Airliner showers: A very guilty pleasure

Conspicuous consumption will reach new heights — literally — when Emirates Airlines begins offering in-flight hot showers to its first-class customers. The service will be part of the deluxe accommodations provided when the airline starts operating its A380 superjumbo flights between New York and Dubai this fall. Eventually Emirates will have 50 A380s in the air with hot showers in abundance. LuxuryLaunches has all the details.

What's the problem? According to the fascinating environmental watchdog group Plane Stupid, the plane will have to carry a ton of water to provide first-class showers for all, and the carbon cost is 48,544 pounds for a round-trip flight. (Tickets cost $18,000.)

Plane Stupid's Robbie Gillett was quoted as saying, "The richest 18 percent in this country (Britain) take 54 percent of all flights. The government is telling us to take fewer flights, but the huge increase in air traffic is not due to ordinary people going on family holidays, but because of excessive flying by the moneyed classes. Is this the type of development the aviation industry really needs?"

I'm not sure a class war is needed over this issue. Common sense should suffice. Shouldn't you be clean enough when you board a long-haul flight to last 10 hours without getting funky?