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FACILITIES  
November | December 2026      AirportImprovement.com
LAS | SLC
is partnering with SoftBank Robotics to deploy its autonomous 
units.  
Williams notes that newer cleaning contracts are more likely to 
include at least one or two autonomous units, while some legacy 
clients have been slower to adopt the technology. 
Beyond performing the physical work, the machines create an 
objective record of where they went and what they completed. 
If chairs, passengers or other obstructions prevent a robot from 
reaching part of its mapped area, the report shows it— a feature 
airports appreciate and monitor, notes Williams. 
Autonomous equipment also facilitates daytime cleaning, which 
benefits airports that are busy all day long. A robotic vacuum can 
work around seated passengers, luggage and foot traffic without 
its cord stretching across a busy holdroom, he explains. 
That said, Flagship also deploys human workers. An employee 
typically picks up cups, newspapers, water bottles and larger 
debris before launching the vacuum, and then monitors the space 
while the machine works.
The visibility of autonomous equipment can change the public 
perception of an airport, Williams reasons. If a passenger walks 
through a holdroom and sees an autonomous vacuum picking up 
popcorn, then encounters a messy gate area farther down the 
concourse, that can improve public perception, he reasons. 
The technology is also somewhat of a novelty. “Kids love our 
units; they love the vacuums,” Williams says. “Passengers stop all 
the time to take pictures of them.”
Cleaning robots still have to make operational and financial 
sense—for Flagship and in-house facility maintenance 
departments. Beyond equipment cost, considerations include 
storage, charging, battery life and connectivity.
Getting the Setup Right
At LAS, Kley spent a full year comparing equipment and 
manufacturers before settling on units that best met the airport’s 
needs. He encourages other airport personnel to attend the ISSA 
(International Sanitary Supply Association) Show North America, 
talk with manufacturers and, most importantly, demo equipment in 
their own terminal environments. 
“You need to define the goals of what you’re looking for every 
night,” Kley advises. “Before you just invest in a company and say, 
‘Yeah, I’m going with this one because they sold the dream,’ you 
need to know if it will allow you to actually live out that dream.”
Mapping is one of the most important parts of deployment 
and testing, he adds. Machines need accurate routes, zones 
and operational boundaries. Teams also need to test speed, 
water flow, pads and cleaning performance on different flooring 
surfaces.
Employee acceptance matters, too. When Kley arrived at the 
Aviation Department, an earlier autonomous program had not 
been embraced because the machines were not cleaning the 
expected square footage. 
Frontline employees often spot problems first—a pad that 
doesn’t suit a particular floor, a route that creates an issue, or 
needed adjustments to water flow and speed, for instance.
“You’ve got to listen to your team,” Kley emphasizes. “Make 
sure you get their buy-in because they’re the ones running these 
machines.”
After LAS mapped the machine routes and put the equipment 
into operation, Kley says the program needed about three months 
to find its rhythm. The airport began its current program last fall 
and now operates 12 units daily, including 10 floor scrubbers. 
(See Page 22 for list of various models.) 
The machines have even become part of the team, and are 
highlighted during Bring Your Child to Work Day. The airport plans 
to let the kids name one piece of equipment each year, and then 
display that name on the machine. The inaugural choice was “Wally.” 
That team strategy is intentional.
“I’m not in the business of having AI replace or change our 
employee counts by any stretch of the imagination,” Kley stresses. 
“Each machine is a partner working alongside our team.”
Cleaning on Demand
The second phase of autonomous cleaning moves beyond the 
machines to provide a clearer picture of conditions throughout the 
terminal. That’s where sensor and data platforms come in. 
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