photo from Freepik

by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

If you travel by air, chances are that you’ll spend some time in an airport waiting for your flight. If you’re like me, you bring vegan food with you but sometimes, flight delays or being hungrier than you expected can prompt a search for a vegan meal. How easy is it to find that meal? It varies from airport to airport. We checked the websites of the ten busiest airports in the United States in December 2025 to see how helpful they’d be at identifying airport dining that included vegan meals.

According to the FAA, in 2024, the ten airports with the greatest number of commercial aircraft enplanements (passengers boarding a flight) served more than 350 million people. We went to each airport’s official site and spent a few minutes trying to find establishments offering vegan meals.

1. Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta International Airport: The website has a link to a 2020 article on vegetarian/vegan options which has not been updated but could be a starting place. There is also a drop-down menu that lists 22 destinations with vegetarian/vegan options. Several of these are either juice bars or pizzerias (unlikely to offer vegan options). There is no indication of which destinations serve vegan, as opposed to vegan/vegetarian food. You’d need to visit each establishment to see what they offer.
2. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport: A search for “vegan” on the website resulted in four locations with vending machines. There is no indication on the website as to which dining establishments have vegan offerings.
3. Denver International Airport: A drop-down menu lists 14 destinations with “vegetarian” options, some of which are juice bars. Some listed destinations have links to their menu; none that we checked indicated which menu items were vegetarian or vegan. You’d need to visit or individually contact likely dining sites to see what they offer.
4. Chicago O’Hare International Airport: A drop-down menu allows you to choose dining sites with “vegetarian/vegan” options. Many options are grab and go markets or vending machines. Restaurants have links to menus (although some were broken). Menus do not appear to indicate which items are vegan/vegetarian. You’d need to visit or individually contact likely dining sites to see what they offer.
5. Los Angeles International Airport: No listing on website for establishments with vegetarian/vegan options. Some menus indicate vegan items, but you need to review each dining establishment individually.
6. John F. Kennedy International Airport (New York): An interactive map allows a search for “vegan” and resulted in a list of 22 establishments, 15 of which appeared to be bakeries, markets, vending machines, or coffee shops. There were no links to menus. You’d need to visit or individually contact likely dining sites to see what they offer.
7. Charlotte/Douglas International Airport: This website allows you to select a “vegan” filter which resulted in 17 places, 10 of which were coffee shops, markets, or bakeries. There were no links to menus. You’d need to visit or individually contact likely dining sites to see what they offer.

8. Harry Reid International Airport (Las Vegas): The website does not allow you to search for vegan (or vegetarian) restaurants. You can see a list of all dining establishments, at least some of which have links to menus. Helpful if you have a lot of time to individually check restaurant websites or if you’re familiar with chains that have vegan options.
9. Orlando International Airport: A search for “vegan” resulted in a single listing for a juice bar.
10. Miami International Airport: A search for “vegan” had one result which listed a couple of vegan options on their menu. There was also a tab for “vegetarian/vegan” which had 10 results, most of which looked like possible places to get a meal. Most had links to menus although only one indicated vegan options.

If you know you’re going to be looking for a meal in an airport, some advance planning may help unless you have a long lay-over and want to check out restaurants as you walk around the airport. Ahead of time, you can see which restaurants are in your terminal and contact possible venues and ask what they offer vegans. Otherwise, you may get lucky and find a place like Moe’s Southwest Grill in the Dallas Love Field Airport which allowed us to customize a Burrito Bowl which was prepared in front of us and where the workers were knowledgeable about which items were vegan.

Finally,  on a side note, BWI airport (Baltimore/DC) has one great restaurant with items clearly marked vegan: https://www.silverdiner.com/bwi

To read more about food for travel see:

Vegan Food for the Plane

Budget-Friendly Airport Tips for the Conscious Vegan Traveler