Ryanair serious about charging to use toilets in-flight, may charge extra "breathing fee" for inhaling during flight

Ryanair, the discount airline that operates virtual prison-ships in the sky, is serious about installing pay toilets on its aircraft — it will cost a pound to go wee. They’re also reducing the number of toilets on their cramped, miserable planes. What are the odds that this will improve relations between passengers and the surly, angry flight crew?

The (very) last time I flew Ryanair, they locked us all in a no-toilets departure area for an hour and a half before the flight, then threatened to have me arrested for using the toilet when I boarded, rather than waiting until we were in the air and levelled off (which turned out to be an hour later).

The chief executive of Europe’s largest budget carrier said the airline would also generate extra revenues by removing two out of the three toilets on its Boeing 737-800 jets and filling the space with up to six seats…

Asked if he would be interested in charging £5 a toilet visit in order to eliminate the need for the loo altogether, he said: “If someone wanted to pay £5 to go to the toilet I would carry them myself. I would wipe their bums for a fiver.”

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary defends pay-per-pee fee
(via Consumerist)

(Image: Ryanair seats, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from Matt From London’s Flickr stream)