Miscellaneous [misəˈleiniəs]: Pay to Poo on plane !

RYANAIR are a step closer to charging passengers to poo after asking Boeing to design credit card-operated toilets.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said he has approached the US aircraft maker after conceding his earlier idea of a coin-operated door wouldn't work because passengers would be using both the euro and the pound.

"We have looked into this before, and the problem is Boeing can't come up with a mechanism on the toilet door to take coins," Mr O'Leary told the Associated Press.

"We're suggesting they go back and look at a mechanism where you'd swipe the credit card for a quid on the toilet door. They've gone off to look at that… We are serious."

"Eventually it's going to happen. It's just we can't do it at the moment because we don't have a mechanism for charging you," he said.

Mr O'Leary said charging passengers to relieve themselves would "reduce an awful lot of the unnecessary visits to the toilet that (expletive) so many passengers off."

"Most people would go to the loo (toilet) before they get on the plane, or they hold it until they land. You would only have to deal with the people who absolutely have to go," he told the Associated Press.

Toilet fees could become the next serious money-maker scheme for Ryanair, who are already Europe's most profitable and aggressively expanding airline.

Mr O'Leary estimates if 20 per cent of passengers pay 1 pound ($2.21) to use the restroom, this would generate $33 million pounds annually – which he believes would generate future "fare savings to the travelling public."

With AP