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By the end of this guide, you will have created catering orders for trips, selected vendors, built menus, accommodated dietary restrictions, scheduled delivery, and tracked costs.
The Operations module must be enabled for your workspace. You also need the appropriate operations permissions. Contact your workspace administrator if you cannot access these features.
You need the dispatch.update permission to create or modify catering orders on a trip.

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Prerequisites

  • A trip must exist (any status from Draft through Active).
  • Passengers should be assigned to the trip so dietary preferences can be pulled automatically. You can add catering without passengers, but preference auto-fill will not work.
  • At least one catering vendor should be configured in your workspace. See Configure Flight Settings to add vendors.

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Open the catering tab

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Create a catering order

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Advance the order status

Orders move through Draft, Sent, Confirmed, Delivered, and Cancelled statuses. To advance, click the status chip on the catering order card and select the new status.

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Send the order to the vendor

If your organization uses a catering vendor with an API integration, orders can be sent electronically and confirmation is received automatically. Check Admin > Integrations for available catering vendor integrations.
Passenger profiles in PlaneConnection can store catering preferences that carry across trips. To take advantage of this:
  1. Ensure passenger profiles have the Preferences field populated with catering-related notes (dietary restrictions, favorite items, beverages).
  2. When creating a catering order, the Dietary Restrictions section automatically pulls these preferences for all passengers on the trip.
  3. Use the preferences as a starting point and adjust for the specific trip.
For repeat passengers — especially aircraft owners and regular charter clients — this saves time and ensures consistency.

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Edit or cancel a catering order

  • Edit: Open the catering order and click Edit. Modify any fields and click Save. If the order has already been sent to the vendor, a re-send prompt appears so you can notify the vendor of changes.
  • Cancel: Click the three-dot menu on the order card and select Cancel Order. Confirm the cancellation. If the order has been sent, a cancellation email is automatically sent to the vendor.

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Track catering costs

Catering order totals automatically flow into the trip cost estimate under the Catering line item. The catering cost on the Estimate tab updates whenever you save changes to a catering order. To view catering spend across trips, use the Ops > Reports page and select the Expense Summary report with the Catering category filter.
Compare catering costs across vendors by reviewing the vendor-level summary in Admin > Flight Settings > Catering Vendors. The summary shows average order value, total spend, and order count for each vendor over a configurable date range.

Manage Passengers

Set passenger dietary preferences that feed into catering orders.

Manage Trip Cost Estimates

See how catering costs integrate into the overall trip estimate.

Create a Trip

Set up trips and passenger manifests before ordering catering.

Log Expenses

Record actual catering receipts against trip expenses.
Last modified on April 11, 2026