Wide Body Aircraft Detailing Operations
Scope, timeline, crew sizing, equipment, and pricing for wide body commercial and corporate jet detailing.
CoreOP Operations Desk
Field Operations and Crew Management
Published 2026-04-27, updated 2026-04-28
What counts as wide body
Wide body in detailing context typically means aircraft with twin aisles or significant fuselage diameter. Boeing 737 and 757 are large narrow body. Boeing 767, 777, and 787 are wide body. Airbus A330, A340, A350, and A380 are wide body. On the corporate side, Gulfstream G650 and Global 7500 sit at the upper edge of large cabin without crossing into commercial wide body territory. The scope of detailing changes meaningfully as aircraft size increases. Wide body work is its own category. The classification matters because the operational requirements scale nonlinearly with aircraft size. A wide body aircraft is not just a larger corporate jet. It is a different kind of operation that requires different equipment, different crew structure, different timeline, and different pricing models. Operators stepping up from corporate to wide body work who try to apply corporate workflows to wide body aircraft consistently underestimate the scope and lose money on early jobs.
Scope of work
Wide body detailing scope ranges from a fast turnaround clean before scheduled departure to a full restoration during heavy maintenance visits. Standard scope includes exterior wash, interior cabin clean, lavatory deep clean, galley sanitization, and seat fabric cleaning. Restoration scope adds paint correction, ceramic coating, leather refurbishment, and engine cowling polishing. Always confirm scope in writing before starting work because wide body scope creep costs significantly more than corporate aviation scope creep. The scope confirmation should happen at the level of individual zones and surfaces, not just at the level of services. Confirming an interior cabin clean is not enough. Confirming which lavatories, which galleys, which seat groups, and which floor zones are included is what prevents the disputes that consume margin on the back end of the project. Operators who skip detailed scope confirmation often finish wide body jobs at break even or worse.
Timeline and scheduling
A standard wide body clean takes six to twelve hours with a four to six person crew. A full detail with paint correction can take three to five days. Scheduling around airline operations is the hard part. Most wide body work happens during scheduled maintenance windows or overnight ground time. Flexibility on overnight work is non negotiable for wide body operators. The pay reflects this. Wide body detail rates are typically twice corporate aviation rates per labor hour. The overnight work constraint also affects crew composition. Not every detailer is suited to overnight schedules. Operators serving the wide body market typically maintain a dedicated overnight crew rather than rotating their day crew through overnight shifts. The overnight crew gets paid a premium for the schedule, and the team stays consistent over time which builds the operational rhythm needed for fast wide body turnarounds.
Crew sizing for wide body work
Wide body work cannot be done solo. The minimum viable crew is three people. The optimal crew for full detail work is six to eight. Crew specialization matters more on wide body than on corporate. Some crew focus on exterior, some on interior, some on lavatory and galley. Cross training across all areas is valuable but specialization within each job lets the crew work in parallel. CoreOP's multi crew assignment tools handle complex crew structuring on large jobs. The specialization extends to interior zones as well. The crew member who handles galley sanitization develops different skills and product knowledge than the crew member who handles lavatory deep cleaning. Both roles are essential and both produce better results when the same crew member runs them across multiple jobs. Operators who rotate every crew member through every role on every job tend to produce inconsistent results compared to operators who allow specialization to develop within the crew.
Equipment requirements
Wide body detailing requires equipment most corporate aviation detailers do not own. Powered lift equipment rated for aircraft proximity. High capacity foam cannons. Industrial extractors. Extension equipment for tail and engine cowling access. Most wide body specific equipment is rented per job rather than owned outright. Equipment rental costs run $1,500 to $5,000 per job depending on scope. Build equipment rental into the quote as a separate line item to maintain clean cost tracking. The rental relationship matters as much as the equipment itself. Operators serving wide body markets typically build relationships with one or two equipment rental providers near the airports they serve. The rental provider becomes a partner who understands the operator's standards and can respond quickly when equipment needs change mid project. Operators who treat equipment rental as transactional often face availability problems that delay projects. Operators who invest in the rental relationship rarely face these issues.
Hangar requirements
Wide body work typically requires a wide body capable hangar or significant ramp space. Many wide body operators do not have access to wide body hangars and contract with maintenance facilities. The maintenance facility provides the hangar and you provide the labor. Revenue split arrangements are common. Some operators prefer the simplicity of working ramp side at the airline operations area. Confirm hangar arrangement before quoting because hangar access affects timeline and crew comfort. The hangar arrangement also affects what services can be performed. Paint correction work in a humid outdoor environment produces different results than the same work in a climate controlled hangar. Operators should clarify before quoting whether the hangar will be available and what the environmental conditions will be. Surprises about hangar access in the middle of a wide body project consistently produce schedule slips and cost overruns that should be priced into the original quote.
Pricing wide body work
Wide body detailing pricing is typically negotiated as part of a maintenance contract rather than per job. Standard clean rates run $5,000 to $15,000 per aircraft. Full detail rates run $25,000 to $80,000. Restoration scope can exceed $150,000. The numbers are larger but so are the operational complexity, the equipment cost, and the crew investment. Margins on wide body work are often lower than on corporate aviation despite the larger numbers. The lower margin reality is something many operators do not internalize until they finish a wide body project and run the math. The labor hours, the equipment rental, the overnight premium, the hangar fees, and the documentation requirements all add up faster than the unit economics on corporate work. Operators considering the wide body market should model the margin carefully against expected revenue rather than chasing the larger top line numbers without understanding what they cost to deliver.
Project management discipline
Wide body jobs require project management discipline that smaller jobs do not. Scope documentation, daily progress reports, change order procedures, photo documentation at scheduled intervals, and final acceptance protocols all matter. CoreOP's job tracking and reporting tools handle the operational layer. The human discipline of running a project still matters. Aviation detailers who treat wide body jobs like corporate jobs typically lose money. Aviation detailers who treat them like construction projects typically make money. The construction project mindset includes structured kickoff meetings, defined deliverables per phase, change order pricing established at contract signing, and formal acceptance criteria for completion. The discipline is not bureaucratic overhead. It is the operational rhythm that prevents the small misalignments from compounding into the large disputes that destroy wide body project margins. Operators who internalize this rhythm find wide body work to be one of the highest value growth paths in aviation detailing.
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