at least it stops being the reason a passenger doesn't fly with you again.

Next time your tray table surprises you, it's worth asking: is the airline trying to win you back, or just trying not to lose you?