But the top source of germs you'll encounter between check-in and touch-down comes from a surprising source at the very beginning of your trip: self check-in touch screen kiosks. A semi-scientific study conducted by Insurancequotes.com sampled from six types of surfaces at three different major U.S. airports on three occasions (probably much too small of a sample size to be very conclusive about trends across airports globally). On average, the check-in monitors swabbed harbored 253,857 CFU, compared to an average of 95,145 CFU on the plane's flush button. One self check-in monitor even recorded over a million CFU. Some of the bacteria found on the airport and plane surfaces is less dangerous than other types.

Source: Forbes February 09, 2018 18:22 UTC