British Airways serves KFC on international flight after apparent catering issue

It’s rare for travelers to hanker for airline food – until it’s in short supply on a 12-hour journey.

Crew staffing a British Airways itinerary over the weekend from the Turks and Caicos Islands to London Heathrow were faced with a food shortage when the airline wasn’t able to offer its regular meal service because of “unforeseen circumstances.”

“Our teams sprung into action and made sure our customers had something to eat,” British Airways said in a statement. While the airline didn’t elaborate on what it provided to passengers, posts on social media indicate that airline employees made a Kentucky Fried Chicken run during a scheduled stopover in the Bahamas.

BA flight 252 took off on July 23 from Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos, stopped in Nassau in the Bahamas and flew on to London.

The airline made reference to its unconventional in-flight menu in its pun-ladened statement.

“We apologise to customers that their full meal service was not available and we had to wing it on this occasion. We’re sorry if we ruffled any feathers,” the statement said.

The airline did not respond to questions about what circumstances led to the lack of in-flight meal service. One social media post referenced an issue with refrigeration.

@aktivandrew, a user on Twitter that was recently rebranded to X, posted that “@British_Airways just landed @HeathrowAirport after a 12.5 hour flight BA252 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 user, @Hanchell, posted a story about the incident from travel site One Mile At a Time, commenting, “It was the best KFC I’ve ever had.”

British Airways gave passengers refreshment vouchers when they arrived in London, the airline said.