2019 was known as the ‘Year of the Vegan’. In the past five years, the number of vegans in Great Britain alone quadrupled, with more than 6% of Brits now identifying as vegan.
With the movement becoming mainstream, the vegan food industry has been a booming business, with the big food chains following suit. Most recently, Qatar Airways announced it would be offering a la carte vegan options in business class. However; despite this increased demand, flying as a vegan passenger is still a challenge.
With many airlines, you have to book your meal a number of hours in advance. It’s also advisable to double-check upon your arrival at the airport to make sure your special meal request went through properly.
Sounds simple enough, right? Well, airlines also have different meal codes, which can add to the confusion about what you’re actually ordering:
- VGML — Vegetarian Vegan Meal. This meal will be completely free from all animal products including meat, dairy, eggs and honey. However, this will typically come with the same bread as everyone else, which is often not vegan, as well as butter and a standard cow’s milk for your tea or coffee.
- VLML — Vegetarian Lacto-Ovo Meal. A traditional vegetarian dish with no fish or meat, but it may contain other animal products such as eggs, dairy and honey.
- VOML — Vegetarian Oriental Meal. These are typically found on Asian airlines and are nearly always vegan and prepared in an Oriental style in dishes such as vegetables with rice. This option also tends to be gluten-free.
- AVML — Asian Vegetarian Meal. This is most likely not vegan, as it typically includes spiced vegetables (which may contain ghee), as well as dairy products, such as paneer cheese.
- VJML — Vegetarian Jain Meal. A very safe option for vegans as this meal will be in accordance with the Jainism religious principles. This means it will only contain fruit and vegetables that grow above the ground, and no animal products.
- RVML — Raw Vegetable Meal. If you’re looking for a vegan dish, you can’t go wrong with this option, as it will exclusively be a selection of raw fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, that often means the blandest, too.
- FPML — Fruit Platter. For any fruitarians out there, this is the one for you.
Emirates
Emirates vegan meals are created by its team of chefs and nutritionists and come complete with vegan desserts. A special vegan cheese was also introduced in Economy Class and the airline has a vegan option as part of its gourmet chocolate program in premium classes.
The airline serves over 110 million meals on board each year, with the same attention to detail given to creating delightful dishes in Economy, Business or First Class. Catering for more than 55 million dine-in guests a year travelling to and from over 140 cities across 6 continents, no one understands global culinary trends better than Emirates as it serves destination-inspired cuisine on board the world’s largest flying restaurant.
British Airways
British Airways quality of vegan meals served on airplanes varies wildly depending on the carrier and the city from which you are flying.
Check out the meals below.
The meal was a green coconut curry featuring tofu. The flavors were really quite pleasing and I would happily eat that meal again either on or off a plane. There was also the usual too hard to eat fruit, some tomatoes in their own plastic container, a packet of cashews, and a bean/chickpea salad. The bread roll was accompanied by a vegan spread.
Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic Vegan Vegetarian (VGML) – Also called Vegetarian Non-Dairy/Egg (Vegan) Meal or Pure Vegetarian and often cross-listed as “Western Vegetarian”, this meal is vegan (does not contain meat/poultry/fish, eggs, dairy, honey, or animal by-products of any kind). This meal is often a grain-based (rice or pasta) cooked with vegetables, and comes with a side of fresh fruit.
Qantas
Qantas flights are said to have exceptional vegan food available on both intercontinental and domestic flights. Special meal options have been known to include pasta with tomato sauce, stir-fried vegetables with noodles, white bean and pumpkin curry, rye rolls and fresh cakes.
While vegan meals have been offered on request and with at least 24-hours notice for many years, this will be the first time that vegan customers, along with anyone else fancying a healthier plant-based option can order off the standard menu. For now, however, vegan choices are only available for Business Class passengers flying from the airline’s hubs. Economy passengers can continue to pre-order vegan meals, as well as a selection of other special dietary and religious meals.
Qatar Airways
Qatar Airways has introduced its first range of fully vegan dishes to its à la carte menu for Business Class passengers on all flights. Designed to cater to the increasing demand for plant-based food while elevating passengers’ culinary experience when they travel with the award-winning airline.
The newly crafted vegan dishes use only the freshest locally and internationally sourced ingredients and are available to all Business Class passengers flying from the airline’s Doha hub, Hamad International Airport, and selected flights into Doha.
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “We always strive to provide our customers with authentic and indulgent experiences in the skies. We are delighted to incorporate a vegan main course choice to our on-board menu, offering our passengers yet another lifestyle choice that redefines the expectations from a five-star airline.”
Designed with sustainability and taste at its heart, Qatar Airways’ range of flavourful vegan dishes include smoked moutabel, spiral courgettes and arrabbiata sauce, tofu and spinach tortellini, asian barbecue tofu, noodles, scallions and shiitake, fried tofu with vegetable tajine, cauliflower couscous and kalamata bruschetta, and chickpea flour omelette.
The airline also offers a wide selection of special meals to cater to different dietary requirements. Passengers can request a special meal up to 24 hours before their flight. These include young traveller meals, vegetarian or religious meals and medical or health care meals.
The vegan meal contains, vegetable rice, cabbage and rice, green beans. Tomato, cucumber, bell pepper salad with vinegar and oil dressing. Bread and vegan butter. Melon, dried fruit, water and juice.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
KLM gave a thumbs up on a few pf the European routes for their vegan meals. This curry dish was the best I’ve ever tasted, never thought I would say that over a airline meal. Even the butter was vegan.
I also had a very good experience ordering the vegan meal on KLM. Best vegan option on a plane I’ve ever had.
We’ve had so many less than ideal experiences trying to get vegan food on other international carriers that at this point I try to just get no food at all, but I’d still trust KLM to do a good job.
Lufthansa
Lufthansa has always had a fantastic reputation as an airline. From quality amenities to upscale food, they’re known to really nail the finer details of traveling.
Although I’ve never flown with them in the past, I was excited to try the Lufthansa business class food on a flight that I booked from Frankfurt, Germany to Bengaluru, India.
These days flights usually offer the chance to pre-order your meal days before the flight is set to depart. This flight, however, didn’t provide much ahead of time. I had the standard option of selecting “special meals” such as asian vegetarian or vegan meals,
Vegan meal on Lufthansa: Ratatouille with rice, bread, salad, and fruit.
United Airlines
Bottom Line
Flying as a vegan can be a challenge, but it is improving. Some airlines are leaders in the space when compared to others. The best advice for vegan travellers is to approach a flight well-prepared, taking your own food with you as a fallback to eat if necessary. Some easy travel options include bananas, nuts, dried fruits, protein bars, vegetable sticks or even oatmeal cups that require just hot water.
Feature image by Alexander Spatari/Getty Images