ANA Announces Women-Only Airplane Lavatories
Japanese airline ANA seems to be developing a thing for tinkering with how their passengers use toilets. Last October they began asking passengers to pee before boarding the airplane. Now comes the announcement that they're setting up women's-only airplane lavatories (PDF) in response to "numerous requests from passengers."
The new policy goes into effect March 1st and will apply only to international flights, during which a single lavatory in the back of the airplane will be marked with a pink women-only sign. Exceptions to the policy include safety considerations, personal emergencies, and when there aren't a lot of women in the cabin. In the final case the crew will formally lift the women-only designation for the duration of the flight. All the other bathrooms remain unisex - there are no men's-only bathrooms.
One potential problem with the new policy - and we touched on this in a past post on airplane urinals - is that most coach passengers are men. Will ANA's policy leave a bathroom unused while lines form elsewhere? Or will an unused women-only bathroom be a de facto signal that there aren't enough women on that particular flight? Or does that call have to be made before takeoff? We're genuinely asking.
In any case, if this was a customer request then ANA has every right to experiment in that direction. The proof will presumably be in how their flyers respond once the policy takes hold. In the meantime, use the comments to sound off on whether you think this should become a trend.
[Photo: ANA]
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