Ryanair's O'Leary: 'Spend a pound to spend a penny'

Ryanair is considering charging passengers £1 ($1.43) to use onboard lavatories, CEO Michael O'Leary told the BBC.

"One thing we have looked at in the past and are looking at again is the possibility of maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door so that people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny in future," O'Leary said.

A UK CAA spokesperson told The Times that "there is no legal requirement for an aircraft to have a toilet onboard, so if an airline does have a toilet they can charge to use it. Ryanair is legally able to do this."

O'Leary's statements generated worldwide publicity and the airline soon was downplaying the idea. A Ryanair spokesperson was quoted as saying, "Michael makes a lot of this stuff up as he goes along and, while this has been discussed internally, there are no immediate plans to introduce it."

However, the spokesperson did say, "Passengers using train and bus stations are already accustomed to paying to use the toilet, so why not on airplanes? Not everyone uses the toilet onboard one of our flights, but those that do could help to reduce airfares for all passengers."