“Flight catering” can have better options for resource, environmental, and health effects: The case of nine major airlines in China

Sustainable dietary patterns are crucial for both health and environmental sustainability. With the rapid development of the aviation industry, flight catering has garnered increasing attention. However, current research on the resource, environmental, and health effects of flight catering requires further investigation. To address this issue, we conducted a case study involving nine major Chinese airlines to evaluate changes in dietary structure and the associated resource and environmental effects of flight catering over 10 years (2014–2023). The total food consumption in China's flight catering showed initial stabilization, a sharp increase, and a subsequent decline from 2014 to 2023. The dietary structure remained minimally changed, dominated by cereals, milk, and vegetables. During the study period, the trends of the water footprint, land requirements, and carbon emissions of China's flight catering were consistent with the trends observed in food consumption, with cereals, milk, meat, and aquatic products accounting for a higher proportion of resource and environmental effects. Compared to the Chinese Dietary Guidelines 2022, China's flight catering exhibited wasteful consumption of water, land, and carbon resources, with higher waste rates for cereals, milk, meat, and aquatic products. Accordingly, we designed three scenarios and observed that the “Green Flight” service effectively mitigates the environmental burden of flight catering. When 70 % of passengers select this service, water, land, and carbon consumption savings were observed. Results emphasized the importance of restructuring the dietary pattern of flight catering by reducing meat and aquatic product consumption to achieve sustainable consumption nationally and globally. • Comprehensively analyzed the resource and environmental effects of flight catering. • Identified the resource-efficient dietary pattern of flight catering. • Exploring resource-saving approaches to flight catering from a “Green Flight” service perspective. • Providing airlines with suggestions for optimizing flight catering patterns.