Editorial: Plea to wee before boarding

The decision by a Japanese airline to ask passengers to relieve themselves before boarding adds a new dimension to pre-flight screening.

In an attempt to cut down aircraft weight (hence fuel consumption, hence carbon emissions), All Nippon Airways says it will henceforth have "loo monitors" by boarding gates who will ask travellers to use toilets before entering the aircraft. The average bladder capacity being about 500ml, the airline says it carrys 50kg of extra weight for every 100 passengers who are busting for a pee when they board.

The job will presumably not be keenly sought after, though it may be that some cabin staff relish the chance of asking portly, beer-breathed behemoths who have arrived straight from the bar whether they remembered to tinkle.

Travellers have become used to discarding water bottles before going through security checkpoints, but abridging the right to carry water aboard in the urinary system is taking matters a step too far. It's particularly rich given that cabin crews devote a large part of their on-board time to serving prodigiously diuretic beverages.

It's a ludicrous idea, no matter how well-intentioned. Restricting the purchase of duty-free liquor to the airport of arrival would achieve much more by way of weight-saving. And it would save the cabin staff and passengers - who, let's face it, are usually capable of planning their own comfort stops - from having to endure a dodgy Q&A at the gate.