CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN AIRPORT CATERING OPERATIONS

Airport catering operations encompass food & beverage (F&B) production and service within the airport, and in-flight catering. Considering the scale and volume of production and service, significant external and internal costs, circular economy practices may offer advantages towards sustainability of operations, through reducing, reusing and recycling waste and byproducts, sourcing locally and the delivery of quality service. The present research set out to explore the applicability of circular economy practices in airport catering operations. The case was selected as a multinational company that operates in over 200 outlets. Data was collected through preliminary research, interview and participant observation and analysed through thematic analysis. The “Integrated Circular Economy Model for Airport Catering Operations” (ICE-AC Model) was developed, and the findings were applied to it. The research established airport catering to be a suitable application area of circular economy, reaching individual examples of practices, mainly in recycling of waste and byproducts, raising awareness and corporate social responsibility. However, these were favoured to be mainly tools for cost savings and competitive advantage. For long-term advantages, a complete restructuring of managerial philosophy and the establishment of a circular business model within the industrial ecology is needed.