Flyers are more into Vegan food than ever before

People wanting Vegan dishes used to be seen as quirky, sometimes as a nuisance.

Now plant-based menus are mainstream with an increasing number of people shunning meat.

Emirates Airlines said it has noted an annual surge of 40% in customer demand for plant-based meals.

To meet this demand in 2024, Emirates will introduce an array of new Vegan dishes onboard and in lounges, adding even more dishes to its ‘vegan vault’ of more than 300 curated plant-based recipes.

In 2023, Emirates had more than 300 vegan recipes in rotation across 140 destinations, up from 180 recipes in 2022.

The airline says Vegan meal consumption has grown 40% year on year in line with passenger volumes, but in some regions, consumption has exceeded passenger volume growth - such as Africa with an additional 4% increase,

South-east Asia had an additional 5% increase, with the Middle East showing a significant additional increase of 34%.

The airline said the biggest increase in consumption of vegan meals occurred in economy class and particularly on Emirates routes to China, Japan and Philippines.

Emirates has been serving Vegan meals since the 1990s, initially focusing on specific routes such as Addis Ababa, where Vegan meals are required during certain times of the year by those practising the Ethiopian Orthodox faith, or across regions where multiple faiths encourage a plant-based diet.

Over recent years however, Vegan dishes have been rapidly gaining popularity on US, Australian, some European and Asian routes.

Image: Business class Vegan kebabs