Airlines that hand out tablets to premium cabin customers save money compared to installing wired seat back screens. Airlines like American that don’t even do that save even more, not just on installation but also weight in the aircraft and therefore fuel. Giving pilots tablets instead of their carrying maps and charts supposedly saves major airlines over $1 million a year each in fuel.
Luke Jensen and Brian Yutko calculated that “if every passenger remembered to go to the bathroom before boarding, shedding an average of 0.2 liters of urine, the airline would save $2.66 in fuel” per flight. With about 40 million commercial flights a year that’s roughly a $100 million issue. The higher the price of oil, the bigger the savings.
American Airlines Boeing 787-9 Lavatory
Already incentives are aligned in many ways that save on fuel.
- Checked bag fees and indeed carry on bag fees encourage passengers to bring less to the airport. That saves fuel.
- The TSA’s War on Water discourages passengers from carrying on as much water (they have to replenish inside security, where it’s more expensive to buy bottled water and most people don’t bring refillable bottles).
- Airlines that charge for drinks on board mean less total liquid onboard and consumed.
Of course charging to use the lavatory would encourage passengers to go before they go.
And, they’d make $100 million-a-year extra if they charged per use! $1 for #1, $2 for #2! Fair is fair… /s
(Especially lucrative during outbreaks of EXPLOSIVE diarrhea, brought to you by… the consolidation of our food supply by corporate monopolies and de-regulation of consumer protections… yay…)
What’s next? Chopsticks inside of silverware? 1 less nut per bowl? 1 less slice of cucumber per salad.
I cannot believe I just wasted my time reading this. Pay attention to the simple arithmetic here- it’s not math, folks, it’s basic arithmetic – $2.66 savings per flight. Let’s say for simplicity’s sake there are 133 passengers. That’s- get ready, now – 2 cents per passenger. WTF? If the airlines are that cash strapped, I’ll happily pay a 10 cent surcharge. Oh hell! Make it a quarter. Now they’re making a significant profit on our excess urine. Maybe American and United and Delta can each appoint a Senior VP of Pee to oversee it all.
What moron even came up with this?
@MIAZiggy — You forgot, they MUST count the beans… 1, 2, 3… UH OH! Too many! Start over!
Yea I will be sure to do that to hook the airlines up. Especially considering the major CEOs have said when gas prices come down which they have they will not pass the savings along to me. In fact knowing this information now I will continuously use a airline toilet.
Boarding line up times are too far ahead of departure for some of us. I usually make a restroom run right before boarding, but by the time we’re at cruising altitude it’s time to go again. And if it’s a tight connection that’s just unrealistic as ladies rooms lines tend to be long. And if they charge passengers to use their disgusting toilets what do they think will happen Hint: it’s already happening when they leave the seatbelt light on unnecessarily – seats will be soiled and disgusting. And it’s not like they clean the planes anymore. This is the most ridiculous article I’ve read on here.
They should charge to use the restrooms and then hand out extra soft drinks. (sarcasm)
“What moron even came up with this?” Which moron thinks thought experiments aren’t fun and sometimes beneficial?
Better yet, install a scale near the boarding pass scanners. Step on the scale with your carry on, have you and your belongings weighed, you get a refund/additional charge added to your credit card on file if your below/above a pre-specified total weight. If 0.2kg less for a pax equals $0.02 (heck, I’ll just use Bill’s estimates), then 10kg equals $1.00 and, oops, it’s still chump change for the pax. Though, that’s still $5 billion/year! Assume, I’m 10 kg lighter (me, clothes, carry on) than average, I’d get a dollar back. Hope I haven’t screwed up the math, but if 0.2 kg (i.e., 0.2l) equals $2.66 per flight, then 50 times that, 10kg, equals $133 per flight. Charge that to a non-elite to upgrade to F, and Gary will complain it’s too low.
Link redirects me to ABC news politics, so I already know the reasoning is flawed. I’m guessing they didn’t account for the the fact that many, probably most, already do go empty their bladder before the flight. I know I do, because if I’m flying in economy I’m probably sitting window. I also probably drank a shit ton of beer in the lounge so I don’t want to be bursting during a delayed departure. So they only stand to gain the % of people that don’t already go pee, which is probably far less than 50%.
@jns — “You’re hired!” — Bastian, Isom, and Kirby each said in-unison!
@Mantis — You “drank a shit ton of beer”? Dr. Toboggan, I must say, that is quite on-brand, sir.
Ryanair discussed putting a coin meter on lav doors. It was not sure whether that was an advertisement gimmick, albeit a pretty pathetic one, on something being seriously considered.
But leave it up to a low end airline with the bottom of the barrel society flying it to start to charge for use of the lav.
@ George Romey. Don’t need a coin meter, just swipe your credit card like the hop-on, hop-off transit systems. Plus status members get credit and those in Y get .25 mile. You’re welcome Ryanair.
@One Trippe — What does Ryanair ‘status’ even get you? A few free lav vists?
Anyone having paid attention to Ryanair under CEO Michael O’Leary is quite aware that he loves to throw out crazy stuff for PR purposes. He’ll make sure the press hears that Ryanair is considering pay toilets, standing-room-only “seats,” or adding seats in the cargo hold. The first two were stories planted by Ryanair (I made up the third, but maybe they’ll borrow my idea). Ryanair’s pax base gets the joke. Ryanair reminds them that they are dirt cheap. No Starlink for now? Pick a fight with Musk over it for the PR. Spoilers, professional wrestling isn’t real and, while boxing is, the drama during weigh in is normally to hype the event.
@This comes to mind — Which, if you’ve noticed, lately, Scott Kirby has copied. Like, United also seems willing to ‘throw out crazy stuff for PR purposes.’ (See the whole DJT airport waivers thing.) It’s definitely of this ‘attention-economy’ era. Would love for it not to be a thing, because it’s exhausting and distracting, but clearly it seems effective, to a degree.