Ryanair Cutting Costs by Cutting Toilets?

By Ivana Kvesic, Christian Post Reporter Friday, October 14, 2011

The low-cost budget airline Ryanair has announced this month that it aims to dump unnecessary amenities like toilets on its aircrafts to make space for extra passengers.

The plan, which came out of the mouth of controversial Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary, would be to reduce the number of restroom facilities on Ryanair planes to one per aircraft.

Thus, up to 200 passengers and six crewmembers would be sharing one restroom facility aboard a flight.

O’Leary told The Independent of the suggested plan, “Bathroom facilities on aircrafts are very rarely used.”

He added, “We very rarely use all three toilets on board our aircraft.”

However, O’Leary did not announce when the company plans on implementing the new lavatory arrangement but did say the company would be initially used on shorter flights.

According to O’Leary, the move would “fundamentally lower air fares by 5 percent for all passengers.”

As there are no regulations regarding the number of toilets provided on airliners, Ryanair could technically bring the plan to fruition but it would require a re-certification of the changed Boeing aircrafts.

Ryanair has become popular among young travelers throughout Europe for its quick, low-budget flights that fly to and from some of Europe’s major urban centers like London, Paris, and Frankfurt.

However, the company has also garnered some controversy for its policies in which some suggest that they are cutting back on basics not to keep flights economical for clientele, but in order to make a profit.

In 2010 the company announced that it would charge passengers 1 euro to use restroom facilities, but dropped the plan in 2011.

Other various strategies employed by the company include developing a plan to implant “vertical“ seats into aircraft carriers and also charging 40 euros to print boarding passes.

In 2010, Ryanair asked customers on its website their perspective about a imposing a “fat tax.”

Surprisingly, most passengers believed that the company should charge very large passengers extra to fly aboard the aircraft, but the idea never followed through due to the technical and time difficulties that would occur in charging someone based on weight.

The company, which began in 1985 out of Waterford, Ireland, operates 300 Boeing 737-800 aircrafts. Ryanair flies its low-budget planes across Europe and Morocco.