The Desert-Dry Reality of Aircraft Cabins
Picture yourself sitting in an airplane seat, cruising at altitude, and suddenly everything around you feels parched. That’s because the cabin air is extremely dry, with a humidity level estimated at some 12%. To put this into perspective, that number is at the low end — the very low end — of the daytime atmospheric humidity in the Mojave Desert, which, depending on the season, hovers between 10% and 30%. Your nasal passages and throat feel like they’ve been hiking through the desert for hours, and that’s exactly what’s happening to your taste buds too. This bone-dry environment isn’t just uncomfortable—it’s literally changing how your food tastes. This monumental, rock-steady inflight dehydration over hours that humans spend in cabin air wrings every drop of necessary moisture from our nasal and bronchial passages. And that’s one of the top reasons that our closely intertwined senses of smell and taste change so radically as we fly. When airlines pump that desert-dry air through the cabin, they’re unknowingly transforming your entire sensory experience.
Your Taste Buds Take a 30% Hit
Here’s where things get really wild: flying doesn’t just make you thirsty, it literally damages your ability to taste. A 2010 study commissioned by Lufthansa and conducted by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, showed sensitivity to sweet and salty foods drops by about 30 percent in the air, compared to the ground. Think about that for a second—nearly one-third of your taste perception just vanishes the moment you reach cruising altitude. The combination of changes in humidity and pressure can reduce the sensitivity of taste buds to sweet and salty foods by 30% and is responsible for the well-known effect of foods tasting blander. It’s like someone turned down the volume on your taste buds, making that airline meal taste even more like cardboard than it already did. At high altitudes, we lose no less than 30 per cent of our normal perception of saltiness and sweetness! This isn’t just a minor inconvenience—it’s a complete sensory shutdown that happens every single time you fly.
The Science Behind Lufthansa’s Shocking Discovery
When Lufthansa noticed something strange happening in their beverage service, they decided to investigate. A few years ago, the German airline Lufthansa realized they served about 53,000 gallons of tomato juice annually. That’s just shy of the 59,000 gallons of beer they serve each year. Wait, what? People were drinking almost as much tomato juice as beer on flights? This seemed impossible, especially since most passengers admitted they never touched the stuff on the ground. So Lufthansa did what any curious airline would do—they built an entire fake airplane to figure out what was going on. Lufthansa wanted to know why passengers drank so much tomato juice, so they hired the Fraunhofer Society, a German research institute, to study it. Researchers put people in a flight simulator — the fuselage of an old Airbus A310. It perfectly mimicked the environment at altitude, complete with cabin pressure, turbulence, engine noise – even pictures of a blue sky and clouds taped to the windows. The results were mind-blowing: People consistently rated tomato juice as tasting better in the fake airplane than in a normal environment.
How Cabin Pressure Messes With Your Head
The air pressure inside an airplane cabin isn’t like anything you experience on the ground, and your body definitely notices. At 30,000 feet, this metric measures at around 12%, which is considerably drier than that of most deserts. Atmospheric pressure, which drops significantly when an aircraft is in the air, is yet another factor that can play a role. Your blood oxygen levels drop, your nasal cavities get congested, and suddenly your entire sensory system is working in emergency mode. Airplanes are cold, they have unusually low humidity — planes are generally drier than the Sahara desert – and pressurized cabins lower blood oxygen levels. All three affect taste. It’s like your taste buds are trying to function while wearing thick winter gloves—everything becomes muffled and distant. Lower air pressure will also affect the sensitivity of our taste buds. As a result, our perception of saltiness and sweetness of food also drops. Your body is essentially fighting a losing battle against the artificial environment of the aircraft cabin.
The 85-Decibel Taste Killer
If you’ve ever wondered why airplane food tastes so terrible, blame the noise. The background noise on a plane due to the sound of the engines can reach as high as 85 decibels. That constant drone isn’t just annoying—it’s literally interfering with your ability to taste your food. One such study from 2011 suggests that the noise from the aircraft engine, which stays at a constant level of 85 dB, may contribute to the bland taste of airplane food. Participants in the study ate sweet and salty snacks while listening to either silence or white noise through headphones, and it was found that food was perceived to be less salty or less sweet with background noise than in silence. Think about that the next time you’re trying to enjoy your meal while those engines are roaring outside. On a scale of loudness, flights are typically around 85 decibels, which is comparable to a noisy restaurant or heavy traffic. When panelists ate in an environment that mimicked the noise levels of an airline cabin, their ability to taste sweetness was significantly diminished. It’s like trying to have a conversation at a rock concert—everything gets drowned out.
Why Tomato Juice Becomes Aviation Gold
Here’s where the story gets really interesting: while most foods taste worse on airplanes, tomato juice actually tastes better. As soon as you have it at 30,000 feet, tomato juice shows, let’s say, its better side. It shows more acidity, it has some mineralic taste with it, and it’s very refreshing. This isn’t just passenger imagination—it’s scientifically proven. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Society confirmed that people enjoyed tomato juice more on planes, for the freshness of the juice in altitude. However, on a plane, it shows more acidity, with a mineral taste. The secret lies in umami, that savory fifth taste that most people can’t even name. Dando wasn’t expecting it, but his study suggests that umami-rich foods such as tomato juice just taste better in the air. But tomatoes are absolutely packed with umami flavour, which is part of the reason we like them so much. So it might be that the glass of tomato juice you have on a plane might be the best tasting glass of tomato juice you ever have. While everything else tastes muted, tomato juice somehow manages to shine through the sensory chaos.
The Umami Exception That Proves the Rule
Scientists have discovered something fascinating about umami—it’s basically bulletproof against altitude. Tomato juice is one of the main exceptions due to its strong taste of umami. The fifth Japanese taste is undeniably unaffected by altitude, and its subtle balance of sweet and salty flavors is even intensified. While your ability to taste sweet and salty gets hammered at 30,000 feet, umami stays strong. Interestingly, the raucous surroundings actually heightened people’s perception of umami flavors. This might explain why tomato juice continues to be a favored choice among passengers. It’s like umami has a superpower that helps it cut through all the environmental chaos of flying. While your taste buds’ ability to taste certain flavors is impacted by flying, there is one flavor that isn’t impacted at all: umami—and tomato juice is known for its umami flavor. So while your sweet soda may taste weird or diluted at 30,000 feet, the savory, umami flavors of tomato juice will be more pronounced. This explains why airlines have learned to pump up the umami in their food—it’s one of the few flavors that can survive the flight.
How Airlines Fight Back Against Bland
Smart airlines have figured out how to work with these taste limitations rather than against them. Spicy flavors like curry, ginger, garlic and umami-rich flavors from mushrooms, seaweed, hard cheese and even fresh fruit can stand to the changes better and enhance the taste of food on airplanes. Those ingredients lend richness and depth to dishes. It’s not about making food louder—it’s about choosing flavors that can punch through the sensory fog. When he developed a menu for the airline, he said, “I knew that I needed to incorporate acidity, heat and umami to make up for the muted sense of smell and taste.” JetBlue’s popular carrot and ginger soup with chili marshmallow is an example: It combines fresh carrot flavor with white miso for umami, lemon juice for acidity, and ginger and chili for sweet spice, all of which provide flavor without extra salt or sweetener. Some airlines are getting creative with partnerships too. Last year, British Airways partnered with Brewdog, a Scottish craft brewery, to make the Speedbird 100 beer on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner cruising over northern Scotland. The brewery claims it is the first beer ever created on an airplane. The key is understanding that airplane food isn’t just regular food served in a weird place—it’s food that has to perform under completely different sensory conditions.
The Billion-Dollar Food Preparation Challenge
The airline catering industry is massive, and it’s growing fast. In 2024, the Inflight Catering Market size was estimated at USD 17.02 billion. The Inflight Catering Market size is expected to reach USD 18.62 billion in 2025 and grow at a CAGR of 8.57% to reach USD 28.09 billion by 2030. But here’s the kicker—most of that food is prepared hours before you eat it, then frozen, thawed, and reheated. Prior to takeoff, airlines freeze pre-made meals on the ground and thaw them out while in air. “Meals are prepared in advance, so they are shelf-stable for a number of hours,” Spence said. “Then it’s reheated in less than ideal conditions, which contributes to it not tasting great.” While airplane food is prepared in a method similar to that of making and delivering fast food, flight attendants have to serve a larger number of people in a smaller amount of time than in fast food establishments. In 2024, the meal segment accounted for the largest market share with 44% share. That’s billions of dollars spent on food that has to survive freezing, thawing, reheating, and then being eaten in one of the worst possible environments for taste perception.
The Smell Factor That Changes Everything
Here’s something that might blow your mind: most of what you think is taste is actually smell. Another factor that plays more of a role than one would think in making airplane meals less enjoyable is the sense of smell. In fact, the vast majority of the difference that passengers attribute to taste is actually smell. Once again, this has to do with a change in humidity, which affects the composition of evaporating nasal mucus and subsequently impedes odor receptors in the nose. With a dampened sense of smell, food ends up tasting nearly twice as bland in the air. That dry air doesn’t just make you thirsty—it literally shuts down your ability to smell your food. In fact, scientists now believe that up to 80 percent of what we taste is actually based on aroma alone. This is another reason why tomato juice is such a unique and favored choice during flights. When you can’t smell your food properly, you’re missing 80% of the flavor experience. It’s like trying to watch a movie with the sound turned way down—you’re getting the basic plot, but missing all the richness and detail that makes it enjoyable. Due to lack of moisture, our sense of smell reduces and this affects our judgement on food taste.
