Air Charter Expo (ACE) 2026: Why Catering Belongs in the Consolidation Conversation

Sep 4

3 min read

On 8th September, the private aviation industry gathers at Biggin Hill for Air Charter Expo 2026. Among the day's panel discussions, two stand out for anyone managing catering spend: one asking whether smaller charter operations are still viable as costs continue to rise, and another looking at what is shaping the cargo sector this year.

Private Flight's VP for Royal & Government Segment, Shamir Samdjee, and Chief Growth Officer, Lieff Fischer, will be attending. They will not be on either panel, but the questions being asked are ones our own data speaks to directly. Catering will not settle the consolidation debate on its own, but it is a cost category most operators have never properly quantified or brought under structured management. It is, however, one of the few cost categories operators can bring under control quickly, and that makes it worth raising while the industry is in the room.

From orders to orchestration

Across fleet and cargo operations alike, inflight catering is still managed as a collection of disconnected activities rather than a connected service. Orders, approvals, deliveries, invoices and payments move through emails, phone calls, spreadsheets and individual relationships. For fleet operators, that fragmentation means service delivery becomes harder to keep consistent as the fleet grows. For cargo operators, it means crew catering is sourced locally, order by order, with little visibility into spend or service quality across a global network.

This is the case for treating inflight catering as an orchestrated, end-to-end service rather than a fragmented procurement task: control and reliability, visibility and traceability, and consistency and standardisation, delivered through a single platform rather than a dozen disconnected suppliers.

The consolidation angle

For smaller operators facing the viability question head-on, catering inefficiency is not a marginal figure. Private Flight's operator ROI analysis shows a minimum 16%+ recoverable saving on total annual catering spend once invoice errors, handler mark-ups, menu inefficiency, wastage and FX costs are brought under control. That is one of the few controllable cost levers left once crew and maintenance budgets are already under scrutiny, and it applies just as directly to the cargo sector, where thin margins leave little room for silent overspend. We explore the full savings model in the quiet budget drain and the platform that is fixing it.

Part of the reason the figure stays uncaptured is structural. As we set out in why catering is private aviation procurement's highest-return, untouched category, catering remains one of the only major cost lines in fleet operations without a formal owner, KPIs or structured procurement discipline, despite behaving exactly like any other addressable spend category once the same rigour is applied. That gap is what turns a controllable cost into a compounding one, and closing it is one of the contributing moves available to any operator reassessing viability this year.

Download Private Flight's White Paper - The True Cost of Catering Inefficiency

The trust dimension

There is a second layer to this conversation that rarely makes it onto a conference stage: what an unexplained catering charge does to an owner or client relationship. Whether the stakeholder is a government principal, a fleet owner or a charter client, the dynamic is the same. As set out in when the invoice becomes the problem, billing opacity erodes confidence quietly, long before it becomes a formal complaint. Structured, transparent catering management protects that relationship as directly as it protects the P&L.

Meet us at Air Charter Expo (ACE) 2026

Shamir Samdjee and Lieff Fischer will be at Biggin Hill on 8th September and available to talk through what these savings drivers could mean for your operation, whether you manage a fleet, a cargo network, or government aviation.

Connect with Shamir and Lieff to discuss your operation's specific catering exposure
Talk to our experts ahead of the event to arrange a platform demo
Download the white paper, The True Cost of Catering Inefficiency, for the full five-driver savings model and a three-year forward view of what inaction in private aviation catering costs

Private Flight'sa Shamir Samdjee and Lieff Fischer will be at Biggin Hill

The technology exists, the data is available, and the return is demonstrable within weeks. The variable left is the decision to act.