Complete Detail at Milan Malpensa (LIMC)

What does Complete Detail at Milan Malpensa include?

The service starts with a dry or rinseless exterior wash, followed by clay-bar decontamination to lift bonded contamination—industrial fallout, jet-fuel residue, insect proteins—that washing alone cannot remove. A single-stage machine polish then levels light oxidation and restores gloss to the clearcoat. Brightwork—nacelle lips, leading edges, door frames—is polished separately using metal-specific compounds. Inside, every cabin surface is cleaned to OEM specifications: leather is conditioned, carpets are extracted, galleys and lavatories are degreased, and the flight deck is detailed with no-touch protocols around avionics. The final step is disinfection of all touch surfaces and soft furnishings using hospital-grade, aviation-approved agents.

You receive a photographic report at handover showing paint depth readings, before-and-after comparisons of the cheat line and belly, and close-ups of brightwork and cabin details. The report travels with the aircraft and supports pre-buy documentation or fleet-audit records.

How long does a Complete Detail take at Malpensa, and where does the work happen?

Duration ranges from two days for a super-midsize airframe in good condition to five days for an ultra-long-range jet that has crossed multiple time zones without a deep clean. Most of the work happens inside the Milano Prime hangar, which accommodates executive jets and shields the paint from UV shift during the polish cure and from airborne dust during cabin work. If the hangar is committed to scheduled maintenance, we can complete the exterior on stand under stable weather, but interior disinfection and any brightwork that requires heat lamps stay indoors.

The schedule is built around your next departure slot. If you arrive in the morning, we typically begin that afternoon once the aircraft is cold-soaked and the APU or GPU is stable. For back-to-back positioning legs, we coordinate with your handler to secure the stand or hangar bay for the full window, so the jet is not moved mid-service. Crew rest and hotel transport are arranged through the FBO; we do not hold keys or move the aircraft without a captain's written authority.

What changes at Milan Malpensa that affects the detail schedule?

Malpensa operates twenty-four hours a day with no curfew, so arrivals and departures can be timed around the detail window rather than the other way around. The airport sits at 768 feet elevation, forty-nine kilometres north-west of Milan city centre, and is served by two parallel runways—17L/35R and 17R/35L—each 3,920 metres long. Slot coordination is mandatory, which means your handler submits the slot request as soon as the detail booking is confirmed; last-minute changes trigger re-coordination fees and may push your departure into a less favourable time.

Five handling agents are present at the airport: SEA Prime operates the Milano Prime terminal (opened July 2019), Signature Aviation and Universal Aviation Italy also work from the General Aviation Terminal, and Sky Services and AviaVIP provide ramp support. The GA terminal sits between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 on the same site as the commercial aprons, so airside access is controlled by the same security authority. Our crew holds permanent airside passes; if your captain or a passenger needs to observe the work, the handler arranges an escort. Winter operations—typically December through February—can delay exterior work if freezing fog settles over the apron, but the hangar remains available and heated to fifteen degrees Celsius, enough for polish curing and cabin chemistry.

What do handlers at Malpensa expect from a third-party detailing crew?

Handlers expect us to arrive with our own equipment, to carry third-party liability cover that names the airport authority, and to leave no standing water or chemical residue on the apron. We bring our own generator if GPU power is committed to avionics or environmental systems, and we never disconnect an aircraft system without the captain's countersignature in the tech log. At the end of each day, all hoses, ladders and trestles are removed from the stand; the aircraft is locked and the handler is notified by email with a photograph of the closed main door.

If the detail runs across a crew change, the outgoing captain briefs the incoming captain and forwards our mobile number. For cabin access we use the airstairs provided by the handler or our own folding steps for smaller main doors. Waste from the cabin—vacuum bags, used microfibre cloths, empty product bottles—is bagged and taken off-site; we do not use the airport's general waste bins. Any fuel spill, hydraulic leak or fluid stain discovered during the exterior wash is photographed and reported to the handler and the captain immediately, with GPS coordinates if the aircraft has been repositioned between legs.

Is Complete Detail at Milan Malpensa a one-off service or part of a recurring programme?

Most Complete Details at Malpensa are one-off events: a pre-buy inspection in the hangar, a delivery acceptance before the ferry flight home, or a seasonal refresh after a winter in the Alps or a summer of Mediterranean island-hopping. The service resets the aircraft to a known baseline, which is why the photographic report matters—it becomes the reference for the next wash cycle, whether that happens at your home base or at another field in the network.

A smaller number of clients schedule Complete Detail twice a year as part of a fleet appearance programme, usually timed around the spring and autumn shoulder seasons when the aircraft is between charter blocks or before an owner trip. In that case we store the previous report and the paint-depth map, and we track any areas—belly panels near the APU exhaust, nacelle leading edges, winglet tips—that show faster oxidation or stone chips. The second visit is often a day shorter because the paint is already in maintained condition and only needs a single polish pass rather than a full decontamination cycle.

What should a flight department prepare before bringing an aircraft to Malpensa for Complete Detail?

Confirm the slot request with your handler as soon as the detail booking is locked; Malpensa is slot-coordinated, and late requests can push your departure by six or twelve hours. Let us know if the aircraft has been through deicing within the previous seventy-two hours—Type I or Type IV fluid residue changes the wash chemistry—and if any exterior panels or cabin furnishings are due for inspection or removal during the same visit. If a pre-buy survey or a maintenance check is happening in parallel, share the work order so we can sequence around gear swings, engine runs or avionics tests that would contaminate a freshly polished surface.

For the cabin, remove all loose items—laptops, crew bags, catering inserts, newspapers—and let us know if any seats or sidewalls are placarded. We do not move or clean around unserviceable components. If the aircraft has been operating in a high-pollen or high-dust environment, tell us during the booking call; we may add a pre-wash step or a second clay-bar pass to the exterior sequence. Finally, provide a contact number for the captain or the handling agent's duty manager, and confirm whether you want the photographic report sent by email or handed over in print at the Milano Prime terminal.