What's on your flight?

How often are airplanes cleaned?

By Laura Flippin, Travel Enthusiast

With diseases like Ebola spreading, it is important that these germs are not

transferred though airplanes that are not sufficiently cleaned

Who is in charge?

• Federal Aviation Administration?

• Occupational Safety and Health Administration?

• FAA?

• FDA?

No

Who IS in charge?

• The Airlines themselves

• World Health Organization (WHO) has a say also

There have been new adjustments in protocol

when flying in or out of hot spot zones like western

Africa, recently. !

This has been recommended by WHO and

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Where is the contamination?

• Tray tables

• Back seat pockets

• People in two rows around you on the flight

• Pillows

• Blankets

Delta• Wipes down first-class tray tables and windows in

between flights but sometimes Coach tables and windows don’t get cleaned until overnight

• Bathrooms and galleys get cleaned overnight or after international flights

• Uses disinfectant and spent a year testing which they believe to be best (but won’t say which it is)

• Gets a deep cleaning (washing of seat cushions, cleaning carpets, floors, bathrooms, bins, tray tables) every 90-100 days

United Airlines• Wipes down first-class tray tables and windows in between flights but

sometimes Coach tables and windows don’t get cleaned until overnight

• Bathrooms and galleys get cleaned overnight or after international flights

• Uses general-purpose cleaners- believes these cleaners are better than disinfectants in seating areas

• On quick turns, workers remove visible trash

• On standard turns, cleaning crews clean out seat-back pockets

• The plane will delay and clean if there is a bigger problem (like vomit)

• Gets a deep cleaning every 35-55 days

American

• Bathrooms and galleys get cleaned overnight or after international flights

• Uses disinfectant to clean

• Gets a deep cleaning every 30 days

Boeing 777-300• A crew of up to 12 workers spend 40 minutes cleaning

the plane during a typical stopover in Houston

• Floors are vacuumed

• Sheets are changed in crew rest areas

• Toilets, waste bins, galley floors and wine chillers are washed

• Pillows, headrest covers and blankets are changed

–Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant

“We see in data that customers enjoy a flight more when the airplane is clean”

Enjoy your flight!

By Laura Flippin, who has traveled to over 30 countries.

!Read more: http://

www.tripadvisor.com/members/LauraFlippin

!and !

http://lauraflippin.com