Imagine yourself walking inside an aircraft cabin. The carpet is dirty with bread crumbs. The meal tray table is full of food stains. The seat pocket in front of you have left over garbage from the previous flight.
How would you feel about your flight and the airline?
As international flights get longer and longer, we could easily spend more than 10 hours inside an aircraft cabin. (Qantas Flew Non-stop from London to Sydney in Less Than 20 Hours) This is where we live for the next 10-20 hours. We expect our home to be clean but can we expect the airlines to do a good job in ensuring our living environment is clean on a flight?
The short answer is NO. We cannot.
The below 3 points summarizes why aircraft cabin cleaning can be a difficult task.
- Aircraft ground time
- Outsourcing cleaning service
- Low priority
Aircraft ground time:
Aircraft do not make money when it is sitting on the ground. One of main goal of running an airline is to utilize every aircraft on her fleet to the fullest.
An aircraft might be on the ground for a prolonged period during maintenance checks governed by the maintenance schedule to ensure the aircraft is airworthy. Otherwise, maximizing aircraft utilization is the goal of airline scheduling. The low-cost carriers have taken this to an art. The turnaround time where an aircraft lands and departs again is sometimes as short as 30 minutes. This is a fundamental factor in the success of a low-cost carrier.
There are a number of factors hindering aircraft ground time. Usually refueling and cargo unloading and loading takes the longest during a turnaround. This is why short haul low-cost carriers could turn an aircraft around in such a short time. Low-cost carriers usually only utilize smaller narrow body aircraft with limited bulk cargo. They also take on less fuel for short haul flights. However, they usually do not conduct any cabin cleaning during transits.
Below is the standard turnaround time based on the Airbus A350 Aircraft Characteristics Airport and Maintenance Planning Document.
The Airbus standard turnaround time is overly simplistic but nonetheless gives an overview and approximation of the time involved for each major activity during an aircraft turnaround. Refueling is considered a critical path as it takes the longest time to complete.
“Cleaning” is denoted with “Available Time” which means cleaning will not be the deciding factor as to how long a transit time will be. Airlines usually will not allocate additional time just for cabin cleaning activities. i.e. The aircraft can still fly even if the cabin is dirty.
Below is a more realistic view of the time it takes for each activities during a turnaround for a long-haul flight.
Cabin cleaning usually starts when the inbound crew leaves the aircraft and ends before boarding is commenced. Turnaround coordination is extremely fluid as we can only plan the time required on paper. There are many issues along the way that might prolong a specific task and delays a flight.
Outsourcing cleaning service:
Airlines do not have their own cleaning staff and cleaning activities are outsourced to Ground Handling Service providers such as Swissport ,Menzies and dnata. These service providers will hire cabin cleaners to clean not only one specific airline but multiple airlines that serve the particular airport.
It is logical for airlines to outsource such a service as it is labor intensive. However there are numerous issues that make cabin cleaning difficult to manage.
a.) Managing Quality:
Cabin cleaning is outsources to service providers. These service providers serve multiple airlines within the same airport. Different airlines will have different standards and it is difficult for the airline to ensure quality is delivered to every aircraft departing an airport.
b.) Training/Seat complexity:
The airline will need to work with the service providers to ensure they understand the airline’s cleaning standard and requirements. Moreover, seats design are getting more complex. A aircraft cabin could easily have 4 different types of seats. It is important for the service provider to know how to clean each specific types of seats.
Cabin cleaners usually work in extremely tough conditions and with minimum pay. They sometimes have to work in extremely hot cabins during summer. They are really working hard behind the scenes to ensure passengers get a clean and comfortable environment to be in.
Low priority:
When you look at some newer cabin seat designs, it is apparent that the ease of cleaning is not a priority in many seat designs. In some designs there are places where is it natural for passengers to leave garbage in. This will make cleaning more difficult.
As seen on the aircraft turn around time table, cabin cleaning is not a critical path as additional time usually will not be given for cabin cleaning. The cleaning supplier will get specific cleaning time for specific aircraft from the airline. If they exceed a specific cleaning time, they will sometimes be penalized. This is because airlines need to ensure aircraft departure will not be delayed.
Sometimes thorough cleaning will be sacrificed for on-time departure. The general thinking is that you can put more cleaners to finish cleaning tasks more quickly; however, this is not the case. Imagine putting 40 cleaners in an aircraft cabin. The coordination of these 40 cleaners to clean 300 seats, galleys and lavatories can be very challenging.
Cabin cleaning is always something that doesn’t get the recognition it should get within airline management. It is something that is there and has to be done. The only feedback you get is usually from passengers or sometimes from the crew but otherwise it is something that no one wants to give a second thought to. If there is a passenger complaint, then just give them the standard answer and some compensation and move on. Everyone’s expectations are different. How can you manage everyone’s expectations?
Airline Cabin Cleaning Program
There are usually 3 types of cabin cleaning that makes up an airline cabin cleaning program.
1.) Transit Clean
As discussed above, this is the most time critical. Only touch points on the seat such as the personal TV screens, remotes, cup holders, seat belt buckles and meal tray tables will be disinfected and wiped cleaned. Also, garbage around the seat and inside the seat pocket will be removed. The carpet will be vacuum. Moreover, the lavatory and galley counters will be disinfected and wiped cleaned.
2.) Weekly or Overnight Clean
Some airlines have a more in depth weekly or overnight clean. This will incorporate all the transit clean requirements but may include cleaning of the cabin walls, windows, overhead air vents and overhead luggage bins. The lavatory and the seat area will also be more thoroughly cleaned.
3.) Deep Clean
The deep clean usually coincides with major aircraft maintenance checks where the aircraft will spend a prolonged time in the aircraft hangar. During the deep clean, all the seat covers will be changed. Some airlines will change the cabin carpets at this time as well.
COVID-19
With the pandemic of COVID-19 devastating the airline industry, it is time for airlines to take cabin cleaning seriously for their passengers.
With less flights flying, airlines should now have more ground time available for cleaners to clean the aircraft. However, the challenge will come once flight frequencies start to increase again. At that time, will cabin cleaning become a critical path in aircraft turnaround time?