Nearly two months after American Airlines first experienced a catering meltdown on flights from London Heathrow, the carrier has finally resolved the mess after it secured a long-term contract with the upscale airline catering company Do&Co, which has now taken over its massive operation in the British capital.
Problems first started to emerge on American’s flights to and from London Heathrow at the start of March when the carrier suddenly dropped the long-term catering contract it had with Dnata – the ground handling division of the Dubai-based Emirates Group.
American ditched its contract with Dnata so quickly that the carrier didn’t have time to find a new catering supplier. And given the fact that the airline operates up to 19 flights per day between Heathrow and nine US cities, it wasn’t like other catering kitchens had spare capacity that they could quickly turn over to American.
Instead, the Texas-based carrier had to rely on ‘double provisioning’ its flights from the United States – in which all the food, drinks, and catering supplies for both the outbound and return flight are loaded on the plane in the US, thereby eliminating the need for any catering uplift at Heathrow.
Double provisioning is not, however, without its problems. Aircraft galleys are not designed to routinely carry all of the catering supplies required for two long-haul transatlantic flights, so quite a few changes needed to be made on all of these flights to account for the lack of catering uplift in Heathrow.
This had a knock-on effect on flight attendants, according to the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), which represents crew members at American Airlines, with the union demanding the airline pay flight attendants working Heathrow services more money to account for the additional workload.
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) April 21, 2026
Since mid-March, American’s joint venture business partner, British Airways, has been able to lend some spare capacity at its upmarket catering contractor Do&Co to restore a near-normal catering service in Business Class on flights departing Heathrow.
However, meal services in the Main Cabin were still being double provisioned from the United States, and, until now, American Airlines hadn’t been able to secure a new catering contractor at Heathrow.
Thankfully, as reported by aviation insider JonNYC on X, American Airlines has now signed a temporary catering deal with Do&Co to provision all of its flights from Heathrow in all cabins.
The contract kicks in on Wednesday, although American says it will double-provision flights for the next few days just in case there are any teething issues during the switchover.
Next week, pre-orders and special meals will also be supplied locally at Heathrow for passengers traveling in First and Business Class.
In an internal memo shared with flight attendants, American Airlines admitted that the “transition hasn’t been easy,” acknowledging that flight attendants had faced an uphill battle on these flights.
The memo added: “Thank you to everyone who has worked trips to and from LHR through this unprecedented and complex transition – and for your grace and professionalism throughout.”
Importantly, the memo did not make any mention of offering financial reward for flight attendants who had worked one of these flights.
Unfortunately, the current deal with Do&Co is not a permanent contract, and American Airlines says it is continuing its hunt for a long-term catering contractor at Heathrow.
Frequent flyers, however, remain hopeful that American Airlines can lock in a more long-term deal with Do&Co, given the positive feedback that has been received about the meals supplied by the Austrian company.
American Airlines remains tight-lipped on its reasons for so suddenly ditching Dnata for its catering operations at Heathrow Airport.
However, there have been reports of serious concerns about sanitary conditions at the catering facility. Last month, a photo of what appeared to be a dead rodent in a Business Class bread basket on an American Airlines flight from Heathrow went viral, although the authenticity of the image has not been verified.
