Paid toilets are not uncommon at European train stations. At airports these are normally available free of charge as a service. Not so at Charleroi Airport in Belgium, because here you have to shell out a euro when you need to go to the toilet.

A long time ago, Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary publicly considered charging for the use of on-board toilets. The project was never implemented, so that the low-cost airline has not charged a "toilet fee" to this day. Not so at Charleroi Airport, whose biggest customer is the Irish low-cost group: For a few days now, passengers who – for whatever reason – have to go to the toilet have had to pay one euro.

Anyone who does not have a bank or credit card, which can often be the case with children and young people, for example, cannot even get in, because the new access barriers do not accept cash at all. So there is no choice between cash or card for (whatever), but whoever has a card accepted by the device is not allowed to go to the toilet.

Unsurprisingly, Charleroi Airport's paid toilet facilities are already sparking heated debates on social media and TV. Passengers told local television stations that they felt ripped off by having to pay for the toilets after landing.

Anyone who thinks that only those "quiet places" outside the security area would be affected is wrong. Charleroi has provided all toilet facilities with payment barriers. This expressly includes those directly at the baggage carousel and in the security area around the gates. So there is no legal way to escape the "toilet fee". At one euro per use, this is quite high, because in contrast to petrol stations, you get a voucher that can be redeemed in shops.

But why does Charleroi actually charge extra for the toilets? Each passenger pays a so-called passenger fee via the booked airline, the amount of which varies depending on the airport. This includes the use of the terminal and thus normally also the use of the toilet facilities. Until the “Charleroi case” this question did not even arise. The airport justifies the introduction of the "toilet tax" of one euro per use with the fact that the facilities were "often left very dirty" by the users and that "although they are cleaned every hour". The airport no longer wants to bear the costs for cleaning alone and is therefore now demanding money. However, passengers tend to suspect that the airport was looking for a new source of income and according to the motto "if you have to, then you have to" the toilets could have offered themselves...