Syracuse Hancock International Airport
Syracuse Hancock International Airport set out to digitize its entire cleaning operation, and got back four things it did not have before: its peak hour, its busiest day, how long a restroom actually takes to clean, and its highest-used consumable.
Paper out. Sensor data, feedback and inspections in.
An airport’s operations are proactive and reactive on the same day. Knowing where to send custodial resources at a moment’s notice — from sensors and from passenger feedback — is what makes the difference between a targeted cleaning operation and a busy one.
Rather than continue with a scheduled, paper-based cleaning operation, Syracuse Hancock International Airport chose to run its cleaning on data. The program began in July 2022.
The goal was specific: understand when to clean, how to allocate cleaning resources, and how usage and performance trend over time, using sensor data, feedback and inspections carried out through the mobile app.
The Challenge
A paper-based, schedule-driven cleaning operation can be run well, and Syracuse was running one. What it cannot do is tell you anything. Paper records what happened; it does not surface when the terminal is actually busy, how long the work really takes, or which locations are absorbing the most effort.
Syracuse wanted to close that gap across the whole operation rather than one restroom at a time — and to know when to clean, not just to record that cleaning had happened.
The Solution
TRAX deployed Clean+Inspect and SmartRestroom across all twenty locations at the airport. The system captures when custodians arrived, the duration of cleaning tasks per employee, what inventory is used, and how frequently each restroom is cleaned.
Throughput counters and TRAX touchless feedback feed predictive cleaning reports, so the cleaning triggers at each location are set from measured demand rather than from a standing assumption. Clean+Inspect, the TRAX cleaning inspection app, is used daily to confirm cleaning work and run quality control audits on what was completed.
The analysis is where the operation changed. The TRAX Client Success team worked with the Syracuse Operations team on the data to identify trends, KPIs and quality assurance metrics — which is how a deployment becomes a decision rather than a dashboard.
What TRAX deployed
- Clean+Inspect and SmartRestroom across all twenty locations at the airport
- Capture of custodian arrival times and cleaning duration per employee
- Inventory usage tracking and cleaning frequency by restroom
- Throughput counters and TRAX touchless feedback feeding predictive cleaning reports
- Cleaning triggers set per location from measured demand
- Daily use of the Clean+Inspect app to confirm work and run quality control audits
- Joint analysis by the TRAX Client Success team and the Syracuse Operations team on trends, KPIs and quality assurance metrics
The Benefits
- Cleaning schedules adjusted against real-time restroom usage rather than a fixed rotation
- Higher-trafficked locations targeted with more frequent cleaning, with passenger feedback monitored alongside
- A measured peak hour — 11am — to schedule against
- A known busiest day, Friday, so staffing follows passenger flow
- A real average cleaning time of 10 minutes per restroom, which makes labor planning arithmetic rather than estimation
- Consumable usage ranked, with paper towels the highest-used product
- Quality control at scale, with over 8,000 inspections completed through the mobile app
The Syracuse Operations team adjusted cleaning schedules against real-time restroom usage in the TRAX platform, targeting higher-trafficked locations with more frequent cleanings and monitoring passenger feedback alongside — which moved the janitorial operation from reactive to proactive. The KPIs identified 11am as the peak time for foot traffic and Friday as the consistently busiest day for passenger flow, so staffing could follow. Cleaning takes an average of 10 minutes per restroom, and paper towels are the highest-used product. Since installation, over 8,000 inspections have been completed through the mobile app.
“Syracuse International Airport values its partnership with TRAX Analytics, as it has advanced our reporting processes and streamlined our custodial services significantly. This application exceeds our expectations, and we’re now able to leave paper behind to track all custodian activity, passenger traffic/feedback, and inspection scores in one easy-to-use system. The reports TRAX gives us access to take the leg work out of administrative tasks and identify where we can improve margins and save money.”
Dennis Mathers
Director of Terminal/Landside Operations, Syracuse Hancock International Airport
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Leave the paper behind
See how TRAX turns a scheduled cleaning operation into one that responds to measured passenger demand.