Established in 1996 in New York’s hip West Village, Magnolia Bakery has become a cult favorite, especially for its iconic banana pudding, which has taken on a new lease of life through social media influencers enthusiastically hunting out the sought-after dessert.
While Magnolia Bakery might make a wide range of sweet treats, it’s the banana pudding that has become its sell-out star, often leading to long wait times even to get into their retail stores.
Thankfully, there is now another way to get hold of Magnolia Bakery goodies and it involves flying with United Airlines.
In a world-first collaboration, United Airlines will soon offer a Magnolia Bakery dessert inspired by its iconic banana pudding in First Class on select United flights over 901 miles.
Served in individual 3-ounce cups, the Magnolia Bakery dessert destined for United Airlines will still feature real bananas that have been “whipped to perfection” along with wafer cookie bits.
Unfortunately, this isn’t quite the real deal that you might imagine, as making Magnolia Bakery available on a commercial airline for the very first time is only possible because the chain has just launched a frozen version of its much-loved banana pudding.
Along with the wafer cookie bits version of the ‘frozen-to-thaw’ dessert, Magnolia Bakery has also launched Red Velvet Cookie Bits and Chocolatey Hazelnut Swirl. According to the chain, the frozen dessert version took three years of development.
“The only thing more iconic than Magnolia Bakery’s Banana Pudding is enjoying that pudding at 30,000 feet in United First,” commented the airline’s managing director of hospitality, Aaron McMillan, after the collab was announced.
Promising an improvement to United’s famously uninspired onboard catering, McMillan said the airline was “changing the way travelers eat and drink onboard, offering more variety and more elevated options with partners like Magnolia.”
If, however, you have no plans to fly United First Class just to get your hands on a Magnolia Bakery banana pudding, then there is another option for air passengers to get their hands on the real thing.
Earlier this year, Magnolia Bakery launched its first-ever airport concession at LaGuardia. Located near gates 60-69, the store offers a range of signature items, including the real banana pudding.
A word of warning, however. You’ll want to make sure your flight is departing earlier in the day if you want to stand any chance of getting hold of the banana pudding.
The tie-up between United Airlines and Magnolia Bakery comes just weeks after Delta Air Lines announced that it was partnering with Shake Shack to bring a version of its burgers to the air.
Launched on flights out of Boston on December 1, the one-of-a-kind collaboration will expand across other Delta flights throughout 2025, with Shake Shack cheeseburgers available exclusively in Delta First Class.
Just like United, the Shake Shack meal will only be available on select flights over 900 miles.
Well I’ll be the first to comment. That sounds yummy!