For Bombardier’s CS300, which has up to 160 seats, there is one bathroom in the front and two at the back. To accommodate both rear washrooms, Bombardier has to remove as many as three seats. Replacing one bathroom with urinals would mean those seats could remain.Pascal Rossignol/Reuters
Airplanes have gone through many design changes over the years to keep passengers happy and now Bombardier Inc. is testing one more innovation: urinals.
Replacing at least one bathroom with a set of two urinals is under active consideration by Bombardier and other airplane makers. Aircraft designers say installing urinals would save space and reduce waiting times for bathrooms.
"About 65 per cent of travellers are male so there's the option to put two smaller lavatories in the back, one that is for both sexes, if you like, and the other would be dedicated to males," said Rob Dewar, vice-president and general manager of Bombardier's C Series program.
"I think it's a good idea because you save weight and you actually reduce waiting times for the lavatory," he added. "We have built mock ups and studied it as well. And so we are discussing that with our customers to see their interest."
Typically airplanes have one bathroom for every 60 passengers. That means for Bombardier's CS300, which has up to 160 seats, there is one bathroom in the front and two at the back. To accommodate both rear washrooms, Bombardier has to remove as many as three seats. Replacing one bathroom with urinals would mean those seats could remain.
"The idea is to compress the lavatory so you could have more seats on the aircraft," he said, adding that urinals also use less water than toilets.
At the recent Farnborough International Airshow, Airbus also said it was looking into installing urinals.
Tom Williams, chief executive of Airbus's civil-aviation business, told reporters he was working with French aerospace firm Zodiac to develop a range of different toilet ideas including urinals.
"Zodiac has innovative designs to optimize space in toilets. Urinals have not been done before mainly for cultural reasons. It's our airline customers who decide on the configuration of the planes they buy," Mr. Williams said. "There has been developments in the way space is used and one design involved placing two toilets next to each other with a partition that can be removed to give more space to a handicapped passenger."
He acknowledged that female passengers might not be pleased at having one fewer washroom on board. "It's a bit sexist to have a men-only toilet," he said.
Germany's Deutsche Lufthansa AG has installed urinals in a few of its giant Airbus A380s, but only as a special feature in first-class, where the washrooms are big enough for washing, changing and urinals. The use of urinals has not gone much further in part over concerns about the potential for smell.
Toilets have long been a big issue for airplane makers. Waiting in line to use the bathroom is among the biggest complaints of air travellers.
Michael O'Leary, the chief executive of discount airline Ryanair, once suggested charging passengers £1 to use the washroom. He later said he was joking.