Aviation catering — Hīt, Iraq
Wide-body airline catering, VIP & private jet catering at Hīt (ORAA / IQA)
IQA (IATA) · ORAA (ICAO)
A wide-body reaching the end of a 4,000 metre runway can turn here and hold its full three-cabin load without a weight trim on the uplift, which is what the reference code at Hīt is built to take. Inflight catering, in-flight catering and aviation catering move off one ops desk and one kitchen, and the same hi-loader that boards the forward cabins clears wide-body galley height on every rotation, sealed at the ramp and signed at the door.


On the apron — Hīt
Inflight catering loaded to galley height at IQA
Everything below is what we measure at this station — distances, windows, who signs what.
Airport catering order window at Hīt, Iraq
Aircraft catering handover at the galley door, Hīt airport
Ramp access is what separates a delivered tray from a boarded one, and at Hīt the sealed cart moves under our own escort from kitchen to stand rather than waiting on a curb. Each catering uplift is logged the moment it leaves the kitchen door and again the moment it crosses into the aircraft, so the record runs unbroken across the apron. Nothing is handed off at the foot of the stairs: the hi-loader takes it to galley height and the crew signs there.

Between our kitchen and the stand at Hīt sit screening, an escort convoy and the ordinary traffic of a working apron, and the catering uplift is planned against the worst version of all three rather than the average one. A galley catering load that has to hold its temperature through a security check is a different problem from one that simply drives across open ramp, so the route and the timing are set before the cart is sealed, not adjusted afterwards. Temperature is logged at the seal and again at the handover, and the signature that closes the load is the same one that opened it.
One coordinator carries the seal from the kitchen door to the signature at the aircraft.
Airline catering companies' production standard at ORAA / IQA

Pilot meals and cleared production crews for Hīt (IQA)
Hīt is provisioned from a facility built around hot production, pastry, a cold larder and a protocol cell held under one roof, which is what lets a delegation order and a scheduled rotation run through the same kitchen without either one waiting on the other. Airport catering at IQA is planned to that structure rather than to a single production line, and airport catering in Iraq more broadly follows the same HACCP standard regardless of which cabin the tray is destined for. The flight kitchen at IQA treats a cold larder output and a hot tray set as two separate disciplines under one roof, not one line doing both.
The team that handles government flight catering at this station is the same named crew on every rotation, not a rotating pool assigned on the day. Security clearance is on file before the first delegation lands, each member sits on the access list for the apron and the kitchen alike, and the household service standard they work to travels with the paperwork rather than being reissued each time. A sealed uplift leaves under that same team's signature, whatever the mission on the schedule.
Halal airline meals and special meals at Hīt
Royal flight catering standards per cabin at Hīt, Iraq
Menus at Hīt are written to the cabin and the mission rather than to a single fixed list, so a First and VVIP set differs from a Business tray run and both differ again from a group charter loaded for volume. Inflight catering in Hīt draws where it can on produce sourced from the wider region, dairy, orchard fruit and river fish worked into a seasonal frame rather than a single fixed carte. Allergen, halal, kosher and medical requirements are documented per passenger and per cabin, produced on a line kept apart from the main run, and every tray is labelled against that record before it is sealed. The result is a specification that moves with the mission, not a catalogue printed once and left unchanged.

First & VVIP cabins
First and VVIP cabins at Hīt draw on VIP flight catering plated to a written specification rather than a fixed menu card, with caviar and à-la-carte service available on request. Every dish leaves the kitchen filed against the standing order for that cabin, so a repeat rotation is served to the same record as the first.

Business cabins
Business cabins at ORAA run on multi-choice hot service built to cabin specification, boxed in oven-ready formats sized to the galley fitted on the aircraft. Crew meals in Hīt travel in their own sealed sets, cabin crew meals and pilot meals boxed separately and rostered so neither queue holds up the other.

Protocol & dietary
Protocol and dietary sets at IQA are documented per passenger before the tray is produced: household, religious and medical requirements, halal and kosher meals, and the full range of IATA special meal codes. Each set is produced on a line kept apart from the main run and sealed there, so inflight catering at Hīt carries the same record from kitchen to cabin regardless of how narrow the requirement is.
The three books

01
Royal & Government Flights
Royal households · government · state operations
- Plated service · First to main cabin
- Protocol handling · security clearance

02
Charter & Commercial
Charter · ACMI · group · scheduled · ad hoc
- 400 passengers · one uplift
- HACCP cold chain, logged to the galley door

03
Private Jet
Business jet · VVIP charter · flight departments
- From 8 covers · plated forward
- Reheat sequence specified per dish
Compliance
Aircraft catering food safety at Hīt, Iraq
Flight catering airside delivery at ORAA
Hīt carries scheduled, charter and government movements across three runways built to a wide-body reference code, which means a delegation's documentation load and a charter's volume load can both be on the ramp the same week without either being treated as the exception. A peak wave of arrivals is a capacity problem worked through sequencing, not through cutting corners on any single load; a repeat rotation is a repetition problem solved by keeping one specification on file rather than rebuilding it each time.
The uplift travels from our kitchen to the stand under airside delivery, hi-loader lifted to galley height so nothing is set down at the foot of the aircraft, with our own crew on the ramp for the handover. Airline catering at this station and inflight catering in Iraq more broadly are run off that same route, and aviation catering at ORAA is planned stand by stand rather than as a single generic run. Airport catering at ORAA and in-flight catering at Hīt both draw on the same sealed-cart method regardless of which cabin or which mission is on the schedule that day.
One coordinator holds the file for each rotation, from sealed cart to signed handover, whatever the mix of traffic on the ramp that day.
Airline, charter and VVIP catering at IQA





Inflight catering trusted by operators at ORAA
Operators on commercial aviation catering at ORAA / IQA

Government flight department

Royal household

Charter operator
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Scheduled airline
“Our flight at Hīt (IQA/ORAA) required galley ready meals with clear service-by-service organization. Presentation stayed good while the setup remained practical for a fast aircraft turnaround. Good attention to the operational side of catering. Updates were timely and the final delivery matched the confirmation we had from operations. That made the turnaround easier for both the flight crew and the team on the ground.”
★★★★★Scheduled airline
Jean — Turnaround Coordinator
“We used the team for ad hoc catering at Hīt (IQA/ORAA) during a tight turnaround. The team stayed in contact with operations, adjusted to the new timing, and kept the aircraft handover simple. We appreciated how easy the coordination was. The final handover was simple and there was nothing for the crew to correct before departure.”
★★★★☆Private jet operator
Ryan — Private Flight Coordinator
“We used the team for private jet menu at Hīt (IQA/ORAA) on a VIP trip. The food arrived fresh and well presented, with clear labels and packaging that actually worked in our galley. Reliable, responsive, and easy to work with. Responses were quick whenever we had a question, which helped us keep the flight on schedule.”
★★★★★Government flight department
Marius — Mission Support Manager
Aviation catering data for Hīt (ORAA / IQA)
| Datum | Value |
|---|---|
| Longest runway | 4,000 m |
| Runways | 3 |
| Aerodrome reference code | wide-body |
| ICAO | ORAA |
Business jet catering questions at Hīt
Crew meals, lead times and access at Hīt
What operations gets asked every week about Hīt.
Ask operations directly →Does an order at ORAA need to be placed a set time in advance, and how late can the specification change?
Every rotation is opened against a written specification as soon as the schedule is confirmed, and the lead time depends on cabin count and mission type rather than a single fixed cut-off. Last minute airline catering is handled through the same duty roster that covers ad hoc and diversion work, so a late change is worked as a revision to the open file rather than a new order.
Are halal, kosher and the IATA special meal codes produced for flights through Hīt?
The coordinator on each rotation logs every halal, kosher and special meal request against the passenger manifest before production starts. Special meals are produced on a line kept apart from the main run and sealed separately, so the SPML record travels with the tray rather than being reconstructed at the aircraft.
Where is private jet catering delivered for aircraft based at Hīt airport?
The same handover record used for an airline uplift accompanies every delivery to the FBOs on the field and the GA terminal. FBO catering runs on that record end to end, so a business aviation movement is documented exactly as a scheduled one is.
What does airline catering delivery look like at IQA, and how does the uplift reach the aircraft?
We move the sealed cart from the kitchen to the stand under airside delivery and lift it to galley height with a hi-loader, so nothing is set down at the foot of the aircraft. The crew signs at the galley door, closing the same record that was opened when the cart was sealed.
When are VIP, VVIP and government flights catered at ORAA, and under what protocol?
When a delegation, a royal household or a VVIP movement is confirmed, the file is opened with security clearance on record and a named coordinator assigned before the first tray is produced. VIP flight catering and government flight catering both run to that same protocol, whatever the mission on the schedule.
Aviation catering across the Hīt region
Charter flight catering quote for ORAA
Request a quote
Send us your catering needs for IQA
Hīt (IQA / ORAA)
Give us the aircraft and what goes on board. A coordinator comes back with a quote for Hīt, not a brochure.
orders@aerogourmet.com · operations desk, 24/7
Four steps
Flight
Aircraft · stand · local time
Offloading
Return leg, if any
Order
Counts · menus · files
Contact
Who we come back to