Kenyan woman behind Emirates Airline’s meals

Glory Kinyua, a Kenyan, is an operations manager with Dubai-based Emirates Flight Catering Company. Here, she speaks to Home & Away at the company’s offices at the Dubai International Airport. [PHOTOS: FERDINAND MWONGELA/STANDARD]

When you hear inflight catering, what comes to mind? It will usually be curiosity about the menu offering, but behind the scenes, getting you that chicken or beef on a plane is a long process. This is where flight catering companies come in. At Dubai International Airport, the hub of Emirates Airline, this company is the Emirates Flight Catering Company, which can whip up to 180,000 meals a day.

Emirates Airline is their biggest client. While the whole company employs more than 10,000 workers, the section dedicated to the airline has about 4,500 workers. Glory Kinyua, a Kenyan, is the operations manager in this section. While curious about the flight catering process, I was even more curious about how a Kenyan came to be a manager in such a big company away from home when I caught up with her at her job. Kinyua went to Dubai 15 years ago, during which time she has risen through the ranks.