Once on the ramp, a team of three or four workers on the plane is working on a tight time frame: seven minutes to clean the plane.
A team of three or four “aircraft appearance agents” cleans the entire plane before the next round of passengers comes on.
“We just go and pick up the trash real quick,” said Robert Stringer, an appearance agent. “The East Coast flights, they’re more trashed (because) they are longer flights.”
There are 114 airplane seats in the Airbus 318 and 132 seats in the Airbus 319 – the two aircraft types Frontier flies. There are napkins and wrappers stuffed into seat-back pockets, crumbs scattered on the floor and maybe a spill or two.
The tools of the trade are stand-up and hand-held vacuums, trash bags and a backup supply of replacement seat cushions for ones that are soiled.
At the same time, catering workers are loading the plane with drinks and food. Everything is happening at once.
It may take longer for Frontier to supply a plane than Southwest, for example, because Southwest provides only drinks as well as peanuts, pretzels or packaged snacks in-flight.
Frontier may offer drinks, sandwich wraps, doughnuts and chips – all depending on the length and time of the flight.
