Luxury in the air

There are few who do not quietly dread a long international flight. Time stretches on, movies make less sense, sleep gets more and more elusive. Worst of all, the food tastes like prettified mud. Qatar Airways &mdash with more than eighty per cent of its revenue coming from transit passengers through Doha &mdash seems to know this better than others. They have been attacking the long-flight demons with one underlying philosophy make the passenger forget they&rsquore in the air.

From the moment a business class traveller arrives at the Doha airport, Qatar Airways switches to five-star service. The Premium Terminal is the world&rsquos first terminal dedicated to business and first class passengers at the Doha International Airport. It has a spa, jacuzzi, fine dining, meeting rooms and a tiny duty-free shopping area (knowing apparently that this section of travellers does not have time to shop).

Once aboard the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the automated seats that turn into flatbeds can convince you to simply kickback and fall asleep. But one thing made me literally sit up the food. From September 2012, Qatar Airways introduces meals envisioned by four world renowned chefs who you could not have earlier imagined being associated with in-flight dining. But Qatar pulls it off.

Mumbai-born three-Michelin-star chef Vineet Bhatia&rsquos wasabi paneer stir-fry noodles or tomato salan and spinach-cottage cheese patties are some of the exotic Indian food now available. Lebanon&rsquos Ramzi Choueiri, known as the top chef in the Arab world, has some inspired lamb steaks and tabouli, but his signature feta cheese and ratatouille baklava is the one to die for.

Tom Aikens, whose British and French food makes his restaurant eighth best in the world, brings to Qatar Airways the traditional pea and mint soup and poached chicken with lemongrass sauce. The coup for Qatar Airways is, however, the Japanese chef who redefined black cod and runs twenty-nine restaurants in twenty-five countries Nobu Matsuhisa. Excitingly, his signature black cod with lemon is on the menu too.