This week it was reported that non-profit initiative “Care by Air” is promoting the concept that empty business aviation flights could be used for humanitarian endeavours.

Care by Air says that 80% of the UN humanitarian aid budget goes to the cost of logistics. Given that, there is an opportunity for the aviation industry to give back to society simply by offering unused capacity at cost price for humanitarian causes.

Care by Air says that flights worldwide are 34% empty – equal to 1.5 million tonnes of empty cargo space. The business aviation community are asked if they could use some of this empty capacity for humanitarian causes at cost price. Just a.0003% take up could provide food  for 5 million people

“MEBA is the perfect platform to interact with business aviation companies and promote humanitarian efforts – to expose just how much we can work together not just in terms of cargo space, but by providing fuel, haulage, warehousing and other costs,” says Care by Air.

The Atlanta-based inflight catering company, Tastefully Yours, has appointed Heather Hibbin as a full time nutritionist. Heather who holds a PPL, will support and develop new menus for the aviation client based clients and starts with immediate effect. She will complement the existing 15 strong catering team based at the headquarters.

In a first for aviation catering, Tastefully Yours, has created this new position in response to a growing demand from executive passengers who are becoming increasingly aware of the properties of their inflight diet. Menus will be created that will support crew activity to ensure they can perform at optimum levels during flights so reducing the risk of fatigue and potential risk.

Paula Kraft, president of Tastefully Yours said, “A dietician working in aviation understands the differences a person’s body encounters at altitude and can therefore provide specifically chosen menus that will support not only the passengers comfort but also support crew’s operating capability,” she continued, “A well fed crew is less likely to become sick so down time for owners and operator is also reduced,” Kraft continues.

The nutritionist appointment is part of a wider overall commitment to the aviation catering Safety Management System developed to improve the standards of service within this particular sector. It was presented to the NBAA Flight Attendants Committee at their Chicago Symposium held in June 2012.

Ms Hibbin who joins Tastefully Yours from Cobb & Douglas Public Health Nutrition Services. will be responsible for creating lighter versions of existing menus, with qualified nutritional information, ingredients and creating menus for special dietary requests . She stated, “Working with Tastefully Yours presents a whole new set of challenges for me and it is exciting to think that the nutrition knowledge I have can enhance the experience of crew and passengers alike. Together with Paula’s aviation awareness I hope we can generate an even more valuable service for our executive aviation client base,”.