Passengers often look forward to kicking back and enjoying a meal on their way to their travel destination, but sometimes, the offerings don’t particularly hit the spot.

Now, research conducted by BoyleSports has analysed the quality of food of several UK and international airlines based on traveller reviews.

The team at BoyleSports looked through masses of TripAdvisor feedback targeting the search term “food” paired with words such as “disgusting,” “bad,” “awful,” and “terrible” to determine the number of negative food reviews with airlines.

The airline researchers analysed are Aer Lingus, Delta Air Lines, British Airways, Eastern Airways, easyJet, jet2, Loganair, Ryanair, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Wizz Air, Emirates, Qantas, TUI Airways, KLM, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, American Airlines, Etihad Airways, Air Canada, and Air France.

Aer Lingus has the highest percentage of negative food reviews out of these airlines, with 3.31 percent of its total 13,862 reviews critical of its onboard catering.

One reviewer took to TripAdvisor and claimed: “I pre-ordered children’s meals, which did not arrive, and the food on the plane was absolutely not edible.”

A total of 104 of the 460 comments also directly mentioned the catering options as “inedible” or “not edible,” with another claiming that the food was raw: “Food was disgusting on the plane, raw rice, raw food. I would not recommend Aer Lingus. I will try a different airline.”

However, there was a positive review amid the hundreds of complaints, as one TripAdvisor user stated: “Food was good, but thimble-sized portions.”

Etihad Airways follows closely with 3.02 percent of its reviews related to poor food quality, making it the second-most criticised airline in this category, while TUI Airways, Air Canada and Qantas make up the top five.

Meanwhile, American Airlines received the highest number of negative food reviews (810), though these only constitute one percent of its overall reviews.

Let’s take a look at the results in more detail. 

Airlines with the worst food reviews with:

1. Aer Lingus – 3.31 percent

2. Etihad Airways – 3.02 percent

3. TUI Airways – 2.59 percent

4. Air Canada – 2.35 percent

5. Qantas – 2.33 percent

6. Virgin Atlantic Airways – 2.21 percent

7. Loganair – 2.14 percent

8. Wizz Air – 2.14 percent

9. Qarar Airways – 1.78 percent

10. Singapore Airlines – 1.56 percent