Emirates to serve kosher meals

Airline’s flight catering unit will set up special production facility and begin supplies in January

Emirates airline has unveiled plans to produce kosher meals, two days after the UAE and Israel formally signed the Abraham Accord to normalise ties.

Emirates Flight Catering, which serves more than 100 airlines, will set up a dedicated production facility for kosher food in the UAE in alliance with CCL Holdings. It will be called Kosher Arabia.

Actual preparation of meals and supplies will start from January. The partnership will also look at opening restaurants. Saeed Mohammad, CEO of Emirates Flight Catering, said: “For many years, we have been offering kosher meals primarily to our airline customers via an outsourced supplier overseas.

Expansion plans

“By setting up our own capability at to produce kosher food, we are confident that we can better serve our customers not only in the aviation sector, but also in the hospitality, F&B, and events sector, including the upcoming Expo 2020.

“We will also explore opening restaurants across Dubai and the GCC,” he said.

Emirates’ culinary team will handle all food production, while CCL Holdings will provide certification and production supervision, including support for menu development and procurement.

Emirates is expected to start flying to the Jewish state by the end of the year.

On August 31, an El Al airliner carrying a joint Israeli-US delegation landed in Abu Dhabi on the first direct commercial flight from Tel Aviv to the UAE capital.