Sitting pretty: Airplane toilets are now leading a highly competitive luxury air travel arms race | CNN

Looming on a screen above a room crammed full of top decision makers from rival airlines across the globe, Emirates President Tim Clark took aim and threw down the gauntlet. His target? The toilet. “I’m working on en-suite bathrooms in first class,” he told CNN’s Richard Quest via video call at the Center for Aviation (CAPA) Airline Leader Summit in Berlin last month. “I want everybody to hear that so everybody rushes out the door to find out how they can get bathrooms in first-class suites.” Restroom refinements may sound like a trivial next frontier, but they’re a potentially pivotal battleground in a highly competitive luxury air travel arms race worth billions of dollars annually, as airlines wrestle to reel in highflyers with deep pockets. Africa’s biggest airport is being built in Ethiopia for $12.5 billion High-end innovation can offer sky-high rewards. Business and first-class cabins generate roughly 15% of passenger revenue despite making up just 3% of passengers, according to trade group the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Premium-class travel grew globally by 11.8% to 116.9 million passengers in 2024, a report published last year by the IA