AeroSMART – Investigation of the Airplane Cabin Microbiome and the Evaluation of Novel Antimicrobial Materials for Aircraft Cabin Interiors

Abstract

In an interconnected world, public transport has become essential. However, the closed space with high passenger density poses an increased risk of the rapid spread of microbes during flights. One option to combat the transmission risk of microbes is to incorporate antimicrobial materials into frequently touched surfaces in the flight cabin. Novel antimicrobial materials, made of composite materials with antimicrobial nanoparticles such as copper, chitosan and carbon black, were investigated on their antimicrobial efficacy against multiple organisms, including Phi 6, E. coli, SARS-CoV-2 and Monkeypox virus. GFF-14, a composite material with micro-copper flakes exerted the highest antimicrobial efficiency, varying between the tested organisms. Another aim of the study was to investigate the airplane microbiome by sampling campaigns of research and passenger airplanes and subsequent 16S rRNA analysis. It was observed, that the bacterial airplane cabin microbiome was made up mainly of skin and mouth bacteria. Lastly, the novel antimicrobial materials were tested in-flight by the use of a specific hardware ("touch arrays"), to develop an understanding of the degree of microbial contamination of different surfaces after a specific number of touching events. It was observed, that already <200 touching events lead to a highly variable contamination of all surfaces.