Some Japanese airlines have done exactly that.

https://japantoday.com/category/features/ana-asks-passengers...

"All Nippon Airways is taking its weight-saving efforts to new heights, asking passengers on some of its flights to visit the restroom before flying."

That's getting suspiciously close to a passage from the Hitchhikers guide where you are instructed to get a receipt every time you use the lavatory otherwise you might end up with some quick surgery before departure.

Or charge a carbon fee for fat people?

Surcharge for all heads that are not in vats!

If we actually care about climate change then shouldn't we be thinking like this though?

If one cares about climate change, it would be an odd strategy to focus on 0.1% fuel efficiency increases while 10% of flights can somewhat easily be replaced by video calls.

right about the same time we get the paperless office will we see a transition to video conferencing taking over in face. change is hard

hell at work that is one thing they want to get back in office for is face to face. they have mandated cameras for all managers working remote and looking to do the same for other workers. Still there are teams that are doing one day face to face meetings.

Because clearly it's not possible to do both?

Please point to where I suggested that it's not possible to want or have both. The operative word in my comment is "to focus on".

I don’t think that is helpful though. Some people focus on this, others focus on that, and we can all both cut down our journeys while also packing lighter when we do travel. We’re not going to solve this by ‘focusing on’ any one thing. I’m really tired of criticisms of perfectly good work that amount to ‘but this other thing is more important’. There’s almost always something else more important. So what?

No, if one cared one could spend the couple dollars to buy carbon credits to offset your flight. That would do a lot more than a shaving a fraction of a percent of fuel. I notice some airlines have a checkbox for this at checkout, it makes it quite easy to do. I wonder if it really offsets the carbon from the flight though, it seems so cheap. Like any one of the dozen taxes you pay for the flight is more than that. If it's the case one could mandate a tax to cover it and all flights in the country could be carbon neutral instantly and nobody would notice the difference.

sounds like something ryanair would love to implement in an instant

Plus, it would make full body cavity searches easier to mandate! A win for all!

(coming soon to your local district)

Actually Ryanair did suggest to make the toilet paying in flight at some point.

Goes double if they could eliminate (heh) the toilets and all associated weight as well.

If you could remove one of the two it would already be a large weight saving (and room for more seats). But you'd lose some redundancy.

Honestly - the flight I took the most pre-covid was a regional commuter between a midwest city and Washington DC. It's like a 2.5 hour flight, at most.

Why do you need a toilet for that? I understand there are disabilities that may call for it. But in the 10-15 years I made that flight regularly, I never saw someone use the toilet an extreme amount. It was more for convenience. I have to assume that those short-haul flights could save a ton of fuel by eliminating toilets.

But I also have a young(ish) bladder and young(ish) digestive system. So maybe I'm just too self-centered.

Woman with a heavy menstrual cycle.

Possibility of plane unable to take off at the scheduled time but holding on the runway to make the next available slot.

The problem with cutting some things out is that, even though it might not be utilized 95% of the time, that 5% when you need it, you really need it.

Similar to the backup generator for your data center and justifying it along with the maintenance and tests that go along with it to your boss.

My worry with the direction that engineering is moving, lean, is that we are reducing our safeties below a good level. I see the philosophy moving to other areas, such as finance, creating a race to the bottoms where everyone is leveraged as much as possible. Then when a crisis hits, everyone is unable to survive and we have to turn to government bailouts.

Lean philosophy has recently been targeting healthcare, as a way to reduce cost and reduce adverse outcome while improving quality. While I do think this is important, looking at what is going on in the middle of a pandemic. Is a contributing factor of hospitals running out of masks and ventilators due to lean inventory management practices?

I read a lot a about food wast and how we over produce, it seems logical that there will be a push for lean practices there as well. I could see it being made as a strategy to reduce the amount of CO2 as well as farm land. But conversely, with climate change and the risk of crop failure, is that a good idea?

That's fair, and like I said - I was afraid I was being too self-centered.

As for the rest - I am completely, and 100% over lean philosophy/training/gurus. That has been a major focus in higher education in recent years.

And it has just led to top-down, money based decisions instead of student focused discussions and choices.

I am with you, I think we are just removing safety from areas that may not be appropriate to remove them from.

> I am completely, and 100% over lean philosophy/training/gurus.

100% with you here. Especially the ones preaching 'optimizing' your personal life by getting rid of any capacity beyond what you use in your daily life. Once you peel back the glossy cover they almost always, in real terms, translate to "save money by mooching off your friends' equipment and work space".

Sorry if my tone was a little strong, that was not my intention at all. I saw where you said you were thinking from a limited scope and decided to use it as a thought exercise :) Then I went off on a tangent about cost cutting XD

Can you imagine the misery and chaos if someone on the flight desperately needs the restroom and there isn't one?

Now imagine an entire cruise ship where the toilets don't work: https://www.cnn.com/2013/12/17/travel/carnival-cruise-triump...

It's also that you have a old(ish) bladder and an old(ish) digestive system.

Accommodations for other people's physical needs is a pretty serious Chesterton's Fence situation.

I get semi-panic attacks if I know I can’t have access to a toilet if I really want to, and not in 2 hours’ time, but in 5 or 10 minutes’ time. That’s why I avoided taking inter-city buses before I purchased my car (which happened 6 years ago), and instead opted for trains (which were slower but had working toilets).

In other words asking grown-up people to just “keep it in” doesn’t work, just ask Tottenham player Eric Dier for the latest example (am on mobile, too lazy to link, but a quick web search should give you the whole story).

You need to bear in mind that it's common practice for one aircraft to fly several different routes, even in the same day. So it might do a short 2.5 hour flight in the morning, then do a longer 5 hour flight after. Also I'm not sure with lo-cost carriers that the crew will get a chance to disembark. The plane will be turned around as quickly as possible.

Comsider the situation if they removed the bathrooms. What’s the plan when inevitably somebody didn’t plan ahead or gets sick? A very unpleasant ride / the whole cabin watching their fellow flyer urinate (or worse) in the aisle? Seems like a complete nonstarter.

You never ate a bad burrito in an airport restaurant?