Originally Posted by
OpenSky
And might I add this applies only to US flag carriers. On Swiss and Air France, the business ( or first class lav) can sometimes be right next to the cockpit.
The rule about congregating applies to foreign-flagged carriers when inbound to the USA as well. Pax can still use the lav adjacent to the flight deck (many US carriers have this, too) but officially congregating is not permitted.
Originally Posted by
mauve
Sweet, I’ve always liked the idea of downstairs toilets for some reason. I’m actually surprised the aren’t more common.
It is a trade-off on cargo space for seats on the main deck. The A330 and A340 have an Airbus-supplied option that allows for the lav in a cargo bin setup. It is a semi-permanent install, though, so not easy to swap. Many legacy carriers do/did enough business in belly cargo that it was not considered worthwhile. Lufthansa has the lower lav on its A340-600s and Thomas Cook on the A330s based on a decision that the cargo was not going to happen.