Alaska Airlines offers the healthiest food choices among the 10 major U.S. carriers and tied with Air Canada for the best when folding in all major North American airlines, according to a study conducted by the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center and DietDetective.com.
The Airline Food Study ranked the airlines on the nutrients and calorie levels of meals, snack boxes, and individual snacks.
Airlines were also scored on several other categories ranging from sodium levels in food, water quality, the availability of meals on flights that are under three hours long, level of transparency in terms of displaying nutritional information, and posting their menus and ingredients online.
Alaska Airlines scored a 4.0 on a five-point scale and was the highest-rated U.S. carrier in the study for the second straight year. Lead author Charles Platkin wrote he was pleased with many of the options Alaska offers, including Mediterranean Tapas snack box and its Fresh Start Protein Platter breakfast.
Rounding out the top five American airlines in the study were Delta and JetBlue, tied with a 2.9 score, and United and American at 2.7.
Hawaiian Airlines scored the lowest rating among carriers with full food offerings, and Southwest came in last with a score of 1.7 based mostly on the fact that the budget carrier offers only individual snacks.
"If the airline really does have a heart (as it does on its logo), it would care about the food that's being served. Southwest needs to add some healthy snacks," the authors wrote.
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