Cabin Disinfection at Florence Peretola (LIRQ)

Why disinfect the cabin at Florence?

Florence Peretola sits in the charter corridor between northern Europe and the Mediterranean. Aircraft arrive after positioning legs, multi-sector days or long-haul flights carrying passengers who expect a pristine interior. Dust, pollen and humidity settle on touch surfaces; galley spills and lavatory use leave residue; recirculated air carries odour through the ducting. A rinseless exterior wash will not address any of it.

Cabin disinfection resets the environment. We wipe down every armrest, tray table, seat control, door latch and galley handle with an aviation-approved disinfectant that leaves no film. Air vents and gaspers are cleaned, and we treat the cabin atmosphere to neutralise smoke, food or fuel odour. The certificate we hand over documents the work for your tech log, your charter client or your own quality-assurance file.

The service is scheduled around your next departure. If you have a two-hour slot between legs, we start as soon as the last passenger leaves and finish before the next pre-flight. If the aircraft remains overnight, we work during the evening to deliver a ready cabin at first light.

What changes at Florence Peretola?

The airport operates a single runway—05/23, 1,560 metres with displaced thresholds—managed by Toscana Aeroporti, the same authority that runs Pisa. The field is slot-coordinated, so your departure time is fixed and the window for ground services is defined by that slot. We build the disinfection schedule to respect your PPR and keep you on time.

The elevation is 142 feet, which means no performance penalty, but the short runway and displaced thresholds leave little margin for delay. If you are turning around between an inbound charter and an outbound positioning leg, every hour on stand counts. We arrive with all materials pre-staged, work to a checklist that covers the entire cabin in sequence, and clear the aircraft as soon as the final vent is wiped and the odour treatment has circulated.

Four handling agents operate at the field: Signature Aviation, Sky Services, AviaVIP and Toscana Aeroporti Handling. We coordinate with whichever agent holds your slot to arrange airside access, GPU if the APU is shut down, and lavatory service before we begin. The city centre lies five kilometres to the south-east, close enough that crew or passengers can leave the airport while we work, then return to a disinfected cabin ready for the next leg.

What does the disinfection cover?

We treat the cabin in three passes: touch surfaces, air path and odour. The first pass addresses everything a hand or finger touches during flight—seat controls, armrests, tray tables, window latches, galley drawers, cabinet handles, lavatory taps and flush buttons, cockpit door handle, entry-door latches. Each surface is wiped with a disinfectant that meets aviation interior-material standards and will not damage leather, Alcantara, veneer or soft-touch plastics.

The second pass covers the air path: supply vents, gaspers, return grilles and any accessible ducting around the galley or lavatory. Dust and biofilm accumulate in these areas and feed odour back into the cabin when the packs are running. We remove the buildup without introducing moisture that could migrate into hidden cavities.

The third pass neutralises odour. We apply a vapour treatment that bonds with odour molecules—smoke, food, fuel, de-icing fluid, pet dander—and leaves the cabin smelling neutral. The treatment does not mask; it eliminates. If the aircraft has carried medical passengers or if someone smoked in the lavatory despite placards, this step restores the environment. A certificate listing every task and the products used is handed to the captain or handler before you depart.

How does timing work between legs?

Most turnarounds at Florence are built around a two- to four-hour window: inbound charter lands, passengers deplane, aircraft is refuelled and serviced, outbound charter boards. Cabin disinfection takes one to two hours depending on cabin size and configuration, so it fits comfortably inside that window if we start as soon as the door opens.

We coordinate with your handler to sequence the work. If you need fuel, we wait until the truck has cleared and the GPU is connected. If catering is being loaded, we work aft-to-forward or forward-to-aft to stay out of the galley until the catering crew finishes. If the aircraft is cold-soaked and the cabin temperature is below ten degrees, we ask the handler to run the APU or GPU heating for twenty minutes before we begin, because disinfectant efficacy drops in very cold air.

For overnight stops, we work in the evening after the final inbound leg. The cabin is disinfected, the certificate is left with the handler or in the cockpit, and the aircraft is ready for a first-light departure without any additional stand time in the morning. If you operate a regular shuttle or a fleet programme through Florence, we can schedule recurring disinfection—after every charter leg, weekly, or on a custom interval—and invoice monthly.

What about recurring work at Florence?

Charter operators and fractional fleets that route through Florence regularly benefit from a standing disinfection schedule. Instead of calling for service before each arrival, you nominate a trigger—after every passenger leg, after every third sector, every Monday morning—and we execute automatically. The handler alerts us when your aircraft is inbound, we arrive at the agreed time, complete the work and file the certificate.

Recurring work reduces your administrative load and ensures consistency. The same technician team learns your cabin layout, knows which materials are in your galley and lavatory, and completes the job faster because they are not discovering the aircraft for the first time. Invoicing is monthly, itemised by tail number and date, and you receive a summary report showing every disinfection event and any remarks—tight turnaround, odour noted, extra attention to galley—so your flight-department manager has full visibility.

If your schedule changes, we adapt. A positioning leg is added, a charter cancels, a medical flight appears with two hours' notice—we respond the same day if the airport is open and a handler can escort us airside. The short runway and slot coordination at Florence mean that delays cascade quickly; having a disinfection provider who understands that rhythm keeps your operation on the timeline you filed.

Do you provide documentation?

Every disinfection concludes with a certificate that lists the aircraft registration, the date and time of service, the areas treated, the disinfectant products used and the name of the technician who performed the work. The certificate is printed on site and handed to the captain, left in the cockpit or given to your handler for forwarding. A digital copy is emailed to the address you nominate—flight department, charter ops, quality assurance—within one hour of completion.

The certificate satisfies the documentation requirements of most charter clients, medical-transport regulators and fleet quality-management systems. If your operation requires a specific form or additional detail—lot numbers for the disinfectant, a photograph of the cabin post-treatment, a signature from the handler—we accommodate that. Photo reports are available on request and show the cabin before and after, the products applied and the certificate in place.

For recurring programmes, we maintain a log of every disinfection event tied to your tail number. At the end of each quarter or year, you receive a summary document listing every service date, location and any remarks. That record supports your SMS audit trail and gives your chief pilot or charter-ops manager a single reference for all cabin-hygiene activity across the fleet.