Generally, flights are equipped with meals according to the departure time and flight time, for example, flights that take off before 8:00 a.m. are equipped with breakfast, flights that take off or land before 11:30 a.m. to 13:00 a.m. are basically equipped with lunch, and flights that take off or land between 17:30 p.m. and 19:00 p.m. are equipped with dinner.

But airlines also provide meals according to the ability of the local catering company to provide meals, and short-haul routes where the flight time is about 1 hour or so basically only issue snacks or cookies or the like. International routes meals will be issued one or two meals depending on the length of time. So just by looking at the flight number you can't tell if meals are included or not.

Expanded Information:

Aircraft meals are meals served to passengers on civil aviation flights. The food is ordered by the airlines and is usually supplied by an organization designated to provide in-flight catering. It is prepared near the airport and delivered directly to the aircraft, and then placed on carts by the flight attendants to be distributed to the passengers when the aircraft stabilizes in the middle of the flight.

Flight meals for different classes of passengers differ in terms of cuisine, portion size and cost. First and Business Class meals are modeled after fine dining restaurants in terms of food and meal preparation, but are always different from a real restaurant. Economy class airplane meals are more similar to fast food, with distribution efficiency, storage volume and cost as the main considerations, and the taste of the food, of course, can hardly meet the high expectations of passengers. Airplane meals will have a national standard in 2014, the shelf life can not exceed 36 hours.

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