Many Qantas domestic flights over this Easter long weekend have departed without normal catering on board due to severe staffing shortages at the airline’s caterer.

Australian Frequent Flyer understands that the catering problems began last Thursday. Things are expected to return to normal by Tuesday, 19 April 2022.

The catering issues have been affecting many Qantas domestic flights over the past few days that are normally catered by dnata, Qantas’ outsourced catering provider, in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. International flights and Qantas domestic flights that are catered out of other Qantas ports shouldn’t be impacted. Domestic flights departing before 9am with breakfast catering are also not generally being impacted.

On flights where normal catering isn’t being provided over the Easter long weekend, Qantas is generally at least offering some sort of “ambient” snack. For example, passengers on some flights are receiving a biscuit and water. In Business, drinks including wine are still available but are being served in plastic cups. However, some passengers have reported that no food at all was available on their flights.

Numerous AFF members who happened to be flying with Qantas in Business Class over recent days have posted about their experiences on the Qantas Business Class meals thread. These posts are about flights on Thursday, 14 April:

No water offered onboard. Staff apologised profusely to us for having no catering onboard so offered us a packet of biscuits. The CSM said there is a massive problem in MEL and many flights not being catered. No glasses onboard as they hadn’t been cleaned so plastic cups distributed.
Paid J fare so a tad disappointing but staff were wonderful and kept the drinks flowing.
– jase05, 14 April 2022

Almost exactly my lunchtime experience BNE-SYD QF527 today. Produced a tray with a Y nibblies selection, went for the packet of chippies which were mini rice crackers. Only drinks offered were still water in Y bottles or sparkling plus meh tea or coffee. Excuse was that they didn’t load J catering to turn around the plane faster. Only problem with the excuse is that EF told me the plane arrived 20 mins late and departed 30 mins late. The only people we saw get a hot meal were the flight deck. We smelt it cooking.
– PineappleSkip, 14 April 2022

Same experience as my late afternoon flight QF474 MEL-SYD yesterday. I was pretty confused when my glass of wine came in a plastic cup. We did receive some tuna sandwiches though and the usual pretzels/nuts, but still disappointing for an evening flight during dinner.
– CaptainCurtis, 15 April 2022

And these posts are about flights that departed on Friday:

QF433 on Friday 15 April SYD to MEL. 10am departure from SYD. B737.
Business catering “not loaded due to staff shortages in catering centres in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane”. Offered tea or coffee and cookies from Y. FA very apologetic.
– bjm76, 15 April 2022

QF682 ADL MEL 12.05pm departure 15/4. No catering. No reason given. Apology offered.
– Anna, 16 April 2022

The Qantas flight attendants seem to be doing their best, given what they have to work with. Numerous AFF members on affected flights have complimented the efforts of the in-flight crew.

It’s not clear what compensation will be offered to passengers who don’t receive the normal in-flight catering that was advertised at the time of booking. If you are not proactively offered compensation, you may wish to submit a Qantas Customer Care Form after your flight requesting compensation. Qantas has offered frequent flyer points in the past in situations where flights were not properly catered. (However, don’t hold your breath for a fast response.)

Qantas did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

This isn’t the only operational issue Qantas has experienced over the past week, with some flights also departing without passengers’ bags on board. Many Australian airports have also suffered from long delays at security checkpoints over the busy school holiday period due to a lack of available staff.

“COVID-related staffing challenges have continued. A small number of flights have departed without baggage in recent days. Decisions were made to have these flights depart without baggage to ensure that customers could get to their destination and not face long flight delays or cancellations,” Qantas said in a statement yesterday.

“This baggage is being put on later flights and we are then couriering bags directly to customers. Qantas will operate a flight this afternoon carrying only baggage (no passengers) between Melbourne and Sydney with one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners, helping move baggage that was unable to be carried yesterday.

“We really appreciate people’s patience and understanding and apologise for the inconvenience.”

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.