Flight attendants reveal the 5 filthiest, ‘rarely cleaned’ areas of an airplane

If you find yourself among the roughly 3 million people who are traveling this time of year, filth and germs could be hiding in plane sight.

Flight attendants recently opened up to Travel + Leisure about the five dirtiest places on an airplane so that passengers can arm themselves with knowledge — and some hand sanitizer.

The overhead bin

What goes up must get dirty, according to flight attendant and travel blogger Josephine Remo. 

She said that overhead bins are “rarely cleaned” and “touched by a lot of people.”

She recommended that people use a cloth or wipe the surface of the overhead compartment before opening it, and that they also clean their hands afterwards. 

Safety instructions

Perhaps the safety instruction card should add a bit about hygiene after reading it. 

“The dirtiest spot on a plane is the safety instruction card in the seat pocket,” Remo said. 

Not only can passengers wipe down the cards and sanitize their hands before reading them, but they can also pay it forward by wiping the card before putting it away.

Tray tables

The tray table is frequently used on airplanes for eating, and as one disgusted flight attendant explained, some parents have the audacity to change their children’s diapers on top of the tray table.

Tray tables do get a wipe down, but it couldn’t hurt to clean one for yourself before eating off of it or resting your head on it for a nap. 

“Passengers generally know airplanes are riddled with [grime], but the [tray tables] go beyond general germs,” flight attendant Sue Fogwell told Travel + Leisure. 

Seat covers 

Every passenger on the plane must sit for several hours at a time. Even though people might get airsick or vomit on board or even have an accident, seat covers don’t always get sanitized.

“The seat covers aren’t always replaced or cleaned,” Fogwell said. 

“Not every gross event is reported, [as] it could create a flight delay,” she added. 

If people want to sit out of resting on a dirty seat, some retailers sell reusable and disposable seat covers. 

Bathroom doors

Not surprisingly, the bathroom is a hotbed of bacteria, and while the insides of the airplane lavatories are cleaned, the door handles are sanitized less often.

“The toilets are regularly cleaned, but the locks and door handles are not,” Remo said.

 “It’s a good idea for passengers to use hand sanitizer after stowing away their luggage, touching anything in the seat pocket in front of them and going to the bathroom,” she added. 

The point at which you decide to go to the bathroom also makes a difference.

“The worst time to use the airplane loo is right before takeoff and at the very end of a flight, especially if it’s long-haul,” an unnamed flight attendant told The Sun. They explained that’s when the bathrooms see their highest volume of usage and bacteria.

It is also a bad idea to use the bathroom after turbulence as passengers might feel sick from the bumpy air.

The best time to go is before food is served. 

The flight attendants shared the dirtiest places on the plane, but another thing people might not have considered is how staffing at certain times of year impacts travel cleanliness. 

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 problems, 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.”

With Post wires.