We hear that China Southern Airlines has calculated that it takes a litre of fuel to fl ush the toilet at 30,000 feet so it now is urging passengers to go to the toilet before they board. China Southern’s latest strategy is to encourage passengers “to spend their pennies before boarding the aircraft”, a report by Xinhua news agency said. “The energy used in one fl ush is enough for an economical car to run at least 10 kilometres,” Captain Liu Zhiyuan was quoted as saying. Citing a survey by the company’s logistics department, Liu said carrying one kilogram of items such as blankets and pillows by airfor one hour uses 0.2 kg of fuel.

“This means the blankets and pillows eat up 60 tonnes of fuel every day and if each seat is loaded with three 450 gram of magazines, another 60 tonnes will be consumed,” Liu said. Don’t be surprised if blankets, pillows and in-fl ight magazines will remain on the ground, like the pennies for the loo.