Ryanair's public relations machine moved into gear very quickly over the weekend, playing down remarks made by its Chairman Michael O'Leary to the BBC that Europe's largest low-cost carrier's revenue drive might even extend to

introducing charges for its passengers to use the toilets onboard.

O'Leary told BBC News: ‘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 ($1.43) to spend a penny in future,’ he said.

According to O'Leary, this would be no hardship for passengers, since all Ryanair passengers have a pound coin when they board (apparently).

But while UK headline writers had schoolboy moments of joy with various toilet humour plays on 'convenience' etc etc, Ryanair's lead spokesman Stephen McNamara admitted that the subject had been discussed in the past, but he denied that there were any immediate plans to charge passengers for toilets, telling UK press that O'Leary ‘makes a lot of this stuff up as he goes along…’