MORE RESPONSIBLE CATERING
Meals are an essential part of the Air France travel experience. The company offers its customers a more responsible offer, focusing on three priorities – responsible catering and reducing food waste, eliminating single-use plastic and recycling packaging.
MORE RESPONSIBLE CATERING AND FAIR CONSUMPTION
Catering
On all its flights and in its lounges departing from Paris, Air France offers meat, poultry, dairy products, eggs, bread and pastries that are of French origin, fish sourced from sustainable or French fisheries, and a selection of fresh, local and seasonal products. A vegetarian option is also available in all cabins, and children’s and baby menus are 100% organic. On flights to Paris, local and seasonal products are chosen wherever possible.
Reducing waste
We limit waste by implementing a rigorous stock management policy. Customers travelling in our long-haul Business cabin can also pre-select their dishes before their flight, therefore guaranteeing the availability of their choice. This means we only board the meals we know will be consumed and reduces on-board weight, therefore also reducing our fuel consumption. In 2025, it enabled us to avoid loading nearly 50,000 hot meals (equivalent to more than 12 tons of food waste avoided).
When some foodstuff or items or products can no longer be used on board, they are donated to charity organizations.
ELIMINATING SINGLE-USE PLASTIC
Plastic takes centuries to degrade and every year more than 10 million tons of plastic end up in the world’s oceans because they are not recycled. Air France is rapidly replacing plastic items with bio-sourced materials, both on board and on the ground, and will have eliminated/replaced 90% of single-use plastic items on board since 2018, including 140t between 2023 and 2024.
On the ground and in flight, we continue to deploy plastic‑free containers such as cardboard cups, cellulose dishes, and bagasse bowls. In accordance with French regulations and to reduce the use of plastic bottles, water fountains have been installed in our lounges in France, which helps avoid the use of 3.5 million plastic bottles per year.
SORTING AND RECYCLING PACKAGING
Since 2019, on our flights to Paris, we deploy sort packaging so that it can be recycled in France or Europe. In 2025, Air France recycled approximately 57 tons of plastic bottles, cartons, and cans (30 tons in 2023), and 700 tons of glass bottles (585 tons in 2023).
Products and services
The amenity kits offered in La Première, Business and Premium cabins are made from recycled materials, and most of their contents are bio‑based. For babies, comfort toys are made of recycled velvet and provided in a 100% FSC kraft box. Departing from Paris, water bottles are made of recycled and recyclable PET (La Première, Business and Premium). Since 2023, Air France has been recycling paper menus from La Première and Business cabins on all flights to Paris. Since 2024, catering boxes (container and content) in short‑haul Business have been processed through methanization.
We are working on extending this selective waste sorting system on board to our international stations.
