The Pandemic Is Over, Since Airlines No Longer Seem To Clean Their Planes

by Gary Leff

Hotels have worked to keep their Covid protocols in place, because those were about cost savings. While people were concerned about cleanliness during the pandemic, hotels cleaned rooms less (housekeepers wouldn’t enter your room during your stay). Gone are the stickers placed over doors that you’d peel off entering your room for the first time, showing that no one had entered since it was sanitized.

Airlines, though, went to great lengths to keep their planes clean. United Airlines even ran auxiliary power units at the gate to take advantage of HEPA air filtration even before and after engines were running. It was important that planes looked clean as well.

If any pandemic precautions were to last it was my hope that actually keeping planes clean would be at the top of the list. At least clear out seat back pockets of trash from the passenger on the flight before you! But with the return to normal has come cleaning cost cuts, too, and prioritizing turning planes quickly during connections rather than cleaning between flights (and, oddly, not doing a proper cleaning job overnight either).

Historically cleaning was one of the first things to get cut during challenging economic times. Airline ‘deep cleans’ used to happen just every year or year and a half which is just gross.

To be clear it’s the passengers who make the messes and we should all be more mindful, too. But I’m paying for a basic product from an airline that at a minimum includes safe, clean transportation. Even if the airline isn’t the one making the mess, they’re the one selling the product.


Credit: Mary Burd

Covid-19 notwithstanding many of us have come to focus on cleanliness in our lives, and prefer to associate with brands who share the same values.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  3. The airlines weren’t cleaning the planes all that well during the pandemic. Like most things in life, they worked to create a PERCEPTION of something, not a reality.

  5. My trip last week on an AA CRJ, while perfectly comfortable, friendly, and on time, was nasty. AA replied with a generic apology.

  6. Add a proviso to the contract of carriage informing the passenger that an additional cleaning charge will be levied at the airlines discretion when necessary, such as the last picture posted. Have the cleaning crew take photos to establish the reason for the charge. This could put the burden on the credit card issuer when the charge is disputed, but the slob is the issuer’s customer so let it get involved.

  7. People should clean up after themselves while traveling. Do they throw trash around in their homes?

  8. Bad cleaning is and was always bad. What made no sense was the alleged *extra* cleaning 2020-22, because the bug didn’t spread on surfaces anyway. Also, to everyone who wore the useless facemasks, I am still upset. Besides, the bug spread via the eyes anyway, so what was the point even if you tried to avoid the bug?

  9. Here’s a novel idea, how about we, the passengers, take responsibility to not act like pigs when we fly?

  10. @Tony W people wore masks because (1) they were REQUIRED to do so and (2) the point of the mask is to reduce transmission.

    But do go on… evidently the pandemic isn’t over for you

  11. That’s only in the US, which is slowly turning into a third world country (200 people a day still dying of COVID? Really — that’s supposed to be a developed country?) Your headline should have specified that.

    All my recent flights on Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific have been spotless, and have been offered disinfecting towelettes with the meal!

  12. @ResponsibleForMyActions Because the US is full of freedumbs proselytizing the church of “personal choice”, it’s now a personal choice whether to pick up after oneself (requires effort) or act like pigs (easy!).

    Easily predictable, and predicted, outcome of all the (now verified) lying by certain U.S. TV “news” showpeople chasing ratings and by its politicians chasing votes, all at society’s expense.

  13. I am 100% sure that most of those people who complained on Twitter do the same thing. I was in the airline industry in cabin service, and I saw regular messes on the floor and seat back pockets full of trash and occasional diapers laid out on the floor between multiple flights. The traveling public really disgusts me… truly pigs! I know another disgusting trait…that they did, they would leave their bubble gum between pages on our magazines and our evacuation cards, I even witnessed one time a passenger sitting in the opposite row, picking his nose and putting his treasures between the pages of the inflight magazine… Yep Greyhound bus passengers!

  14. Flew Delta connection 2.5 weeks ago (LGA-CLT-LGA) and the planes were clean for both flights (late afternoon out; evening back).

  15. Pardon my cynicism… If a flight attendent deems the cleanliness stadards aren’t met they call for a re-clean…. Dream on.

  16. @Gary– Focus on cleanliness in our lives? You have it wrong. It’s like saying don’t do pushups because it will wear your muscles out. I did not catch covid & have not caught a cold or flu for years because my immune system has been exercised vigorously from days of exploring swamps as a kid. I’m old enough to have been a kid when kids went outside to play. I have germs from all over the world in my gut. Vigor will keep you healthy. Living in a bubble will not.

  17. Profit taking time!
    Time to make money!
    So the company that brought out an interior with smaller, less padded seats, a smaller lavatory (that’s a bathroom for you thought followers), a smaller galley AND didn’t build a real time example to “experience” the new product did what!!??

    I’m shocked, I tell you!
    Shocked!

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