Excited to travel this summer? Think again.
Rosa Sanchez, an airplane cabin cleaner for Swissport — which provides cleaning services for several airlines at Logan airport in Boston — told the Guardian that staffing issues, time constraints and equipment shortages are leading to dirty, disgusting planes.
“Sometimes we don’t have enough supplies to clean, so we just use what we have or just use water. Sometimes we don’t have a mop, so we use the blankets left on airplanes by passengers to clean the floors,” Sanchez said. “Sometimes in the bathroom there will be blood on the floor, toilet, walls, and there is feces and urine on top of the toilet. When I don’t have enough gloves, I’ve had to wrap a blanket around my hand to clean the bathroom.”
In 2022, she was poked by a hypodermic needle while cleaning an empty plane. Sanchez continued to work and then paid for medical care with her own means.
“I was rushing to clean because we didn’t have enough people. I reached in and pulled my hand out of a seat pocket and the needle was sticking out of my finger,” Sanchez said, recalling the gruesome incident.
Sanchez and several others have filed complaints against Swissport via the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
In response, the company said it complied with regulations and “the health and safety of all our employees is the highest priority for Swissport”.
According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the 2023 summer air travel influx is expected to surpass pre-pandemic levels. Flying is getting increasingly more uncomfortable.
“The industry shifted, and it’s not what it once was. The airline executives, they look at numbers to see how to get in more seats, reducing the distance between seats – all of these things contribute to why there are problems with passengers in the air,” Gary Peterson with the Transport Workers Union told the Guardian.
Recent travel horror stories include neighbors upchucking their breakfast every 20 minutes and barf bags exploding on lengthy flights.
Instances of unruly passengers also seem to be on the rise.
“There is no comfort in flying any more unless you’re in a first-class or business-class seat,” Peterson said. “If you’re in a coach-class seat, it’s brutal.”