Airlines, hotels to implement 'electrostatic spraying' vs. coronavirus

Jun 01, 2023

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Delta is using electrostatic sprays to disinfect its aircraft.

A Southwest employee sprays down passenger seats.

Hilton will put seals on the doors of rooms newly cleaned.

A Marriott guest room gets an electrostatic spray.

The travel industry is taking a gun to the coronavirus. But in this case, the gun is a large handheld device that shoots a spray of potent disinfectant onto almost everything that an airline or hotel customer might touch.

It's one of several ways that travel suppliers are ramping up their cleaning procedures in the coronavirus era, all of them designed to make surfaces safer and to reassure reluctant travelers that they won't be stepping into a petri dish if they decide to take a trip again.

A favored treatment in the new environment is called electrostatic spraying. As explained on Southwest Airlines’ website, "The electrostatic application causes droplets of both the disinfection agent and antimicrobial cleaner to produce a fine mist that wraps around all surfaces and coats in a way that human hands simply can't touch. And according to the manufacturer, the combination of the electrostatic charge plus the cleaners we've chosen for the program create droplets that cling to every surface with a force that's 75 times stronger than the pull of the Earth's gravity!"

Southwest is applying the electrostatic spraying to its aircraft interiors, and said it expects to have all currently active planes treated by early May. "We have more than 100 of these highly specialized units on order," Southwest said, "and as the size of fleet and number of overnighting aircraft climbs back toward pre-pandemic levels, we'll continue evaluating new ways to utilize the technology with the overarching goal of instilling confidence for everyone who steps onboard a Southwest aircraft."

United has also started to use electrostatic spraying to disinfect all inbound international flights as well as mainline aircraft at its hub airports. "In June, all aircraft will have electrostatic spray on every one of our departures, in addition to disinfecting customer touch points and surfaces before every flight," United said. (See United's spray guns clean a jet in the video below)

Delta also uses an electrostatic spray (Delta calls it fogging) for aircraft cabins and has greatly expanded its deployment in recent weeks. In February, the airline was spraying the cabins of international aircraft during their overnight stops in the U.S. But this month, Delta started applying overnight fogging in all of its domestic aircraft as well. "The procedure uses a safe, high-grade EPA-registered disinfectant that is highly effective against many communicable diseases, including coronaviruses," Delta said. "Following the fogging procedure, cleaning crews thoroughly clean cabin surfaces including tray tables, seatback screens, and lavatories."

The electrostatic spray disinfecting process used by major airlines comes from a company called EarthSafe, based in Braintree, Mass. The company said that besides airlines, its products have been "widely adopted by major airports," including Hollywood Burbank and Las Vegas McCarran – and by the Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART).

Custodial staff have increased the cleaning of touch points with a germicidal agent that is outlined in @CDCgov recommendations for cleaning and disinfection. #SFO has deployed battery-operated sprayers and all-surface cleaning equipment for specialized cleaning. #ThankACustodian pic.twitter.com/LlqOKpmvUJ

Overseas, Singapore Air says that it now takes about 2.5 hours to sanitize its largest Airbus A380 double-deckers. First, a team of cleaners removes all blankets which are sent off for high temperature washing, then they fog the entire cabin with disinfectant. After that, the cleaning team "disinfects all sensitive areas, including lavatory surfaces (eg: door handle, basin, toilet bowls) and passenger seating areas (inflight entertainment equipment, tray table, seat rest, soft furnishings on seat, etc.) using wipes infused with disinfectant," according to a statement from the airline.

Airlines for America (A4A), the trade organization for U.S. carriers, has pulled together a summary of the intensified steps all major airlines are taking to keep coronavirus out of their fleets. You can read it here.

(Some travelers have expressed concerns about recirculated air in aircraft cabins, but carriers’ filtering systems have improved significantly in recent years as new aircraft came into their fleets. At United, for instance, "all our mainline aircraft use a high-efficiency (HEPA) filter like those found in hospitals to circulate the air," the company says. That filter can remove "up to 99.7 percent of airborne particles," United noted. And the cabin air isn't all recirculated – it's a mix of recirculated air and fresh air from the outside.)

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In the lodging industry, Marriott has also upgraded its cleaning procedures by turning to electrostatic spray guns. "The sprayers rapidly clean and disinfect entire areas and can be used in a hotel setting to clean and disinfect guest rooms, lobbies, gyms and other public areas," Marriott said. The lodging giant has also started testing ultraviolet light technology for sanitizing guest keys. It's all part of a systemwide initiative Marriott has introduced that also calls for surfaces in guest rooms to be cleaned more often with "hospital-grade disinfectants," and for all rooms to provide disinfecting wipes for guests to use.

Hilton this week rolled out a new systemwide program called Hilton CleanStay, in partnership with the Mayo Clinic and RB, the manufacturer of Lysol. The hotel company said it is "exploring" the use of electrostatic sprayers and ultraviolet light technology and will also "double down" on its Digital Key technology to expand the use of contactless check-in and digital room keys. The project will also include intensified disinfection of "high-touch" areas in guest rooms like TV remotes and light switches, multiple daily cleanings of fitness rooms and so on. When they check in, Hilton guests will start to see a seal on their room door letting them know the room has not been accessed since its last deep-clean. (Sort of reminds us of the old-school seals on hotel toilets stating that they are "sanitized for your protection." Remember those?)

Similarly, Airbnb said it will introduce an "Enhanced Cleaning Initiative" in May that it calls "the first overarching standardized protocol for cleaning and sanitization in the home sharing industry." It will encourage its Airbnb hosts to get instruction in anti-viral cleaning procedures using "disinfectants that are approved by regulatory authorities," and other coronavirus protection measures like using masks and gloves. Guests searching for an Airbnb stay will be able to identify in the reservations system those homes that have adopted the enhanced cleaning procedures. Hosts who don't take part in that initiative will be encouraged to start using a "booking buffer" – i.e. keeping guest accommodations empty for at least 72 hours between stays.

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Chris McGinnis is SFGATE's senior travel correspondent. You can reach him via email or follow him on Twitter or Facebook. Don't miss a shred of important travel news by signing up for his FREE weekly email updates!

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