Aviation

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The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted the airline business and resulted in crisis of the entire aviation industry. Governments together with all aviation stakeholders are joining forces to come up with a common plan for a progressive restart of the operations.

According to IATA Medical Advisory Group, cleaning and disinfection procedures in excess of the previous norms, are to form part of the range of measures required in a restart process. It is essential for airlines to demonstrate improved routine cleaning and disinfecting to provide reassurance to passengers and increase their confidence in the reduced risk of the transmission of communicable diseases in aviation processes.

With air travel providing an efficient vector for the spread of viruses around the world, it is imperative that both airports and airlines take the necessary steps to prevent  the transmission of infectious diseases, with pro-active measures involving the disinfection of passenger luggage at point of departure, regular disinfection of ground facilities such as check-in counters, security screening channels, dining areas, and lounges.

Airlines face the challenge of not only inflight disinfecting to maintain hygiene standards, but also short time frame turn around cleaning and disinfection, and overnight layover ‘deep cleaning’. In addition to this there is the need to maintain the interior condition of the many aircraft currently out of service.

Vivotec Solution:

Regularly cleaning and disinfecting the many frequently touched surfaces within airport and aircraft environment significantly reduces infection risk for ground staff, visitors, crew, and passengers.

Vivotec’s range of electrostatic misters and ULV foggers coupled with safe, fast acting disinfectants provide a rapid an effective means of regularly sanitising to provide a clean, odour free environment. with the very fine mist of 40 microns or less reaching every small corner. The fine mist settles on all exposed surfaces and dries in less than 10 minutes.

Misting is a contactless method of disinfecting, greatly reducing the risk of infection for staff, and reduces the time required to disinfect a typical area by approx. 70% compared to traditional spraying and wiping, while also providing much more complete coverage with 65% less disinfectant use, greatly reducing labour and consumable costs.

Equipment Recommendation:

• Due to the low amount of airborne mist, Electrostatic sprayers are the best option for use where regular disinfection is required, and other people may be present during the process. Electrostatic misting also has a 3D wrap around effect giving better all around coverage of objects without having to spray or wipe from multiple different angles to get coverage as with traditional methods
• The VP200ES Cordless Electrostatic hand-held sprayer is perfect for quick, targeted disinfecting of check-in counters, security screening channels, specific lounge areas. And aircraft interiors The VP200 comes in a versatile soft side carry bag for added convenience and damage protection, making it ideal for carrying onboard for inflight and turn around disinfecting. Disinfectant coverage of approx. 260m2 per 1L tank fill.
• For broader scale disinfection of larger areas, gate lounges, full area lounge disinfection, turn-around/layover disinfection of larger aircraft interiors and holds, pre-departure luggage disinfecting etc the VP300ES cordless electrostatic backpack sprayer or the VIVO-MAX / VIVO-DUOMAX cordless and the mains powered VIVO-ECO and VIVO-DIGIPRO ULV foggers are all options to suit varied requirements.
• For airlines with large numbers of aircraft mothballed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, maintaining the interior condition is a challenge, particularly in damp or humid conditions where mould and mildew growth can rapidly take hold, damaging interior surfaces and other components. Vivotec has a number of options for all aircraft categories, including an aircraft specific version of the VIVO-DIGIPRO with its programmable timer allowing the option of timed ‘whole of atmosphere’ interior fogging to neutralise surface and airborne spores, mould, fungi and other bacteria.

Disinfectant Recommendation:

Due to their non-toxic nature, AHP disinfectants are safe for application around people and applicator PPE is not required, unless there is high concentration of airborne mist, in which case respiratory protection is desirable to avoid possible nasal irritation.

Important Note: To avoid surface tarnishing or streaking, AHP disinfectants are not recommended for use on brass, copper, exposed raw steel/cast iron or zinc coatings. See data sheet for full materials compatibility.

• Oxivir AHP disinfectant and wipes are perfect for use in aviation environments, being non-corrosive and compatible with most surfaces and fabrics, and having the lowest EPA toxicity rating available, breaking down into oxygen and water minutes after application, leaving no residue or odour.

Oxivir AHP RTU and  Wipes with their 1 min COVID-19 kill time and ready to use formulation are ideal for in-flight applications such as disinfecting galleys, toilets etc, requiring no messy mixing and with the lab formulated RTU solution having a long shelf life, unused solution can be returned to the bottle for future use.

Oxivir AHP Concentrate is an economical disinfectant option and is approved for commercial aircraft use, meeting Boeing D6-7127 Revision M requirements, and has a 5 min contact time for elimination of COVID-19 and other viruses. Also suitable for ground operations disinfecting.

• Netbiokem DSAM, an aircraft approved Hospital Grade Disinfectant with 2 min COVID-19 kill time, is a ready to use high performance viricidal, fungicidal, bactericidal disinfectant which will not harm or damage fabrics, plastics, metals, rubber or other surfaces, and is ideally suited to microdiffusion atmospheric fogging of entire aircraft interiors during layover cleaning or programmed maintenance mould prevention. It is compliant with the requirements of the Airbus Consumable Materials list, Boeing DG-7127M, and conforms to all European Norms EN Standards.