Standing Room Only Are Airplane Urinals About to Take Off?
Urinals keep bathroom lines short in stadiums, restaurants and public squares -- so why not in the sky? As airlines look for ways to squeeze more passengers onto each flight, a German company thinks the time is right for flying pissoirs.
At an industry convention in April, Dasell Cabin Interior unveiled their latest development: a urinal designed for the new, 555-seat Airbus A380. If their idea takes off, pissoirs could pop up on more long-haul flights as a way for airlines to reduce bathroom waiting times while saving money on fuel.
Norbert Runn, Dasell's head of business development, says his company has been mulling over the idea for almost a decade. "When we first came up with the concept in 1999, there wasn't much interest," Runn told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Airlines saw it as restricting service, because female passengers couldn't use it."
Instead, lavatory design has long focused on facilities that could be used by both sexes. The occasionally horrifying aftermath -- namely, evidence all over floors and walls of bad aim from men trying to take care of business in the middle of turbulent trips -- is a definite downside of flying for many women.
The soaring costs of fuel have changed that view. When Dasell unveiled their concept for an airplane urinal at the recent Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, airlines took notice. Dasell says the two-compartment urinal has a smaller footprint than the normal airline bathroom, and could save space for up to four seats on a long-haul airliner like the Boeing 747 or Airbus A380. That means four extra paying customers for the same amount of fuel. "The pressure's a lot greater on airlines now to save money on gas," Runn says.
A typical long-haul airliner has up to 10 bathrooms. Dasell, a Hamburg-based firm that builds bathrooms, bars, coatrooms and even showers for Airbus and other airplane manufacturers, is also pitching the urinals as a way to move male passengers through the facilities more quickly: Industry statistics show that 70 percent of passengers in the cheap seats on long-range flights are men. With more of them using the urinals to take care of business, the company's Web site delicately promises an "increase in the number of lavatories for seated use per passenger" and shorter waiting times for women.
To design the urinals, Dasell brought in the Kiel-based design firm muller/romca. Project leader Jens Romca says the design -- which took about five months to complete -- was hardly a straight shot. "Developing it was a tough assignment. When you're designing things for airplanes everything has to work twice as well -- and is twice as complicated," Romca told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "It's a much, much more intricate product than you'd think."
The designers say the urinals could minimize the messes that taking a leak in turbulent conditions can create. Says Romca: "It should improve the comfort level for female customers."
Though it has no flying urinal contracts yet, Dasell's Runn says the company is in talks with a number of airlines to see if the concept can be customized to fit their planes. And with a new generation of massive, long-range airliners from Boeing and Airbus taking wing, men may soon find it's easier to hit the mark while a mile high.
