As Muslims around the world celebrate Ramadan this month, I had the opportunity to witness an iftar dinner on an Etihad Airways flight between two predominantly Muslim nations. It was not the meal itself that was nearly as interesting as the hustle to serve it.
Etihad Airways Hustles To Serve Iftar Dinner
During Ramadan, observant Muslims abstain from all eating and drinking, including water, from sunrise to sunset (no sex or tobacco either). A suhur meal is consumed before sunrise while an iftar meal is consumed after sunset.
The iftar meal begins with three dates and milk or water, which is how the prophet Mohammed was thought to have broken his fast. It then progresses to what is often an elaborate multi-course meal.
But what happens when sunset occurs just 30 minutes before landing?
I was traveling between Istanbul (IST) and Abu Dhabi (AUH) on an afternoon service that would almost entirely operate in daylight.
It appeared I was one of the only non-Islamic guests onboard, because I was one of the only passengers who ate after takeoff (delicious lunch, by the way).
33 minutes out of Abu Dhabi, the captain came onboard to announce the sun had just set. Suddenly, the quiet cabin came to life.
First, flight attendants offered every passenger a bag that included a box with three dates, a bottle of water, and a yogurt drink. I’m going to assume that was the extent of the service in economy class, but service was just warming up in business class.
Picture flight attendants hustling to feed most of the business class passengers, who now that the sun was set, were ready to eat. It was a hustle unlike I have ever seen before and the ladies did a fabulous job in serving every last customer before we touched down in Abu Dhabi.
Great credit must be given to the lovely Olja and Amalia for working so hard in the final 30 minutes of the flight to feed so many. What a testament to excellent service.
You can read my full Etihad Airways A350-1000 Business Class review here.
This was a very memorable flight.
Most post-pubescent “observant” Muslims abstain from all eating and drinking, including water, from sunrise to sunset (no sex or tobacco either) during Ramadan.
However, not all “observant” adult Muslims abstain from all eating and drinking between sunrise and sunset during Ramadan. And there is something very common with lots of Muslims who abide by the Ramadan fast and yet at other times of the year are doing all sorts of “non-observant” Muslim stuff.
If you want to see some wild stuff, there are some wild Hajj charter flights where a lot of the passengers on board have their Hajj flights as the only ever flight experience. Sahari-fast-setting and Iftar-fast-breaking Ramadan flights are of course much more easily observed in-person than those Hajj charter flights.
Lighting and sunset pics are wonderful. The sweater is a cute option for the FA’s.
I’m always amused when FAs on AA/UA/DL act like they can’t even manage a drink service on a flight under 90 minutes while crews on great airlines such as SQ/CX/QR and others can do full meal services in 15 minutes.
Is the on-board cabin crew to passenger ratio higher on AA/UA/DL than on the GCC3 airlines?
Are the GCC3 airlines’ cabin crew more hierarchical than the US3 airline cabin crews?
I remember TPE to HKG (~2hr flight?) on CI still having full (hot) meal service for the entire cabin, just before covid
I’ve flown CAN-HKG on CX a few times and always got a full, hot meal service in J even though the flight time is ~40 minutes. Those FAs were up as soon as we hit 10k feet and were still cleaning up as we were lining up to land.
Maybe it’s worth considering the size of American FAs. They can’t move that fast.
lol
Thanks for posting. Interesting.
Head’s up, when fasting, we Muslims abstain from DAWN to sunset (not sunrise to sunset).