Lufthansa is trying to see if it can get away with cleaning short haul aircraft less between flights, and that might even include not cleaning the lavatories… but only in economy!
Lufthansa’s reduced aircraft cabin cleaning trial
aeroTELEGRAPH reports on a trial that Lufthansa is running between March 16 and March 29, 2026, on roughly 20 short haul routes from various European outstations. The idea is that Lufthansa is attempting to examine the “commercial and operational potential” of a “light cleaning” concept between flights.
Interestingly this trial is specific to economy, and not business class, even though business class on these flights just consists of economy seats with blocked middle seats. I guess Lufthansa is seeing if it can market “clean cabin” as a new feature of flying business class? 😉
With this trial, cleaning economy cabins will only happen “as needed.” For example, lavatories and seat back pockets will only be emptied “upon request,” and instead of a complete cleaning, only spot cleaning checks will be carried out. That means flight attendants will check if cleaning is necessary, and will then request it, if needed.
This trial is currently only for outstations, so it doesn’t include flights out of Frankfurt (FRA) and Munich (MUC), but instead, flights in the other direction. The trial also doesn’t apply to planes that have overnights, where they’ll still undergo a cleaning. Lufthansa is trying to examine whether time and costs can be saved by reducing cleaning on short haul flights, without it impacting passenger satisfaction levels.
As part of this trial, the airline is also trying to determine if it can use fewer cleaners, like reducing staffing at outstations from four people to two people. However, those two people would have more time to clean the aircraft (which doesn’t seem great in terms of efficiency for turn times?).
Lufthansa is already apparently making changes by the day based on this cleaning concept. For example, initially the trial included no longer crossing seat belts between flights, but negative feedback from crews caused the airline to already backtrack on that change.
Let’s see if anything comes of this cost saving trial
Of course no passenger will be happy to see an airline reduce cabin cleaning, since aircraft cabins aren’t exactly clean even when full protocols are put in place. For airlines, it’s all about trying to manage costs in ways that passengers won’t notice.
Lufthansa operates some pretty short flights, and has very little service in economy, aside from a bottle of water and the buy on board selection (which not many people buy from on short flights). So there’s not actually that much to clean, and Lufthansa’s seat back pockets are also netted, so it’s easy to spot if there’s any trash in them.
So when it comes to cutting corners with cleaning, I’d hardly consider this to be the most egregious example we’ve seen. Perhaps what bothers me most is bathrooms not even consistently being cleaned between flights, since they’re the grossest part of an aircraft, and it’s not very pleasant to have just boarded a flight, only to find the bathroom already isn’t clean.
It’ll be interesting to see what Lufthansa learns from this trial, and how it adjusts its cleaning protocols in the long run, if at all.
Bottom line
Lufthansa is trying to see if it can get away with reduced cabin cleaning between flights. The airline is currently running a trial on a small number of routes, whereby the cabin isn’t cleaned as thoroughly during “turns” at outstations.
It’s not that the planes aren’t being cleaned at all. Instead, the idea is that business class still gets cleaned, while cleaning in economy is more “on demand,” based on requests by the crew. Airlines are always looking for ways to save on costs (it’s a low margin industry), so let’s see what comes of this trial.
What do you make of Lufthansa’s reduced cabin cleaning trial?
