We didn’t think it was possible, but apparently it is. Smaller toilets on planes could be coming to the skies soon.
Boeing has reportedly come up with a new way to squeeze more passengers into the Boeing 777-300ER.
And the solution is… make the lavatories smaller (I’m not the only one that thinks they’re small enough already right?).
According to FlyerTalk, reducing the size of the toilets could fit as many as 14 more seats on an aircraft – bringing the total capacity of the 777-300ER close to 400.
While for airlines this means more money, for us travellers it would leave us with even less room to do our ‘business’ (and you can forget about those plans to join the mile high club).
Can lavatories can get any smaller?
It seems aircraft manufacturers may be under pressure to fit more passengers on their planes, as it follows a similar plan devised by Airbus two months ago.
The French-based manufacturer revealed in April it was hoping to add extra seats to select rows on the Airbus A380 by introducing a fourth class ‘ Budget Economy’.
‘Budget Economy’ would see the seat configuration change from 3-4-3 to 3-5-3.
Possibly coming into effect in 2017, this would give airlines one extra seat per row to sell off.
Airbus is looking at introducing more seats per row on the A380.
However, for passengers it means less room between seats aka less personal space.
And if you’re the unfortunate soul sitting in the centre of middle group of seats, you’ll need to move two other passengers every time nature calls.
Senior Vice President of Marketing for Airbus, Christopher Emerson, said 90 percent of the travellers are economy, but they’re all looking for different options.
“We want to give a choice to the 90 percent of the economy passengers. They are going to be the driver of the growth, the doubling of growth in the next 15 years.”
Christopher Emerson, Airbus Senior Vice President of Marketing
