American Airlines Has Solved Its London Catering Mess—And Keeping Staff To Check Food For Every Plane

American Airlines expects to finally finish fixing its London Heathrow catering operation by October 28. They’ve hired a better caterer, and they’re getting the trucks needed to deliver the food. But buried in an internal update is the part I find most encouraging: even after they’ve fully moved all of their catering over to local D&O catering at Heathrow, they’re keeping coordinators on board before every departure to help make sure everything has been delivered correctly. American is investing in better food and in making sure flight attendants have what they need to serve it. That’s too often been missing from the airline’s operation. They made premium promises but would shrug when they didn’t deliver, ‘what do you want us to do, take a delay?’ would be the response I’d get and my point was always that they needed to be taking the steps before the last minute to ensure that they got things right. And it seems like they are now trying to do this! Aviation watchdog JonNYC shares the internal update, describing “Major, major progress on LHR catering transition.” AA @ LHR Major, major progress on LHR catering transition — JonNYC (@xJonNYC) October 2, 2026 Back in March, I covered how American had stopped catering locally at Heathrow and started flying meals over from the U.S. for the return trip. Double catering meant squeezing supplies for two long haul flights into galleys designed for one. Passengers got fewer choices, missing pre-orders, and saw cutbacks in both directions. By March 10, DO & CO was improving the food in premium cabins. Reports of the catering switch were excellent. In August I wrote that American had selected DO & CO permanently, with the transition expected to take around four months. They Needed Catering Trucks The internal update says the transition has “largely been driven by the availability of catering trucks.” These are specialized vehicles, and American says both the airline and caterer worked to secure enough of them. They reported acquiring five more trucks and expected another seven right away, bringing the total to 17. That additional capacity lets them finish moving Heathrow departures back to local catering. Coach especially was still being double-catered on many flights. The primary constraint turned out to be getting the food from the kitchen onto the aircraft. Here’s the schedule in the update: Boeing 777-200s: Full local catering resumed earlier in the week. Flights in each direction are catered for their own trip, ending the need to load both flights’ supplies in the U.S. Boeing 787-9Ps: The newer premium-heavy aircraft are scheduled to end double provisioning with U.S. departures October 13 and Heathrow departures October 14. The remaining Heathrow operation: American expects U.S. departures to move to single provisioning October 27, followed by all Heathrow departures October 28. By then, DO & CO should fully handle catering for flights leaving London. However beer, liquor, and premium cabin wines will continue to be loaded in the U.S. for both directions, per normal practice for international departures. American Airlines really does need more local variation in its beverage program, for instance Australian wines on flights from Down Under. They’re Going To Invest In Making Sure Catering Actually Gets Loaded The key item for me coms at the end, “Onboard catering coordinators”: As we enter the home stretch and even after the transition is fully completed, DO & CO catering coordinators will continue to be on board every aircraft in LHR before departure. While flights are still double provisioned, those coordinators help reposition carts so supplies are where flight attendants expect them and can reach them. But that work won’t simply disappear once the extra carts do: When double provisioning ends: Coordinators will continue to be on board every LHR departure from start of catering to start of boarding to ensure flight attendants are all set with catering for the flight. These are people working aboard the aircraft on the ground, before passengers board. American is retaining that support. Catering that doesn’t get properly loaded creates a miserable flight. This Is A Truly Different Approach For American Back in 2018, I wrote about a Miami-based flight attendant who asked Robert Isom about being called into the office over a catering delay. The employee described an incident several years earlier: I was called into the office because I took a 14 minute delay to wait for china plates to plate the food for Brazil. The alternative was serving international first class meals without the plates. Isom said leaving without the necessary servingware wasn’t appropriate, and that managers applying a blanket prohibition on catering delays weren’t representing the airline’s broader operational priorities. Yet the employee had still been called in. Employees learn what management actually values from what gets them in trouble. D0 was the issue – the airline wouldn’t accept a small delay to ensure the product was correct. Here, American is putting resources into getting catering right before boarding. That gives flight attendants help while there’s still an opportunity to correct a problem, instead of leaving them to discover it and choose between an incomplete service and a departure delay. This isn’t just a big announcement about new wine, champagne or coffee – it’s investing in the kinds of steps along the way to consistently deliver as-promised. I genuinely love to see it. Topics on this page