Aereos Interior Solutions is launching what it says are the first built-in antimicrobial high-touch parts for aircraft cabins and lavatories. The products aim to bridge the “missing link” between the processes of cleaning aircraft surfaces prior to boarding and using HEPA air filters to purify the air.

“Our interior parts are the first line of defense to protect passengers and crew during their flight by providing a layer of protection not available to the market now,” says David Baker, partner at Aereos. “This antimicrobial layering technology is built-in throughout our high-touch cabin and lavatory antimicrobial parts such as tray tables and toilet seats. It only makes sense for airlines to replace older parts with ones that add layers of protection at no incremental cost (and significantly less than OEMs).”

Aereos has identified approximately 40 high-touch parts it plans to produce, including toilet seats and shrouds, countertops, tray tables, window shades and overhead bin latches. An antimicrobial additive that disrupts growth of microbes at the cellular level is included in the plastics used to form the parts.  Baker notes that Aereos could even incorporate it into synthetic leathers used for seats. “There’s almost no part of the cabin or interior of the aircraft that we can’t either include the antimicrobial into or provide some sort of a coating for a product,” he says.

The antimicrobial additives are retained for the lifetime of parts and Aereos says they can continue working for up to 15 years. Baker says these additives are being offered at no incremental cost to customers buying parts from Aereos, so the price point is substantially less than buying replacement parts from OEMs. Aereos’ core customers typically fly narrowbodies and widebodies, but Baker says the parts can be produced for any type of aircraft flying with plastic interior parts.

According to Aereos, the antimicrobial parts can be produced from concept to delivery in as few as eight weeks and it can scale up quickly to meet customer requirements. It says it can also redesign products to improve function and reliability.

“The genesis was really to help our airline customers bring passengers back, to help them feel comfortable again about flying and, for us, the way we think about it is, ‘What better way to help our customers than to help create a clean environment within the aircraft?’” says Baker.

In addition to the antimicrobial parts, Aereos says it will be introducing a line of antimicrobial coating solutions to prevent microbes from growing on high-touch surfaces such as galley cart handles and arm caps.