2009/03/09

Budget airline mulls charging passengers to use toilet廉價航空公司打算向上廁所乘客收費

◎自由時報轉載

Budget airline mulls charging passengers to use toilet

廉價航空公司打算向上廁所乘客收費

Irish budget airline Ryanair is considering charging passengers to use the toilet during flights, Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said.

愛爾蘭廉價航空公司萊恩航空正考慮向在飛行途中使用廁所的乘客收費,執行長麥可.歐利瑞說。

O’Leary said the carrier was looking at the possibility of installing coin slot on toilet doors in its planes which would only open with the insertion of a one pound coin.

歐利瑞說,該公司正在評估在飛機廁所門上加裝投幣孔,投入一英鎊才能開門。

"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," he said.

「我們過去考慮過、現在再提出來思考的一件事是,廁所門上裝個投幣孔的可能性,如此一來,大家或許未來真的得花錢上廁所。」他說。

He added: "I don’t think there is anybody in history that has got on board a Ryanair aircraft with less than a pound."

他還說:「我認為任何搭過萊恩航空的人,不會身上連一英鎊都沒有。」

It is the latest Ryanair idea to save money in the tough economic climate.

這是萊恩航空在經濟困難的當下所想出的最新省錢之道。

A Ryanair spokesman, Stephen McNamara, later played down the toilet charge idea. "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," he said.

一名萊恩航空的發言人後來淡化這個上廁所要收費的想法。「麥可隨時提出許多這類想法,儘管這個構想曾在內部討論過,尚無立即計畫引入。」他說。

◎新聞辭典:

mull:動詞,考慮。例句:He’s mulling divorce. (他正考慮離婚。)

spend a pound to spend a penny:penny為英國貨幣單位「便士」,幣值小於英鎊(pound);過去英國公廁要投一便士硬幣,衍生出spend a penny「上廁所」之意。這句運用pound和penny和spend a penny的衍生義形成用字對比的句子。

go along:片語,持續進行;go along with 陪伴、贊成。例句:Everything’s going along well in this project. (這項計畫一切進行順利。)

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