British Airways says sorry for serving KFC on 12-hour international flight after ‘catering issue’

British Airways says sorry for serving KFC on its 12-hour flight from Turks and Caicos Islands to London over a catering issue.

British Airways has apologised to its passengers after they were served Kentucky Fried Chicken as its inflight meal during a 12-hour flight from the Turks and Caicos Islands to London Heathrow on Sunday (July 23).

According to reports, the crew staffing faced a food shortage when the airline wasn’t able to offer its regular meal service due to “unforeseen circumstances”. It was unclear what caused the situation, but a social media post claimed that there were problems with the refrigerator, therefore all food meant for the flight had to be thrown out.

CNN reported that airline employees made a KFC run during a scheduled stopover in the Bahamas. The BA 252 flight departs and returns daily from London Heathrow to Nassau, Bahamas. It then continues on to Providenciales, Turks and Caicos.

In a pun-laden statement, the national flag carrier said: “Our teams sprung into action and made sure our customers had something to eat. We apologise to customers that their full meal service was not available and we had to wing in on this occasion. We’re sorry if we ruffled any feathers.”

It is not clear what was served to vegetarian passengers or those with other dietary needs, but both economy and business class reportedly received the same meal. Passengers took to social media to express their displeasure, but some applauded the airline for its prompt action to ensure that no one went hungry.

One passenger wrote on Twitter, which was recently rebranded as X: “@British_Airways, just landed @HeathrowAirport after 12.5 hour flight BA 252 from Turks and Caicos with no catering! BA had to serve @kfc at Nassau giving some lucky passengers 1 piece of chicken. The container with the plane catering wasn’t chilled so all thrown away!!.”

Another said: “We were on this flight. Laughable. If anyone has film/photos of British Airways tonging out one piece of kfc chicken (drumstick! Not even breast) - please share. People with medical conditions left without any food or proper refreshments.”

However, some looked at from a positive side, saying: “That would look like an awful lot of tasty chicken to many, many people living on this planet. I get that it’s disapponting but stuff happens occasionally and you deal with it. Maybe try empathising with the inventive crew who at least got the flight off and you safely home.”

When contacted, British Airways did not respond to questions on what caused the incident or whether passengers were compensated, but they did confirm that customers were given a refreshment voucher upon landing.