If you are fortunate enough to take a Qatar Airways business-class flight from Heathrow to Doha these days, you are in for a new treat. Qatar is the first airline to serve caviar in business class. Airlines usually only serve it in first class, and even then, not all airlines. British Airways stopped serving it years ago. 

Qatar Airways offers business-class passengers 15g of Baerii from the Siberian sturgeon in the traditional way, with garnishes of crème fraîche, chopped chives, chopped red onion and crumbled hard-boiled egg. It is paired with Balik-style salmon, blinis and Melba toast. You can enjoy it at any time during the flight (but, alas, only once). 

The service has started on 13 routes to and from Doha, including London, Paris, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Singapore and Sydney. Xia Cai, Qatar Airways’ new product chief, says the “exclusive” menu adds “an extra touch of luxury”. Qatar Airways already serves Imperial Beluga caviar in first class and the extension to business class will make it one of the biggest caviar customers in the world. 

The upgrade, ordered by Qatar Airways’ new chief executive, Badr Mohammed Al Meer, is the most recent salvo on the new front line of airline competition. The top carriers are running out of ideas for snazzy new suites, showers, bars and lounges to lure the lucky few who can afford to fly in business and first class, so they are turning to gourmet food and wine. 

Airlines battle for chefs. Qantas holds Sydneysider Neil Perry close – and it’s not hard to see why. The winner of the Icon Award at the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards 2024 is regarded by many as the most innovative chef in the sky. Many of the meals served on the flying kangaroo’s long-haul routes are designed to either wake you up or put you to sleep, to help nudge you on to the time zone of your destination and minimise jet lag – vital when heading Down Under.  

For dinner, expect roast chicken broth with shiitake mushrooms and sugar snap peas, followed by a steak sandwich and, for dessert, pistachio cake with vanilla rose cream. “Protein, complex carbohydrates and dairy generate tryptophan, which produces melatonin [the sleep-inducing hormone],” Perry explains. Breakfast is bircher muesli, followed by a bowl of cauliflower, mint, chickpeas, and a poached egg with harissa dressing, with a flat white or two. “Spice stimulates the metabolism and wakes you up,” says Perry.