In the high-stakes environment of global aviation, cleanliness is no longer just a janitorial task — it is a critical pillar of operational safety and passenger experience. With terminals operating 24/7 and diverse micro-environments ranging from grease-heavy aprons to high-traffic retail zones, traditional manual cleaning can no longer keep pace.
MS Raja, National Sales Manager, IPC-Tennant India, shares with Clean India Journal how a strategic shift toward mechanized, autonomous and eco-friendly technologies is redefining hygiene standards. These standards ensure that modern airports remain safe, sustainable and ready for the next wave of global travellers.
Modern Solutions
Airports never sleep. With thousands of passengers moving through terminals every hour, aircraft operations running round the clock and vast outdoor areas exposed to dust and debris, maintaining hygiene in an airport is far more complex than conventional facility cleaning.
Unlike malls or offices, airports combine multiple environments within one campus — highways, terminals, carpets, washrooms, parking structures and aircraft aprons. Each zone demands a different cleaning approach, different equipment and different productivity levels.
As a result, airport operators today are shifting from manual housekeeping to mechanised, high-productivity and increasingly autonomous cleaning systems that improve hygiene, reduce manpower pressure and deliver consistent results.
The goal is not just cleanliness, but operational safety, faster turnaround, lower lifecycle cost and better passenger experience.
Approach Areas
The first impression of an airport begins long before passengers enter the terminal. Entrance roads, drop-off lanes and peripheral areas are constantly exposed to construction dust, tyre residue and loose debris.
If this dust is not controlled outside, it travels indoors — increasing indoor cleaning loads and affecting air quality.
This is where high-capacity road sweepers such as the Tennant 800 or Citadel Z50 prove effective. Designed for large outdoor spaces, these machines combine powerful sweeping with advanced dust filtration.
With options such as HEPA filtration, even fine particulate matter is captured before it becomes airborne. For airport operators, this means :
- Cleaner air quality
- Reduced dust migration indoors
- Fewer manual sweeping cycles
- Faster coverage of long stretches
The result is both environmental compliance and manpower optimization.
Terminal Areas
Inside the terminal, cleaning challenges multiply. Footfall is continuous, spills are frequent and operations cannot stop. Here, flexibility is critical.
Large concourses and check-in halls are typically maintained using ride-on scrubber dryers that can clean thousands of square metres per hour. For narrower or crowded areas such as security zones or retail clusters, walk-behind machines offer better maneuverability.
Increasingly, airports are also deploying autonomous or robotic scrubbers equipped with navigation software like BrainOS. These machines operate during low-traffic hours and deliver consistent, repeatable cleaning with minimal supervision.
Many systems now incorporate ec-H2O technology, which uses electrically converted water instead of chemicals. This supports :
- Chemical-free cleaning
- Reduced water consumption
- Safer indoor air quality
- Lower operating costs
- Improved sustainability scores
For specialised needs, airports also deploy :
- Carpet extraction machines for lounge and waiting areas
- Steam cleaners for washroom sanitisation
- High-reach vacuum systems to remove dust from ceilings and ducts
- Polishers for maintaining shine on stone or terrazzo floors
- Façade and glass cleaning systems for exterior surfaces
Together, these ensure both visible cleanliness and deeper hygiene compliance.
Car Parking
Parking facilities present a different challenge. Tyre marks, oil spills and dust accumulation create slippery surfaces and poor aesthetics. Manual cleaning is slow and rarely effective for such heavy soils.
Ride-on sweeper-cum-scrubber machines address this by sweeping and scrubbing in a single pass. With optional high-pressure attachments, they can remove stubborn grease and oil deposits efficiently.
For operators, this means :
- Quicker turnaround between cleaning cycles
- Safer walking surfaces
- Reduced labour hours
- Uniform cleaning across multiple levels
Apron Areas
The aircraft apron is perhaps the most critical cleaning zone in an airport. Even small debris can pose serious safety risks.
Foreign Object Debris (FOD), rubber dust, oil spills and grease must be removed quickly and consistently to ensure safe aircraft movement.
Heavy-duty ride-on sweepers and scrubbers are used to:
- Prevent FOD which otherwise can impact engine failure, tire bursts, or other critical system failures, costing billions
- Remove oil and grease
- Maintain skid-resistant surfaces
- Ensure regulatory safety compliance
These same machines are often deployed in baggage handling zones such as Baggage Break-up Areas (BBA) and Baggage Make-up Areas (BMA), where stickers, packaging debris and dust accumulate rapidly.
Strategic Cleaning
Airport cleaning today is no longer about mops and manual sweeping. It is a planned, technology-led operation that directly affects safety, passenger satisfaction and operational efficiency.
By deploying the right equipment in the right zone — from road sweepers outside to autonomous scrubbers inside — airports can achieve:
- Faster coverage
- Lower labour dependency
- Consistent hygiene standards
- Improved sustainability
- Better lifecycle cost control
In high-traffic environments like airports, mechanised and smart cleaning solutions are not a luxury — they are an operational necessity.