NO JOKE: Airline Considers Passenger Lavatory Use Fee

First came the news that no frills airline Spirit Airlines was going to charge travelers for bringing on their own carry on luggage. That stirred a lot of outrage on talk shows: a lot of people are pissed off.

And now even THAT will cost you (so to speak) if an Airline in Ireland has its way: it wants to charge for lavatory use.

The phrase “if you’ve got go, you’ve got to go” may soon need the phrase “and you better have some change to do it, too.”

Fresh on the heels of one budget airline announcing that it will ask passengers to pay extra to bring carry-on bags on board, another is considering charging them for using the lavatory.

Ryanair, which is based in Dublin, Ireland, and bills itself as “Europe’s first and largest low fares airline,” is mulling a plan that would require travelers to pay either 1 euro or 1 British pound (about $1.33 or $1.52) for using the bathroom on flights lasting one hour or less.

If they do this, it may be a case where Irish eyes won’t be smiling..

The plan, titled “Ryanair Cost Saving Proposal,” was published in the airline’s inflight magazine.

The carrier said it is working with Boeing to develop a coin-operated door release so that when nature calls, passengers would need to deposit the change before being able to use the facilities.

The idea is to encourage people to use restrooms in airport terminals before boarding, Ryanair said. If the airline were to proceed, the changes would be at least 12 to 18 months away.

The CNN report also contains this detail which shows how the airline is considering the bottom line while being inconsiderate of the needs of the nature-calls-ASAP needs of its passengers:

As part of the plan, the airline is also considering removing two of the three lavatories on some of its planes so it could squeeze in up to six extra seats. The move would help reduce fares by at least 5 percent, Ryanair said.

Get that great idea?

1. They want to charge you to use their restroom.
2. The waits will probably be longer (anyone who flies knows that on each flight there seems to be someone in the restroom apparently writing his or her doctoral thesis or apparently sitting on the throne knitting three pairs of long underwear while the line outside of increasingly uncomfortable passengers lengthens).

CNN notes that this isn’t the first time the airline has considered a “toilet fee:”

CEO Michael O’Leary told the BBC in February 2009 that he was considering the charge.

The problem is, if Ryanair does it and it is successful, you can bet other airlines will at least consider it

So in the past flying meant you had to endure leg cramps.

Now, if you fly and don’t have the spare change and Ryanair gets its way and it catches on, you may have to endure other cramps as well. (Will this lead to an increase in adult diaper sales? Depends.)

But perhaps this is much ado about nothing and it won’t happen in the end.