Grandma’s feather duster won’t fly with this job. But Granny would approve of the old-fashioned cleaning that aircraft get–it’s hands-on with plenty of TLC.
Airlines have determined that one reason discriminating travelers return is a favorable first impression, and for many that translates to one word: clean. Passengers want to ride in an aircraft that has passed the white-glove treatment with flying colors.
The scrubbing and buffing take place inside and out. According to Ray Shull, American Airlines’ zone manager at O’Hare International Airport, American has 13 flights to Europe each day out of O’Hare. “We’ll put seven or eight guys on each of those planes every day for about an hour and they really give it a once-over. With 200 seats on each plane, there’s a lot of territory to cover.”
Vacuums mounted on their backs, some of the cleaning crew sweep through the aircraft while others concentrate on the galley and lavatories.
For domestic flights, the on-board cleaning never ends, says Dante Marzetta, director of aircraft appearance for Continental Airlines in Houston. “When a plane lands, it receives what is known in the industry as a `turn clean,’ ” he said, a quick fix, because a flight crew and passengers usually are waiting to board and fly to the next destination. “The turn clean takes about 20 minutes or less and includes fixing seat belts, washing trays, removing garbage. It’s a tidying to make the plane presentable.”
Southwest Airlines is usually on the ground at Chicago’s Midway Airport for only 20 minutes, according to Dallas-based spokeswoman Kristie Kerr, who described the 10-minute cleanup as “orchestrated teamwork.”
That means flight attendants and even pilots double as the cleaning crew. “Any of our employees who happen to be traveling will help, too,” she said. “The flight crew collects the trash in-flight, so when we land it’s ready to be taken off the aircraft. Then the seat belts are crossed and the carpet is swept with a manual-type carpet sweeper.” Because peanuts are the only entree served on this budget carrier, the turn clean is fairly simple.
Cleaning crews find an odd assortment of things left by passengers. A few forget tickets, briefcases, luggage; seat-pocket inspections reveal anything from banana peels to an occasional dirty diaper and once a passenger on a Continental flight left a dog onboard. “It was an accident, not abandonment,” Marzetta said with a chuckle.
When an aircraft is parked at an airport overnight it receives a more intensive “remain overnight,” or RON, cleaning. “An RON is like getting the house ready for a party,” said Marzetta. “Two to four people spend a couple of hours wiping everything down, vacuuming, cleaning the carpet if necessary. The purpose is to start off in the morning in pristine condition.”
The equivalent of spring cleaning, which takes place monthly, is a Grandma-pleaser. “It’s called an MEC, or major effort clean,” said Marzetta. “There’s generally a team of four, and it takes them four to six hours. They take all the ovens out and scrub them, just like at home. They go in behind the ovens and clean the tracks where food particles might spill. An aircraft with food service is like a restaurant.
“We clean or replace carpeting and seat cushions. We drop panels, clean inside the bins, clean above in the lights, wash the walls. In the lavatories, we scrub in and under the sinks. The doorways are washed. We take down the curtains and clean them, and we have a specially trained crew that cleans the cockpit because of all the sensitive equipment in there.” Finally, conditioned air is pumped into the aircraft to give it a fresh feel.
Besides ensuring that each aircraft is antiseptically clean, airlines have to prevent critters from nesting. So every 90 days an aircraft is fumigated, said Marzetta. “Insects find their way onto planes in many ways–with luggage, on people, in food service carts or just up the jetways. They are attracted to the food and water, just like they might be in a house.”
For the most part, spraying for insects or other pests is a preventive measure. Fred Payne, manager of Aircraft Maintenance for Continental at Houston Intercontinental Airport, said he has known of only one mouse found on a plane in his 15 years with the airline.
“We have to move swiftly should that occur, because a rodent could wreck havoc with the interior of an aircraft when you think about the electronics aboard,” said Marzetta.
Not content with a clean interior, airline personnel also take pride in spiffing up the belly, wings, tail, crown and nose of their “birds.” And it’s more than just for cosmetic reasons, said Marzetta.
“A cleaner surface of an aircraft is more fuel-efficient flying through the air,” Marzetta added. “A dirty airplane takes more power to push the plane through because of resistance on the skin.”
There’s little automation in cleaning an airplane. It’s a roll-up-the-sleeves-and-get-scrubbing operation. A small crew spends at least 30 minutes washing and rinsing an aircraft–and that’s not counting jumbo jets such as the DC-10s or 747s. Using a soapy solution in a small tanker truck, the team scrubs with long-handled brushes from the ground and from a hydraulic lift; then each section is hosed down with water. The work is done outdoors, allowing for mother nature to give it a fresh-air drying.
“The entire aircraft is washed on the outside every 45 days or more often as needed,” said Marzetta. “The tail alone is washed every 15 days because that’s where grime builds up from the jet engines, especially on the DC-9s, MD-80s and 727s, where the engines are mounted near the tail section.”
When the risk of freezing prohibits the use of water, crews use a polish. “Oxidation on the paint dulls the aircraft exterior, so we polish to bring back the shine.” It’s a painstakingly long procedure, because the polish must be applied and wiped off a small section at a time.
Harsh chemicals are prohibited by Environmental Protection Agency and Federal Aviation Administration guidelines. Even so, eventually the aircraft’s paint job begins to chip and peel. And that’s when Payne and his crew move in with their paint brushes.
Payne supervises eight who touch up the fleet daily.
When even a polish and touchup won’t improve that appearance, Payne schedules a complete re-painting. “That usually happens about every four years,” he said, adding that repainting a plane takes about nine days and costs about $25,000.
American’s Shull, speaking from O’Hare International Airport, said their aircraft are washed with special cleaning compounds at their Tulsa and Ft. Worth hubs. He noted that American doesn’t paint its aircraft. “Ours are bare aluminum skin, which reduces weight and air friction and is a savings on fuel cost,” he said.
And what about that white-glove treatment? Well, the auditors do it, according to Marzetta. Not the kind who crunch numbers, but the ones who carry clipboards and look behind, under, inside and above every nook and cranny. If they don’t approve, a report is filed and fed into a database and sent out to the people responsible for fixing problems.
Continental recently initiated an aircraft appearance hot line for employees and an 800 number for passengers’ comments. Payne said he receives a couple of dozen to more than a hundred reports each day. They might be about cleaning gaffs or interior repairs needed.
“One thing we’re all happy about in the industry,” said Marzetta, “is not having to worry about the effects of smoke on the aircraft’s filter system or cleaning ashtrays on domestic flights.” But there’s still garbage in those once cigarette-filled containers, and often that means a wad of gum. Some things never change.
