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Home » Meal of the Week » In Search Of Great Pizza On An Airplane
Meal of the Week

In Search Of Great Pizza On An Airplane

Matthew Klint Posted onMarch 30, 2019November 14, 2023 6 Comments

Each week, my Meal of the Week feature examines an airline meal from my travels over the years. This may be a meal from earlier in the week or it may be a meal served over a decade ago.

Is it possible to enjoy a delicious pizza above 30,000 feet?

Over the last 12 years I’ve only been served pizza five times. We’ll discuss each pizza below, in chronological order.

The first time I was served pizza was on a United Airlines flight from Chicago (ORD) to San Jose (SJC) in 2007. Put simply, it was horrible. Soggy, doughy, cold in the middle and scalding on top.

a plate of food on a tray

It was six years before I encountered another pizza on an airplane. Again, it was memorable…in a bad way. I was flying Lufthansa Economy Class from Frankfurt to Philadelphia and a nicely loaded but very soggy pizza was offered prior to landing.

a food in a box

The following year, I experienced a decent…but still not very crispy…pizza onboard US Airways from Frankfurt to Philadelphia in business class.

a plate of food on a tray

a plate of food with olives on top

Four years later, on an Alitalia flight from Rome to Los Angeles, I experienced the pizza that most let me down. I had such high hopes for great pizza as the mid-flight snack. The pizza looked very delicious as well. Sadly, it was almost all dough. Still good, though.

Best Airline Pizza

My last pizza was a buy-on-board UNO Chicago deep dish pizza on United last year. Frankly, this was one was tasty, though it could have been left in the oven a bit longer.

a black and white round label with white text

a pepperoni pizza on a plate

That seems to be the common denominator for all airplane pizzas. A frozen pizza is not inherently bad, but it must be left in the oven long even to brown and become crisp.

When offered, I’ll still try an airline pizza. But next time I’m going to say to “burn” mine.

Have you found good pizza served onboard an airplane

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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6 Comments

  1. Paolo Reply
    March 30, 2019 at 3:52 pm

    KLM and Alitalia both offer “pizza” things in Y on internal European flights. Not too bad. Maybe AF as well, IIRC, at least out of Italy. It’s a sensible snack for flying, and the Margherita isn’t going to offend anyone. There should be more of this kind of peasant food and less of the laughable, clueless-snob-value-only stuff like caviar.

  2. MeanMeosh Reply
    March 30, 2019 at 5:52 pm

    AA used to offer those UNO deep dish pizzas on flights to and from ORD in F/J. They ranged anywhere from mediocre to terrible, the problem being, as you mentioned in several of your examples, soggy crust. I’m just afraid pizza is one of those things where you’re going to have to get really lucky to get a good one in the air.

  3. emercycrite Reply
    March 30, 2019 at 6:43 pm

    QF and EK both do great pizzas in Y.

  4. Willem Reply
    March 30, 2019 at 11:17 pm

    Singapore Airlines did a great one prior to landing on SIN => EWR

  5. James Reply
    March 31, 2019 at 2:01 am

    Wait…. I thought this was Ed’s blog due to the title….

  6. Garrett Reply
    April 1, 2019 at 2:54 pm

    I have such a love for bad (and good) pizza. I’ve never run into a terrible airline pizza that I was thrilled to eat. Every picture in this article looks divine to me. Those little ones in the McDonalds apple pie-style cardboard boxes are my favorite.

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