Inspired by dnata’s catering facility in Melbourne, the microfarm enables culinary teams to cultivate selected herbs onsite for use in menu development. Since its introduction in 2025, the initiative has supported more than a dozen menu presentations and contributed to improved freshness, reduced waste, sustainability and enhanced menu creativity.

Herbs are harvested daily and incorporated into dishes served across 26 airline customers in Melbourne, highlighting how hyper‑local cultivation can deliver meaningful impact within large‑scale airline catering environments. Building on its success, dnata is set to expand the microfarm concept to additional catering facilities in 2026, including Brisbane, Sydney and Perth.

At WTCE, the live installation will feature a 96‑punnet microfarm cabinet, demonstrating how chefs integrate freshly harvested ingredients into menu design, with approximately 60 dishes already influenced by the initiative.

Robin Padgett, CEO of dnata Catering & Retail, said: “As passenger expectations continue to evolve, airlines are placing greater emphasis on freshness, creativity and inclusivity in onboard dining.

“Our presence at WTCE highlights how dnata is responding through initiatives such as our microfarm and the continued evolution of special meals, working closely with our partners to enhance both the quality and relevance of the onboard experience.”

Elevating special meals and passenger experience

Alongside the microgarden showcase, dnata will highlight its refined approach to special meals, reflecting growing airline focus on catering to diverse dietary, cultural and lifestyle requirements.

Special meals play an important role in shaping passenger perceptions of onboard dining and offer a valuable opportunity to enhance overall satisfaction. dnata currently supports 20 special meal categories.

At WTCE, visitors will experience a curated selection of dishes demonstrating culinary creativity, precision and the operational expertise required to deliver special meals consistently at global scale. Some dishes include:

• Slow cooked vegetable tagine, freekeh pilaf, preserved lemon and date chutney (VGML, VLML, MOML, HNML, NLML)*
• Crab ravioli with whipped ricotta, fennel salad and kombu beurre blanc (SFML, MOML)*
• Lemon Garlic and sumac chicken with green beans, braised puy lentils, macadamia dukkah and cherry tomato confit (HNML, MOML, DBML)*
• Sweetcorn panna cotta with charred corn, miso butterscotch and croute (VLMV, GFML, MOML)*

Integrated catering and retail solutions

dnata will also present elements of its onboard retail offering, highlighting how integrated catering and retail solutions can support airline differentiation and unlock ancillary revenue opportunities.

The company currently supports five major airline retail programmes globally, offering end-to-end programme management underpinned by market-leading data and analytics. dnata manages over US$200 million in retail stock through its strategic supply chain teams and powers more than 40 million transactions annually across its retail programmes.

Industry collaboration and engagement

Through its participation at WTCE, dnata aims to engage airline customers, suppliers and industry stakeholders in conversations around culinary innovation, personalisation and sustainability, while strengthening relationships across its global network.

WTCE: a leading global industry event

WTCE is the leading global event for the travel catering, onboard retail, and passenger comfort industries. In 2026, the event is taking place between 14-16 April in Hamburg, Germany.

Note to editors:

• VGML – Vegan meal
• VLML – Vegetarian lacto-ovo meal
• MOML – Muslim meal
• HNML – Hindi non-vegetarian meal
• NLML – No lactose meal
• SFML – Seafood meal
• DBML – Balanced diet meal
• GFML – Gluten intolerant meal

Upon implementation, EASA’s Regulation will establish a more standardised environment, which will help enhance safety, operational delivery, cybersecurity, and consistency within the region.

Until now, the ground handling industry has largely operated under self-regulation, with operational arrangements, including safety considerations, primarily addressed in bilateral service agreements between ground handling service providers and the respective aircraft operators.

EASA’s Regulation is scheduled for publication in late 2024 or early 2025. The proposal includes a suggested three-year transition period for implementation post-publication. dnata anticipates a smooth transition, proactively aligning its practices with the forthcoming regulatory framework.

dnata is a leading global air and travel services provider. Established in 1959, the company offers quality and safe ground handling, cargo, travel, catering and retail services in over 30 countries across six continents. In the financial year 2022-23, company’s customer-oriented teams handled over 710,000 aircraft turns, moved over 2.7 million tonnes of cargo, uplifted 111.4 million meals, and recorded a total transaction value (TTV) of travel services of US$ 1.9 billion.

dnata’s dedicated team will handle up to 6,000 tonnes of cargo annually for Maersk Air Freight, which currently operates weekly flights between Cologne and Greenville (GSP) in the USA with a Magma Boeing 747-400F aircraft.  The airline plans to increase weekly frequencies, significantly expanding cargo capacity on the route in the coming months. 

Stef van Binst, Managing Director, dnata Belgium and Germany, said: “We are proud that Maersk has chosen dnata as its trusted provider for safe, reliable and efficient cargo handling services. This significant contract win is a testament to our Cologne team’s hard work and unwavering commitment to service excellence. We look forward to a successful partnership with our newest customer in Germany.”

dnata entered the German cargo market through a strategic acquisition of the exclusive operator of the Cologne Bonn Cargo Centre, a 12,000 sqm facility at CGN, in 2022. dnata currently serves 20 airline customers with a team of some 100 highly-trained aviation and logistics professionals at the airport. In the financial year 2022-23, dnata handled nearly 60,000 tonnes of cargo in Cologne.

CGN is the third largest airport in Germany in terms of cargo operations with significant capacity for further growth. It operates 24 hours a day and is ideally located in the heart of Northwest Europe with excellent road connections. 

dnata is a leading global air and travel services provider. Established in 1959, the company offers quality and safe ground handling, cargo, travel, catering and retail services in over 30 countries across six continents. In the financial year 2022-23, dnata’s customer-oriented teams handled over 710,000 aircraft turns, moved over 2.7 million tonnes of cargo, uplifted 111.4 million meals, and recorded a total transaction value (TTV) of travel services of US$ 1.9 billion.

Wisskirchen is the exclusive operator of the Cologne Bonn Cargo Centre, a 12,000 sqm facility at Cologne/Bonn Airport (‘CGN’) providing a full range of cargo services via a team of some 180 highly-trained employees. Wisskirchen handles more than 85,000 tonnes of cargo annually, including general cargo, perishables, pharmaceuticals, dangerous goods, electronics and fast moving consumer goods.  

CGN is the third largest airport in Germany in terms of cargo operations with significant capacity for further growth. It operates 24 hours a day and is ideally located in the heart of Northwest Europe with excellent road connections. In 2021 cargo handled at CGN increased by 14% year over year, marking a new annual record for the airport.  

dnata has executed agreements with the owner of Wisskirchen, Oliver Hellwig, to acquire 100% of the shares in the company. The parties agreed not to disclose details of the transaction. The acquisition is subject to approval by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action in Germany.  

Stewart Angus, dnata’s Regional CEO for Europe, said: “We are delighted to announce dnata’s first cargo investment in Germany. This is part of our continued broader investment in cargo infrastructure. Since 2014 we have invested in nine new cargo facilities in Europe. We look forward to playing our role in the next stage of development of Cologne/Bonn Airport as a major cargo hub and I would like to thank Oliver Hellwig for his professionalism during this process.” 

Thilo Schmid, Chairman of the Executive Board of Cologne Bonn Airport, said:  "We are delighted to welcome dnata, a renowned global player in the field of airport services, to Cologne/Bonn. The commitment of dnata will help to further increase the efficiency in cargo handling in our Cargo Center and is proof of the great location quality of Cologne/Bonn Airport as well as its central importance as the most important logistics hub in NRW."

In recent years, dnata has made significant investments in advanced infrastructure to enhance its cargo offering. This included the opening of new, state-of-the-art cargo facilities in Manchester (UK), Karachi and Lahore (Pakistan), and additional cargo capacity and infrastructure in Brussels (Belgium), Sydney (Australia) and Toronto (Canada). Most recently, dnata has announced that it would invest over €200 million in its operations in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and operate one of the world’s largest and most advanced cargo facilities at Schiphol Airport.  In addition, this spring dnata will open the second phase of the dnata City East project at London Heathrow (UK). 

As one of the world’s leading air services providers, dnata currently provides quality and reliable ground handling, cargo, catering and retail services at over 120 airports in 19 countries. 

Dubai, U.A.E., 28 November 2018 – dnata, one of the world’s largest air services providers, announced that it acquired a majority stake in bd4travel (Big Data for Travel), an award-winning tech company, which provides artificial intelligence(AI)-driven IT solutions to online travel agencies.

Based in Germany and the UK, bd4travel’s services were designed specifically to meet the challenges of the travel industry. The company’s sophisticated algorithms allow online travel agencies to engage with anonymous customers and personalise their shopping experience in real-time, recommending the most relevant products, services and content to them.

Running more than 40 separate sites, bd4travel currently serves leading travel organisations in 17 markets. The company’s innovative solutions have been recognised with several prestigious industry awards.

Operating a diverse portfolio of travel businesses, dnata offers comprehensive travel services for individuals, companies and the travel trade across 77 countries. The company and its partners manage a broad range of activities from business and incentive travel to worldwide tour operations, including destination management, leisure, sports and active holidays. dnata also offers sales and marketing services for hotels, along with specialist travel services for government, offshore and marine industries.

Today’s announcement underlines dnata’s commitment to applying state-of-the-art technologies to improve efficiency and customer experience. With its investment in bd4travel, dnata further enhances its operations and offering bringing significant benefits to its stakeholders in the travel industry. 

bd4travel will continue to develop its award-winning platform to create more value for its customers, while broadening its reach across the globe with dnata.

The acquisition is effective immediately, with no interruption to the services offered by bd4travel. The business will continue under the bd4travel branding.

The parties have agreed not to disclose the details of the acquisition.

“At dnata we are constantly looking for ways to embrace innovation and new technology to maximise efficiency and ensure service excellence,” said Iain Andrew, Divisional Senior Vice President, Travel Services, dnata. “The processing of big data and the application of artificial intelligence-driven digital customer interactions represent major competencies of future-proof organisations. With their outstanding, scalable technology, expert team and proven business model, bd4travel offers solutions for both. Our investment in bd4travel will help us further optimise our processes and, by taking a world-class technology to a global level, deliver more value to the travel industry.”

Andy Owen Jones, Founder of bd4travel, said: “This majority acquisition by dnata is a major milestone for bd4travel, which will enable us to grow our AI-led solutions and bring this technology to more customers especially within the airline world. We are excited by the prospects of working with dnata, with their international reach and their commitment to investing in the best technologies in the travel industry. This is the start of a powerful collaboration.”

--ENDS

About dnata

dnata is one of the world’s largest air services providers. Established in 1959, the company ensures the aviation industry operates smoothly and efficiently in 127 airports. Offering ground handling, cargo, travel, and flight catering services in 85 countries across six continents, dnata is a trusted partner for over 300 airline customers around the world. Each day, the company handles over 1,800 flights, carries over 8,400 tonnes of cargo, assists over 320,000 passengers, books over 21,000 hotel stays, and uplifts over 320,000 meals.

About bd4travel

bd4travel delivers intelligent personalisation for travel, providing digital empathy and personal engagement with anonymous customers. The company was founded in 2013 by three former Amadeus colleagues who realised that “personal relevance” has the potential to change the travel industry – and that AI-driven personalisation is the necessary solution to provide the best web experience for each and every individual user. Today, bd4travel provides a comprehensive solution tailored specifically to tackle the challenges of the travel domain, to listen to its users, understand them and react with the most relevant service. Travel organisations profit from ready-to-go personalisation modules as well as powerful tools to create individual use-cases to enhance the user experience. bd4travel is based in Germany and the UK. Its solutions are implemented at leading travel organisations in 17 international markets and are recognised with awards from leading travel organisations such as Phocuswright, Travolution and Travel Technology Europe.

The purchase agreement also includes TV media volume worth several million euros for 2018 and 2019. The contract parties agreed not to disclose the details of the acquisition, which is subject to approval by the antitrust authorities.

Tropo is a dynamic tour operator for low-cost and high-quality travel packages, last-minute holidays and hotel reservations offering up to 200 million vacation options every day.  ProSiebenSat.1 has held a majority stake in Tropo GmbH since 2012. In the roughly six years it has belonged to the media group, the tour operator has increased its brand awareness significantly through the use of TV advertising. The company has successfully defended its position against the challenging market environment in its highly-competitive travel segment over the past years.

Iain Andrew, Divisional Senior Vice President, Travel Services, dnata, said: “We are delighted with this opportunity to have Tropo become part of dnata travel. This acquisition enables us to enter the important and valuable German travel market, and enhances our portfolio of travel services in Europe. We see potential for significant synergies between Tropo and our other travel businesses around the world to provide very attractive and unique offerings to inbound and outbound travellers to and from Germany.”

Dr. Jan Kemper, Chief Financial Officer ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE and Executive Board Member Commerce, said: “We’re pleased to have found dnata as a very experienced buyer for Tropo which will operate on the further development of Tropo close to the own business model. At the same time, with this disposal we successfully complete the strategic review of our travel segment. We will henceforth concentrate on the further expansion of our activities with the NuCom Group in the Commerce segment.”

Tom Meyer, Managing Director of Tropo, said: “ProSiebenSat.1 has been instrumental in the development of Tropo over the past several years. Today, both our reach (thanks to the power of TV) and the operational support in various business disciplines allow us to look forward to the future with confidence. For that, we the team of Tropo offer them our gratitude, and we are looking forward to our partnership with dnata as a global player.”

--ENDS

dnata

dnata is one of the world’s largest air services providers. Established in 1959, the company ensures the aviation industry operates smoothly and efficiently in 130 airports. Offering ground handling, cargo, travel, and flight catering services in 85 countries across six continents, dnata is a trusted partner for over 300 airline customers around the world. Each day, the company handles over 1,800 flights, carries over 8,400 tonnes of cargo, assists over 240,000 passengers, books over 21,000 hotel stays, and uplifts over 320,000 meals.

ProSiebenSat.1 Group

ProSiebenSat.1 is the leading German entertainment player with a strong e-commerce business. We want to offer great entertainment – whenever, wherever and on any device. Every day, 45 million TV households in Germany, Austria and Switzerland enjoy our 14 free and pay TV channels. Overall, ProSiebenSat.1 generates 1 billion video views per month with its online offers. Every year, we invest more than one billion euros in 120,000 hours of programming.

Successful formats like “Germany’s next Topmodel”, “The Voice of Germany”, “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Young Sheldon” as well as top-notch stars like Heidi Klum, Joko and Klaas or Dwayne Johnson belong to our family. Shows like “Bosch” and “Married at First Sight” are created within our production and distribution business Red Arrow Studios. Our global video channel network Studio71 achieves 96 billion video views per year and operates more than 1,300 web channels.

Our NuCom Group is a growing e-commerce player with ten leading portfolio companies that offer online price comparison, gifting/events, dating and beauty, retailing with 360 million interactions a year.

ProSiebenSat.1 are 6,500 passionate creators that love to entertain and delight our viewers and consumers each day.

Tropo

Tropo is the most dynamic tour operator for low-cost and high-quality travel packages, last-minute vacations, and hotel reservations. Each day, Tropo offers up to 200 million vacation options to every popular beach as well as every vibrant city around the world. With us, you can travel to destinations such as Spain (from Mallorca to Fuerteventura), Turkey, Egypt, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Dubai, and many other beautiful locations.