One of the more challenging aspects of being a flight attendant is providing in-flight service excellence to your customers. When operating out of familiar territory selecting a highly regarded caterer is usually not a problem. However, can that high level of service be found in Boise as well as in Beijing? And, if so, where can this information be found?

According to, THE INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORY OF CORPORATE AVIATION CATERING SERVICES, you certainly can find a caterer in Boise, Beijing, and hundreds of other locations worldwide. First published in 2001, the directory is a one-of-a-kind book chock full of caterers from around the globe. The 400+ page, 6 x 9 directory is organized by continent, country, and airport code.

Each section begins with a city/airport code cross reference table for that region to enable you to find the airports that each caterer serves. Those catering organizations with multiple airport locations have separate listings in each airport. This particular feature is wonderful as the referencer need not flip throughout the book in an attempt to find and compare caterers.

As far as particular caterers in more remote locations, the directory lists A Catered Affair as the lone caterer for Boise, but has four sources for Beijing. For example, Beijing Air Catering Co LTD serves Capital International Airport. The guide gives this particular caterers address, a contact name, hours of operation, e-mail address, phone and fax numbers, and an other number which I assume is a backup or cellular phone number. Typically, for many of the far flung places the guide lists a flight planner such as Universal Weather & Aviation or Air Routing International as the contact for that city. According to the guide, these two companies will recommend a caterer at the destination and can provide a local representative to bridge any language barriers.

The guide also offers a Helpful Reminders section for the flight attendant under the heading, Advance Planning When Traveling Outside the United States. Included are tips on contacting the caterer ahead of time, what to do [as mentioned above] when no local caterer is listed, keeping appropriate containers onboard your aircraft in the event that the caterer does not have the correct sized packaging to fit in your microwave, and more.

The guide will be updated on a regular basis and is currently available in paperback and eventually also will be available on CDROM.

Many of the catering recommendations were received by knowledgeable corporate flight attendants directly. As such, some of the addresses or phone numbers may have changed, while some of the businesses may have closed altogether. Always check in advance to see if the caterer is still available.