Sats invests S$18m to automate flight kitchen

SINGAPORE — At 35,000 feet, even culinary marvels taste not much different from boiled eggs. It is a challenge that airlines worldwide face as their flight kitchens produce millions of meals in numerous varieties every single day, keeping in mind religious and other dietary requirements.

These meals are often reheated and eaten hours later on flights. How can airlines ensure quality, consistency and standards while enhancing the variety of food offerings as they compete to win passengers?

Technology, automation and robotics are the answers, according to airport services and inflight catering company Sats. With food production processes automated, inflight meals are made faster and tastier with a perfect infusion of ingredients, and with better quality and consistency, said Ms Jean Sin, assistant vice-president of Innovation and Product Development, Sats.

“Dishes like fried rice or noodles are extremely sensitive to heat and handling. By using fryers and woks with automated stirrers, controlled timing and steam jets, we allow for a more uniform cooking process and an even heat distribution,” Ms Sin said.

“In addition, the gentle continuous stirring motion at a consistent pace infuses flavours and aromas into the rice grains or noodles while maintaining a desired texture. This significantly enhances the quality, consistency and taste of the food.”

Yesterday, Sats unveiled an investment of S$18 million in a new production line that will also automate up to half of certain kitchen operations as the airport services and inflight catering company expands its capacity to provide 115,000 meals a day.

The new investment follows increased regional demand for its services, led by aggressive capacity expansions by airlines, Sats said. It is also aligned with the expansion at Changi Airport that would see its current capacity of handling 66 million passengers a year increase to about 85 million passengers by 2018 when Terminal 4 is ready.

“We will be capable of processing food on a larger scale with reduced labour intensive processes, (but) there will be no reduction in our existing workforce.

“In fact, the investments in technology and automation are aimed at making our people twice as productive in the near future,” said Sats president and CEO Alex Hungate.

The new production line is at its Inflight Catering Centre 2 that primarily caters to foreign airlines other than the Singapore Airlines (SIA) group.

After the expansion, expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2017, Sats’ Inflight Catering Centre 2 will have the capacity to produce 55,000 meals a day, up from the current capacity of 40,000 meals.

Sats’ four-storey Inflight Catering Centre 1 at Airport Boulevard, which supplies exclusively to SIA group airlines, is also being automated with the use of robotics. It has a capacity to produce 60,000 meals per day.