A. In fact, among the ten largest U.S. airlines that report their culinary expenditures to the government, United is one of the most generous, spending, on average, $6.08 per passenger in 2014, second only to American, where the tab was $6.43 per person. (That’s for all classes of service, domestic and international.)
The average for all the airlines in the sample was $3.61 per person, but that’s because budget airlines like Spirit, which spent a beyond-budget 26 cents a person, get thrown into the mix. Spirit, along with Southwest and Allegiant, don’t serve food at all, except, perhaps, for a bag of pretzels. Others include Delta, which forks over $5.36 per flier; Virgin America, at $3.73 per person; and JetBlue at $1.39.