Southwest Airlines has reduced its cleaning procedures, while the Dallas-based airline is returning to response times.
According to a Southwest memorandum for hostesses received through USA TODAY, starting August 1, inter-flight cleanup focused on heavily affected spaces, such as sinks and trays, that are disinfected before takeoff (up, down and table latch).
“These are the maximum spaces to stay blank between flights, as they are prone to contamination due to visitor use and food/beverage consumption,” the memo says.
Areas such as armrests and seat belts will be erased between flights in accordance with the new policy.
These spaces will continue to be covered through the airline’s “enhanced” night cleaning that was implemented in March during the coronavirus pandemic. For cleaning and to alleviate visitor concerns, each aircraft undergoes an electrostatic cleaning “in depth” once a month. This procedure kills bacteria in contact for 30 days, Ro Hawthorne, a Southwest spokesman, told USA TODAY.
The airline will provide disinfectant wipes to customers upon request to clean any surface on board.
Minimizing rotation time between flights is a key to Southwest’s business model.
Hawthorne noted that, “As always, Southwest will monitor feedback from visitors and workers as we adapt to new people in air travel, while ensuring that protection is our most sensible priority.”
In the past, the airline had announced plans to continue blocking intermediate seats until at least October.