Ryanair Passengers Will Still 'Go' Free

Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary has admitted that his ideas about starting to charge passengers for access to the lavatory on flights was merely the latest in a string of publicity stunts.

Passengers from across Ireland flying out from Belfast, City Of Derry, Dublin, Knock or Shannon need have no fear of a fee to 'pee'.

Mr O'Leary told a tourism conference yesterday that it was technically impossible and legally difficult.

He told the conference, organised by city tourist bodies around Europe, that Ryanair had bought Boeing aircraft in recent years, but the doors were not suitable for charging customers to use the toilet.

"Boeing can put people on the moon, design fighter aircraft and smart bombs, but they can't design a bloody mechanism to go on doors that will accept coins," he admitted.

However, Mr O'Leary also confessed that it would not be possible because the European Commission had decreed that establishments where food and drink is served have to provide toilets free of charge.

The real reason, according to an Irish Times report was: "It makes for interesting and very cheap PR," he told the audience at the Grand Hotel in Malahide, Co Dublin.

Also on the subject of low-cost travel, the conference heard from Tourism Ireland Chief Executive Paul O'Toole.

He confirmed that while number of visitors to the Republic of Ireland declined by over six per cent in the last six months of 2008, Tourism Ireland - which markets the whole island - will be embarking on an "aggressive marketing drive abroad, which will focus on Ireland as a value-for-money destination".

(BMcC/JM)