This is one of Delta's largest kitchen facilities in America.
Around 3201st class meals and flight fuel boxes are prepared and packaged
daily for domestic flights out of Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson Airport.
And thanks to a recent $54 million renovation and a partnership with catering
company.
Newest Delta is testing out these new robotic machines helping the team of 1100
employees get everything ready by take off.
The 120,000 square foot facility can be broken down into several stations.
So everything you see in this fridge was delivered this morning and it will go through production and we will be on flights today.
If not the latest tomorrow,
the kitchen gets its full order of meals 24 hours before a flight.
We put receiving dates on the container and that's where it goes through into the first process of
the production.
Raw ingredients are soaked in a sanitizing solution for 90 seconds and anyone
handling food suits up then goes through a handed shoe wash before
heading to the core of the facility.
The hot and cold kitchens here,
chefs have to prep and cook nearly 40 different meal components.
On average,
the facility can go through about £400 of cherry tomatoes and £5100 of
broccolini in a month.
I would say the most challenging aspect is the scale of our business.
Part of the $54 million renovation included industrial appliances to shorten cook
times like this pressurized brat pan which can cook £40 of orzo in
15 minutes.
And these rational ovens that can be programmed to monitor the temperature of the food inside to
ensure a proper cook timing is key.
Everything needs to be packed for delivery by take off.
So we're here in our production area.
As you see here,
we have a screen which gives us basically a status update on all of our flight departures.
So you can see here,
the dock will tell us exactly which dock that flight will depart from which truck number has been
assigned to that departure K RT stands for kitchen ready time.
So that will tell us exactly when we have to have all of our flights ready,
all of the equipment,
all of the food packed ready to be departed exactly at that time to ensure we have an on site
on time departure.
Each station in the production area is dedicated to packaging one specific dish
with a visual reference.
The food is one hour maximum that can be out on the tables for production.
We then make sure that we keep that maintained that temperature for tray assembly.
The team gets a helping hand from this automated robot system.
We just started the journey a few months ago and with robotics,
we can get consistency on that tray which frees us up for our
people and the people in the kitchen to go and make sure that the quality is there
and the safety is there as well.
A Delta representative said the company looked to robots to take over repetitive
tasks like assembling on flight trays on one side,
food is placed onto a conveyor belt and stamped with the date of when the meal was made on the
other.
The robot places cutlery napkins and side dishes.
In one hour,
the robot can assemble 750 trays.
Finally,
the trays are packed into the carts which have been sanitized in this steam powered machine at
170 F.
And in a single hour,
this machine can clean around 250 cars.
By the end of the day,
the facility will break down then rebuild up to 8100 carts and
carriers.
Once the meals are packed into the clean carts,
they're held in a refrigerator,
holding space until they are loaded into insulated trucks for final transport.
The trucks are coming in and out to and from aircraft all day.
Every day loads start at four AM and end at 9 30 PM.
Their final destination some 350 flights a day,
hot meals are heated up in flight.
A Delta representative said that this facility could be the facility of the future,
combining technology with the human workforce.
The company declined to state where they might roll out the robotic equipment in the future.
We're in the food business,
60 million meals a year for us.
It's the future is all about just to innovate in that space,
whether it's new equipment in our kitchens down to really
personalization for the customer.
Delta did not provide comment on how the food and beverage program affects ticket prices,
but its food offerings depend on a few things.
How long your flight is your travel class and what city you're flying out of?
And as long as planes are flying,
this facility won't stop,
they are making meals seven days a week,
all year round.