Galley trolleys — ATLAS vs KSSU, and what should procurement check before ordering?

Almost every catering cart, drawer and standard container on a commercial aircraft is built to one of two galley interface standards: ATLAS or KSSU. They are not interchangeable, and ordering the wrong one means…

Almost every catering cart, drawer and standard container on a commercial aircraft is built to one of two galley interface standards: ATLAS or KSSU. They are not interchangeable, and ordering the wrong one means trolleys that don't fit your galleys. ATLAS is by far the more common — used by roughly 80% of airlines — while KSSU is the older standard associated with a specific group of legacy carriers. This brief explains the difference, the dimensions, and what a procurement team should verify before raising a purchase order.

What ATLAS and KSSU are

Both are standardised dimensional systems for galley inserts — trolleys, carts, standard units (SUs) and containers — so that catering equipment, the galley itself, and the catering-supply chain all interlock. The standards govern the footprint and interface, which is why a galley built for one standard will not cleanly take the other's trolleys.

ATLAS is the dominant standard, used by approximately 80% of airlines.
KSSU is named after the legacy carrier group KLM, Swissair, SAS and UTA, and remains in service on fleets and galleys built to it.

The dimensional difference

The two standards are very close in height and width but differ in depth — which is precisely why they don't interchange:

Dimension	ATLAS	KSSU
Height	~103 cm	~103 cm
Width	~30.5 cm	~30.5 cm
Depth	~40.5 cm	~42.5 cm
Full-size trolley length	~81 cm	~85 cm

A full-size ATLAS trolley is roughly 0.3 m wide × 1.03 m high × 0.81 m long, with an empty weight around 15 kg. Half-size trolleys exist for both standards (around 0.405 m long) and are used where a full-size cart is too large for the service or the galley position.

The depth difference (40.5 vs 42.5 cm) and the corresponding full-size length difference (81 vs 85 cm) are small in absolute terms but enough to make the systems incompatible — the galley locking and stowage interfaces are matched to the standard.

Vendors and materials

Galley equipment is a concentrated supplier base dominated by a few specialists:

Safran Cabin is the leading supplier of trolleys, carts and standard containers for catering, with a heritage in galley equipment going back to 1938, and supplies inserts in both ATLAS and KSSU formats.
Other recognised galley and insert suppliers include Collins Aerospace, Bucher and JAMCO.

Trolleys are built from lightweight, durable materials — typically aluminium alloy or engineered plastics — and run on wheels for aisle handling. The material choice trades weight (fuel burn) against durability.

What procurement should check before ordering

Check	Why it matters
Galley standard (ATLAS vs KSSU)	Wrong standard = trolleys don't fit. Confirm against the actual galley, per fleet type.
Full vs half size	Galley positions and service design dictate the mix.
Empty weight	Every kg of cart weight is recurring fuel burn across the cart's life.
Material	Aluminium vs composite/plastic — weight vs durability and repairability.
Flammability / cabin materials compliance	Galley inserts are cabin equipment and must meet applicable cabin material requirements.
Brake / locking mechanism	Must match galley interface and crew safety needs.
Interchangeability across fleet	Standardising on one galley standard simplifies the whole catering and stowage chain.
Maintainability & spares	Wheels, brakes, latches are wear items — confirm spares and repair support.

Practical guidance

Confirm the standard per fleet, not per airline. A carrier can operate aircraft with galleys of different standards, especially after acquiring used aircraft or merging fleets. Verify against the physical galley before ordering.
Standardise where you can. Converging on ATLAS across the fleet simplifies catering logistics, stowage and spares — most of the market is already ATLAS.
Weigh the weight. Lightweight trolley designs reduce fuel burn over the equipment's life; on a large fleet the cumulative saving is real, so empty weight belongs in the evaluation, not just unit price.
GCC operations — high-frequency, high-load Gulf hubs cycle catering equipment hard; specify durable wear items (wheels, brakes, latches) and confirm spares support.

The single most important rule: match the standard to the galley before anything else. Get that wrong and the rest of the specification is irrelevant.