The Goddard Catering Group has gobbled up the opportunity to replace Bermuda Aviation Service as the Island?s sole producer of in-flight catering.

British Airways is the main airline that requires catering at Bermuda airport and would have been stranded without a catering company when Bermuda Aviation Services Ltd. (BAS) officially closed its catering division at the end of June.

BAS has been the only provider of in-flight catering on the Island, and although British Airways looked into another local company providing the service, the airline chose to use Goddard Catering. Goddard already caters meals for BA flights in seven countries throughout the Caribbean and Latin American regions ? and jumped at the chance to expand their growing business network to include Bermuda.

Acting general manager of the Goddard Bermuda Bruno Barrientos told : ?We have a long-term and good relationship with British Airways, and we are permanently in touch, so when they said they needed a caterer in Bermuda, we came here and made the analysis.?

Five executives have been brought in to help establish Goddard Catering Group Bermuda Ltd. Chefs and operations and equipment managers, including Mr. Barrientos himself, have come from the Miami headquarters of Goddard Bermuda?s parent company Goddard Catering Group and from Goddard Catering Group?s subsidiaries in Barbados and Jamaica. Mr. Barrientos said all of the positions were temporary with Goddard Bermuda looking to employ locally within the next three months.

The company is currently renting and operating out of the Airport-owned kitchen that BAS recently vacated. Mr. Barrientos said: ?It is an old building, and we plan to replace all of the kitchen appliances and equipment step-by-step. We have an engineer here now from the US to try and figure out what best to do with the building. Let?s just say within the next six months, it will be bright and beautiful.?

Goddard Bermuda is catering the daily Delta Airlines Atlanta flight ? which serves a meal in its first and economy classes ? and private aviation. British Airways, however, is Goddard?s main customer on the Island with two meals served on each Bermuda-London flight and up to five flights leaving the Island per week during the summer months. British Airways Bermuda manager Philip Troake said each flight to London offered passengers both a full and light meal.

The airline prefers to have food produced on the Island, although Mr. Troake told that they did carry meals round trip from London to those destinations that were unable to provide catering. The main problem with this, however, was that adding refrigerated containers to a plane?s cargo and cabin reduced the plane?s available cargo space.

The establishment of Goddard Bermuda allows British Airways and other airlines to provide full meal services while maintaining maximum cargo space.

BAS chief executive officer Eugene Bean said: ?BAS still provides some resources such as consulting and administration...? in addition to leasing all of the current kitchen appliances and equipment to Goddard. Six BAS staff are currently working for Goddard until the group?s full staff is set. At least five of the catering service staff that were employed by BAS have now been employed by Goddard.

Mr. Barrientos said: ?BAS has been doing whatever they can to make the transition seamless.?

Goddard?s contract to provide catering for British Airways at the Bermuda airport officially commenced on July 1 according to Mr. Troake; however, the group did not have the staff to produce full meal service for British Airways at that time. Instead, it will be starting this Saturday.

In the interim two weeks, Mr. Troake said, British Airways has been carrying food from London and has been forced to offer a slightly decreased food service from the usual in order to maintain full cargo space.

Goddard Bermuda is a division of Goddard Catering Group, which was originally established in Barbados in 1954 and is now operated under Goddard Enterprises Ltd. Goddard Catering Group has expanded to include both in-flight catering as well as industrial catering for hospitals, schools and prisons throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean.