Aircraft lavatories have been getting smaller and smaller, as airlines try to squeeze in more seats. They can get a half an inch per row with less padding in the seats. They’ve been removing closets and making the galleys where flight attendants work smaller. That’s ok, they’re serving less food too, so there’s less to store there. And they’ve been making the bathrooms smaller too.
The Biden administration plans to do something about that, in the name of accessibility. Generally speaking, the Air Carrier Access Act has been read to require an accessible lavatory on widebody aircraft, but narrowbody planes do not have to have them.
Last year the Department of Transportation issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to require a larger accessible lavatory on narrowbody planes, too. And Vice President Kamala Harris says they’ll soon be announcing a final rule.
The majority of domestic flights do not have accessible restrooms.
This is absolutely unacceptable.
Our Administration will soon announce a solution to help end this inequity.
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) July 11, 2023
More long distance flights are operated by narrowbody aircraft than every before. There are far fewer widebodies operating domestically, even coast-to-coast. And the trend towards longer distance flights with smaller planes is supported by the MAX, neo and XLR variants of Boeing’s 737 and Airbus A320 series aircraft. The A321XLR, when it comes to market, is a narrowbody that’s expected to fly transatlantic. It was one thing to ask people to ‘hold it’ on a flight a couple of hours long. Increasingly we’ll see seven and eight hour flights without a bigger lav.
How big would the lavatory need to be?
The proposed rule would require the lavatory to be large enough to permit a qualified individual with a disability59 to approach the lavatory, enter, maneuver within as necessary to use all lavatory facilities, and leave by means of the aircraft’s OBW.60 The lavatory would also be of sufficient size to permit an assistant to enter the lavatory along with the passenger to facilitate an assisted transfer between the OBW and the toilet.
The proposed rule would only apply to new aircraft. And while we await final rule text, it may not require any change to begin until aircraft deliveries starting in 20 years.
Now, I’ve been a huge critic of smaller lavatories which have increasingly become common over the past five years. They’ve been a part of densification, and I haven’t liked the total product package that’s made cramming in, in general, two extra rows of seats into planes. I much prefer 32 inches from seatback to seatback on Southwest Airlines than the 30 inches commonly found on United, Delta, and American (and less than that on Spirit and Frontier). Even ‘extra legroom’ seats have been shrunk, to where most are just 33 inches of pitch on American.
However there’s a point to be made that every inch of the plane matters, and that most people spend more time at their seats than in the lavatory. It’s better to provide those inches at passenger seats than to the lav. Passengers will ‘pay for’ the extra lavatory space, either in higher fares (fewer seats reduces supply and increases price) or reduced legroom.
That’s the deal we’ve made as a society, not under just the Air Carrier Access Act but also under the Americans With Disabilities Act: that businesses and individuals bear the cost of accommodating accessibility needs, rather than those who have the needs themselves.
In the case of lavatories on narrowbody aircraft, most of the benefit of larger lavs will accrue to passengers who are not, in fact, in statutory need of this access. That’s because most of the time it’s average passengers using the bigger lavatories. I certainly seek them out when I need to use the restroom on a widebody plane. They’re much better for changing into airline pajamas for the long flight! We will, however, be paying for this mandated amenity one way or another.
Brandon doesn’t have anything more important than this virtue signaling that will have zero impact for years?! Of course that is what he does. So sad
The airlines brought this on themselves. By making the lav’s comically small they made it into an item of debate
There goes the extra leg room at the bulkhead seats
Uh…oh….3…2…1…price increases effective immediately on Allegiant, Frontier and maybe Spirit (if they’re bought out). Have to start stockpiling cash to pay for dem bigger toilets!
I just wont order anymore new planes. I’ll do the NWA re-hab shuffle of my more than 30/40+ year old planes! That way, no big boy toilets!
I can’t wait to be cramped on the “T”s” flying trans-con when those aircraft get densified in the upcoming months!
This is simply another overreach of government into our lives.
In California, I have to pay very close attention – down to seating size and what may be considered “significant” renovation to avoid all of the ridiculous ADA regulations placed upon my locations when I choose to update and/or remodel. It’s absolutely insane.
I utilize an attorney who specializes in ADA to assist me with ridiculous ADA challenges by people who think they “know the law”, and how it applies to them – it doesn’t.
Always looking for an angle to wring cash out of my coffers.
SO_CAL_RETAIL_SLUT
Just to clarify…you talk about larger toilet accommodations for disabled passengers while directing it in the end to your own need and love for changing into pajamas. The post is entirely worthwhile as an interesting development. But its hardly needed in the context of associating it to your own PJ changing room.
Quite frankly, businesses globally have had to adapt facilities for those with mobility issues for years and you fail to mention that aspect in comparing that airlines get a free pass?
I’m very confused, on the one hand you argue that it will result in higher fares, on the other you applaud it so that you can more easily change into pajamas. Maybe next time just report the facts. Because as a “thought leader” you really are all over the place.
@Retired Gambler, how’s that socialist social security that us working folks pay you every month working out so far? Why didn’t you just save for retirement instead of being a burden to society? Why do I have to pay for it?
Many new A320 aircraft do have side by side lavs which can be opened and used as a single handicapped accessible lav.
I don’t think Boeing has the same option but it isn’t impossible to do if lavs are next to each other.
If we’re lucky, the 737 will no longer be produced.
I know that nobody really cares about anyone but themselves, but after watching a heartbreaking situation of someone struggling with a companion on AA with the size of the lavatory and the set up of the doors and bulkhead, I think this is a good development, whatever one’s politics. Unless, I guess, you think that making air travel more possible for disabled people isn’t a worthwhile goal. If that’s a person’s view, there’s nothing I can really say to change that opinion. It’s certainly an opinion. But the situation really has gotten extreme.
So many selfish folks posting on here. Not including people with disabilities, but how ’bout pregnant women, injured passengers with a leg cast or other medical issue, elderly with balance problems, and small children needing adult assistance? These folks need a larger lavatory!
Not every pax is a fit 35 year-old dude with a smug attitude and a tee-shirt that reads, I AM A D*CK.
@kimmiea
This is the kind of hateful bigotry that leads me to believe you’re pure MAGA. You go around posting this nonsense without a second thought. Men can get pregnant too. You need to think of the people you are hurting using the term pregnant women. It is literal violence against the trans community.
The lavatories of recent years makes it difficult to brush teeth. Large lavs probably won’t solve this problem. It will make Mile High Club membership easier. Most likely, the solution will be to convert 2 adjacent lavatories into one larger space if necessary. It will also be easier to hear the next person defecate if the 2 lavatory partitions are closed.
In my experience, Airbus airplanes have the most cramped lavatories. You get in one and have to search around to find the toilet seat covers. Then there is hardly enough room to sit down. Then there is hardly enough room to wipe. None of the airplanes are great on the size of lavatories in coach. If possible, it is better to use the facilities in the terminal.
Perhaps, she should fly commercial in coach to see the width of the isle and also the size of the seats – both the width a pitch. Does she expect that a person would use a regular wheelchair on a plane and the restroom must accommodate?
@kimmiea:
Thank-you for the perceptive and sensitive comment. I am 76, of reasonably average size and weight (5’6″ and 175#), and certainly not as “limber” as I was in my 30’s or 40’s. I find almost every “encounter” with an airplane lav to be a struggle; tight, narrow, hard, and unaccommodating. YES, change them into something a bit larger, and if it were (miraculously) possible, let’s us all try to worship the “Almighty $$$” a bit less, and care about people more.
President Paw Paw wants to make toilets on aircraft bigger? Considering all of the crap that he and his government have done to this country over the last 2-1/2 years, there’s not a lavatory or “poo processing plant” big enough to handle the waste! Or…better yet…get Vice President Carmella (sorry Mrs. Soprano for the slap in the face!) Harris to explain how to make the toilets bigger. That ought to be really interesting. ‘Splain that if you can.
How about requiring more bathrooms. There aren’t enough on long haul flights!
Richard, sorry dude, you’re overweight (BMI 28.2), medically speaking. Esp for an old guy, as older people skew to weigh less for a variety of reasons.Maybe you should try to lose weight instead of asking for bigger bathrooms. But in America its always someone else’s fault.
Airplane lavs are a joke. But obviously Kamila didn’t get the memo … the airlines in the US do what they want, nobody messes with the airline lobby in this country. The only way to improve the traveller experience is legislation and no sane politician or bureaucrat will go up against the airlines. But lots of people will believe that she will ‘go to bat for them’ and that, of course, is the whole point. Go, Kamila!
To accommodate the fatties.
Really helpful for fat people.
Really this will help fat person and solve the stuck on restroom.
Folks who commented that this is somehow just to help “fat people” have clearly never tried to use an oasis lav. I’m a healthy 6’2″ guy, and it requires expert gymnastics to contort my body in and out of these things. The airlines got greedy and pushed it too far, so now they face regulations that are worse than if they had just let things be with uncomfortable, but not ridiculous, accommodation.
Really useful.
Why doesn’t the government simply mandate that every domestic carrier provide a wheel-chair accessible private jet with bath to any and every passenger, upon demand, no questions asked? Funded by Covid bailout money or whatever. Easy enough.
Having flown everything from an Emirates spacious A380 to RyanAir hard plastic 27 inch pitch, I know enough to look at what aircraft my intended route plans to have. I book the wide body as much as possible. If not, there’s federally-subsidized quasi-government Amtrak, in which I do enjoy plenty of legroom in coach class and spacious wheelchair-friendly lavatories.
Honestly, I think that domestic air travel has more important matters to resolve, before this one.
Safety increases ticket prices.
Let’s get rid of it.
Oh, but libertarian are hypocrites at their core.
They should require that one lavatory on the plane be accessible by some means even if it’s not the normal usage. You don’t need to make every lav accessible.
Some years back my wife got hurt on a trip, every step caused her a fair amount of pain even with my support (it would have been much worse without) so she was in a chair. Airplane lavs coming home weren’t fun, she had to pull down her clothes with the door wide open. (And supposedly there actually was a handicapped lav on the plane, but up in first class and not for us peasants.)
@Michael- great response to @Retired Gambler. I’m sick of these sick people who use a synonym for a vulgar description of a president duly and overwhelmingly elected by the American people. If anything, such a description applies to the mentally disturbed former president. Frankly, politics have no place on this forum but when it appears it will be addressed.
Sad how many people have to make this about politics. As a disabled person this is good news. Sadly, such a low empathy bar that people can find a way to crawl under.
20 years is way too long for this change.
Hey, Retired Gambler!
Hope the next time you’re trying to fit sideways into a teeny weeny airplane bathroom you don’t pee on your shoe…