Goddard Catering Group Bonaire N.V. supplies inflight catering on Flamingo Airport.

Goddard Catering Group Bonaire is one of the over 20 flight kitchens owned by the Goddard Enterprises Ltd. These kitchens are located in the Caribbean, Central America and South America. Bonaire’s kitchen started construction in June 2002, and by February 2003 the operation started. It is a requirement that all employees complete a HACCP training course (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) plus training specific to their departments. This is to ensure that the food received, produced and delivered is safe to be consumed by the passengers on the flights.

KLM has 4 daily flights to Bonaire in the high season, all of which are catered by the Goddard kitchen. Our operating hours depends on the arrival time of the aircrafts and it depends on the department in which a person works to determine the working hours. At present the kitchen is open from midnight, and closes at approximately 9.30 pm

Bonaire’s kitchen is one of two kitchens within the group that does not do on site cooking. High quality frozen meals are imported, thawed and delivered to the aircraft. All appetizers and salads however are done by our staff from fresh fruits and Vegetables flown into the island. The only cooking that sometimes takes place is for some Business Class appetizers, which may have Lobster and other Seafood depending on the menu. Goddard Catering has 4 departments that operate the whole kitchen; Stores, Production, Operations and Hygiene.

The Stores department is the department in charge of receiving the food. They are in charge of making sure they receive good quality food which is then stored in the coolers and freezers we have at the kitchen. In total we have 6 coolers and 3 freezers onsite. Food arrives from the USA via Containers (Sea) and via flights from South America or the U.S. Most produce arrive via Air cargo because of the perishable nature of these items. On arrival the fruits and vegetables are immediately disinfected with a special Food-safe sanitizer and placed in a temperature controlled cooler. All coolers and freezers are monitored consistently for quality.

The Production department is the department with the most employees. They are in charge of assembling the meals to be delivered to the aircraft. There are different cells where food is being assembled. There is the Economy Cell, where they assemble breakfast and lunch trays. Then there is the Business Class Cell. Here they prepare the fruits, salads, appetizers and cheese plates to go on the Business Class trays. Then there are the Frozen meals Cell. Here the Frozen meals are prepared for the oven inserts which go directly into the ovens on the aircraft. The trays for the other meals are assembled into trolleys that are immediately put into a cooler to keep the food at a safe temperature. The Production department is also in charge of preparing the employee meals.

Operations are the guys you see on the ramp all dressed in blue. They are the persons in direct contact with the customer when they go to cater the flights. When they are not at the airplane catering they assemble the drink services into trolleys that are also taken to the plane with the food. Operations are also in charge of the equipment that KLM uses onboard. Of course they have to take off the trolleys that were used on the flight in, to replace with the new ones. They bring these trolleys back to the kitchen.

As soon as they arrive back at the kitchen the trolleys are off loaded and sent to the dishwashing area. Here is where the Hygiene Department comes in. They take out all dirty equipment out of the trolleys and wash and sanitize them. They are then put into Kanbans (carts full of equipment) to be delivered to the Production department to be used on the next flight. The dishwashing machine cleans and sanitizes by way of high-heat treatment. There is also a janitorial crew that takes care of the cleanliness of the kitchen in general.

The most important thing in the kitchen is the way the staff is involved into the controlling and preventing contamination of the food, equipment and beverages by way of the HACCP training. The HACCP training includes personal hygiene, principles of hand washing, Cross contamination, Uniforms and Clean equipment, Work station safety, Critical Control Points, Chemical Disinfection, temperature challenges for food and TEAMWORK. Employees are encouraged to wash hands as often as needed while working in the kitchen. Because of this there are hand wash stations all over the kitchen, with soap, and automatic paper towel dispensers. The hand wash stations are foot operated and are also equipped with a hand sanitizing gel.
We take this business very seriously!

GCG Bonaire Mission reads as follows: “To provide Airline Catering and related services of the highest Quality, which consistently meet the expectations of our customers, employees, shareholders and the communities with which we operate.”
And our Vision: “To become the best Airline and Airport Caterer in the World, while encouraging entrepreneurship within the group.”

We look forward to feeding you next time you fly!

Goddard website