The study looked at Aer Lingus, Delta Air Lines, British Airways, Eastern Airways, easyJet, jet2, Loganair, Ryanair, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Wizz Air, Emirates, Qantas, TUI Airways, KLM, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, American Airlines, Etihad Airways, Air Canada and Air France
Customers have left their flights hungry and unimpressed having flown on what one study claims is the airline with the worst food Brits are likely to fly on.
Research conducted by BoyleSports analysed the quality of food of several UK and international airlines based on traveller reviews, scraping through tens of thousands of opinions on Tripadvisor. Totting up all the times ‘food’ was mentioned alongside negatives adjectives such as ‘disgusting’. ‘bad’, ‘awful’ and ‘terrible’, for the UK’s 20 most frequently used airlines, they concluded that Aer Lingus was at the bottom of the pile.
The Irish airline had 3.31% of its total 13,862 reviews, including some criticism of its onboard catering, according to BoyleSports. One reviewer took to the TripAdvisor platform and said: “I pre-ordered children’s meals which did not arrive, and the food on the plane was absolutely not edible.”
There was also 104 of 460 comments directly mentioning the catering options as being “inedible” or “not edible” too, with another claiming that the food was raw: “Food was disgusting on the plane, raw rice, raw food, would not recommend Aer Lingus, will try a different airline.”
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One customer said that the staff were “excellent” and the flight was on time, but the food was not – in their opinion – up to scratch. “Why oh why couldn’t Aer Lingus provide a decent meal! It was inedible on both the outgoing flight and the return flight. Even the salad and dessert were awful,” they wrote online.
However, there were many positive reviews amid the hundreds of complaints and many pictures of delicious-looking meals next to five-star reviews.
The airlines that the study included were: Aer Lingus, Delta Air Lines, British Airways, Eastern Airways, easyJet, jet2, Loganair, Ryanair, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Wizz Air, Emirates, Qantas, TUI Airways, KLM, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, American Airlines, Etihad Airways, Air Canada and Air France.
Despite frequent jokes about Ryanair’s cost-cutting approach and their humorous social media responses to complaints, it’s not the worst-rated for food. In fact, it ranks with the lowest percentage of negative food reviews, while a fellow Irish airline company tops the charts for the worst feedback on food in the skies.
Etihad Airways follows closely behind Aer Lingus with 3.02% of its reviews related to poor food quality, making it the second-most criticised airline in this category, while TUI Airways, Air Canada, and Qantas make up the top five standings of the highest percentages referencing unsatisfactory catering.
American Airlines received the highest number of negative food reviews (810), though these only constitute 1% of its overall reviews.
While Ryanair is often discussed for a range of different factors in a positive and negative manner, with a log of 92,199 reviews on TripAdvisor – the highest of any airline analysed in the study – mentions of food won’t leave a bad taste in the company’s mouth, at least, as they claim lowest negative review percentage.
Aer Lingus has been contacted for comment.
