In its drive to continue to offer cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages, Ryanair has asked Boeing Co. to deliver planes in the future that add six seats per plane by removing two toilets. Boeing has refused because of concern that this action would compromise passenger safety.
Ryanairs position is adding seats and taking out toilets would not slow down emergency evacuations and plans continuing talks with Boeing on this subject.
If Ryanair has its way in reducing the number of toilets on short haul flights, such planes would be left with a single toilet for up to 189 passengers.
There appears to be few, if any limits in what Ryanair will do to increase revenue. The carrier has announced that it wants passengers to start paying to use toilets on its short flights within Europe. When this airline first announced last year that it was considering charging to use toilets, many thought that it was a joke. No more.
Ryanair is working with Boeing to add coin-operated toilets on 168 of its planes. The airline is planning to charge either one pound or one Euro to enter bathrooms on flights of one hour or less. This means that it will cost between $1.30 and $1.55 to use a toilet.
Ryanair hopes that their toilet fee will change customers bathroom habits. They are trying to incentivize passengers to use the bathroom before or after a flight. This in turn will enable Ryanair, if it can convince Boeing, to remove two out of the three toilets now on flights and thus add at least six extra seats.
This carrier announced earlier this week that it will increase its checked bag fees by about 33 percent for peak summer travel in order to motivate its passengers to travel light during the peak summer months. Ryanair is urging its customers to travel with only carry-on bags, thus avoiding any checked bag fees.
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