ANA new lavatory doors. A hands-free experience

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is rolling out the world’s first hands-free door that allows easy access to lavatories on its aircraft as a response to the coronavirus pandemic.

This enhancement mechanism will allow a more hygienic experience in a part of an airplane that nobody wants to touch.

But for us flight attendants, this raises a big alarm: If passengers are not able to get in a lavatory door with a big sign that says PUSH – Are they going to be able to get out now? We can only see more trouble coming our way.

ANA started trials last August at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to gather feedback, however the only location was at ANA’s lounge.

Inside the lavatory, the locking mechanism works exactly the same way but features a bigger button that slides from one side to another to lock and unlock the door, meaning you can use your elbow and have an hands-free experience.

In order to open the door, the  silver latch lavatory door handle now has a spring attached to it so that you can open it by pressing in instead of by pulling out.

The hands-free lavatory will be installed on 11 Boeing 787-8 aircraft, two Boeing 787-9 aircraft, and eight Boeing 777-200. The initial installation will be for aircrafts serving domestic routes, while ANA hopes to introduce the system to all domestic and international aircraft in the future.