Cabin Disinfection at Frankfurt Airport (EDDF)

What changes at Frankfurt Airport?

Frankfurt sits at 364 feet, twelve kilometres south-west of the city centre, with four runways—three at 4 000 metres and one at 2 800—and a court-imposed night-flight ban from 23:00 to 05:00 local. The General Aviation Terminal occupies Building 514 on the south side, shared by Fraport Executive Aviation, Business Aviation Centre Frankfurt (Kurz Aviation Service), and FAS Frankfurt Aviation Service. Every movement needs a slot; Level 3 coordination means your PPR must go in early, and the handling agent will tell you which stand and GPU you have.

The curfew shapes everything. If your inbound clears customs at 22:30 and departs at 08:00, we have the aircraft from about 23:00 until 04:30—ample time for a full disinfection. If you land at 06:00 and leave at noon, the window tightens and the handler will want confirmation that we are on the apron with an airside escort before they release the aircraft to us. Ramp discipline is tight: Fraport Ground Services run the GAT from 06:00 to 22:00, but FBO operations continue around the clock for slot-holders.

Winter here is wet rather than arctic, so the cabin rarely suffers the desiccation you see at high-altitude fields, but central-European charter seasons—trade fairs, motor shows, banking weeks—mean back-to-back legs with mixed passenger groups. That drives the call for documented sanitisation.

Which surfaces do you disinfect inside the cabin?

We treat every surface a hand, face or respiratory droplet can reach. Seats receive attention along armrests, headrests, recline controls and tray-table latches; galley counters, drawer handles, coffee-maker panels and refrigerator seals are wiped with aviation-grade quaternary-ammonium or hydrogen-peroxide solutions that leave no residue on OEM cabin materials. Lavatory door handles, faucet levers, flush buttons and mirror surrounds are disinfected, then buffed dry so no streaks remain.

Air vents and gaspers—the small eyeball nozzles passengers twist—collect skin oils and are often overlooked; we remove the grilles where the mount allows, wipe the visible ductwork, and treat the nozzle itself. Light switches, window-shade toggles, door latches and cockpit-entry keypads also go on the list. If the aircraft carries a divan or a conference group with swivel chairs, we treat the pivot mechanisms and underside releases. The idea is that the next charter steps aboard to a cabin that smells neutral and feels clean under the fingertips.

How do you handle odours and smoke residue?

Odour molecules lodge in soft furnishings, carpets and the air-conditioning plenum, so a surface wipe alone will not clear them. We start by identifying the source—galley spillage, lavatory overflow, someone's last cigar—then apply an enzymatic neutraliser that breaks down organic compounds rather than masking them with fragrance. For smoke, we fog the cabin with a hydroxyl generator or ozone unit, depending on what the OEM allows; the gas oxidises nicotine and tar particles in the upholstery and along the air ducts.

After fogging we ventilate the cabin on GPU or APU for twenty minutes, check that no chemical odour lingers, and run a final wipe of the air vents. If the smell was deep-set—a medical evacuation with biological fluids, for example—we note it in the tech log so the flight department knows a second treatment or a steam extraction may be needed at the home base. Most odour complaints disappear with one cycle; persistent cases point to a blocked drain mast or a galley seal that needs engineering attention.

What does the handler expect when we book Cabin Disinfection at Frankfurt?

Handling agents at the GAT want three things: advance notice, a named contact on the crew, and confirmation that the third-party contractor holds a valid airside pass and insurance. We send our escort details and vehicle registration to the FBO in the PPR email so the handler can add us to the ramp-access list. On the day, we check in at the GAT security desk, collect the escort if the handler provides one, and walk or drive airside to the stand.

The handler will ask how long we need; we say ninety minutes for a super-midsize, two hours for an ultra-long-range cabin with a private stateroom. If you are tight on the slot and need us to pause so the engineer can run an APU test or the catering truck can restock, tell us in advance. We carry our own cleaning carts, disinfectants and fogging equipment, so we do not pull supplies from the FBO stock. Once the cabin is finished we photograph the certificate, send it to the chief pilot or dispatcher, and leave the original on the galley counter. The handler signs us out, the aircraft is released, and your slot protection remains intact.

When should an operator request cabin disinfection?

Charter companies book it after every revenue leg, especially when the passenger manifest changes—a football squad outbound, a corporate board inbound. Medical-evacuation and repatriation flights trigger an automatic disinfection because the cabin may have been exposed to pathogens; the certificate then travels with the aircraft and satisfies the next country's health authority if they ask. Long-haul flights accumulate skin oils, food particles and lavatory use over eight or ten hours, so a disinfection at the turnaround point resets the cabin before the return sector.

Flight departments with owner-flown aircraft tend to request the service monthly or after a sequence of guest flights. If the aircraft has been cold-soaked on the ramp overnight and the air-conditioning was off, condensation can encourage mould in the door seals and carpet edges; a disinfection catches that early. Some operators write it into their SMS as a fixed interval—every fifty hours, every ten legs—so the cabin never drifts into a condition that needs a deep clean. The treatment is quick enough to fit between a morning arrival and an afternoon departure, provided the slot and the handler's schedule align.

Do you provide documentation after the treatment?

Yes. We issue a certificate that lists the aircraft registration, the date and time of treatment, the disinfectants used—trade name and active ingredient—and the areas covered. The document carries our company stamp and the signature of the technician who performed the work. A photograph of the cabin post-treatment accompanies the certificate so the flight department has a visual record; some operators file these images in their maintenance tracking system alongside oil-analysis reports and APU inspections.

If your company needs the certificate in a particular format—headed paper, a specific wording for an insurance underwriter, translation into another language—tell us when you book and we will prepare it. The certificate is not an airworthiness release, but it does show due diligence if a passenger later raises a cleanliness complaint or if a health authority questions your sanitation procedures during a ramp inspection. We keep a copy in our records for two years, so if the original goes missing we can re-issue it by email within an hour.