Only Two Airlines Let You Shower at 40,000 Feet, and Both Do It on the A380. The Best Airplane Bathrooms, Ranked

Emirates and Etihad sell the only showers on scheduled flights, and the plane they need is one Airbus stopped building in 2021.

The best airplane bathroom in the world is the private shower room inside Etihad’s The Residence, a three-room suite on the Airbus A380 that holds two guests at most. Second is the Emirates A380 Shower Spa, where 14 First Class passengers share two showers and get five minutes of hot water each.

Every other airline, including Singapore Airlines with its six A380 Suites, stops at a lavatory. The ranking below puts the shower first, then counts how many people share each room.

The timing is not an accident. When travel site AirAdvisor scored the world’s most extravagant airline experiences in October 2026, Euronews reported that the top two both came with a shower: The Residence at 98 out of 100 and the Shower Spa at 91.

Why the Airplane Shower Lives Only on the A380

A shower needs floor space no seat is using, and water a jet would rather not carry. The Airbus A380 is the only full-length double-deck jet airliner, and its upper-deck cabin alone is 19 feet 5 inches (5.92 m) wide, according to Emirates’ fleet specifications.

That second floor gives an airline room to spend on things that earn no seat revenue. Emirates spent part of it on two shower rooms, which were working on the delivery flight of its first A380 in July 2008. That jet flew the airline’s first A380 passenger service into New York’s JFK on Aug. 1, 2008.

Emirates says it was the first airline in the world to put showers in First Class. Each room has temperature control, a wash basin, a toilet, a changing area, a full-length mirror and heated flooring.

The water is the hard part. Aviation writer Geoffrey Thomas, who showered on the delivery flight in 2008, reported for AirlineRatings that the jet carries 570 liters (about 150 gallons) of extra water for the showers, and that none of it is recycled.

That is roughly 1,250 pounds (570 kg) of water flown on every trip. A colored gauge on the wall counts down each passenger’s share, which the same report put at 5 liters a minute for up to five minutes.

Etihad followed when its own A380s entered service with The Residence and nine First Apartments. As of November 2026, no third airline has joined them on a scheduled flight.

The Five Best Airplane Bathrooms, by Who Gets the Room

The measure here is simple: does the room have a shower, and how many passengers share it. A bathroom you share with one person beats a marble one you queue for with 13.

Rank	Airline and cabin	Aircraft	Shower	Passengers per room
1	Etihad, The Residence	A380	Private, full height	2 at most
2	Emirates, First Class	A380	Two Shower Spas	7 (14 suites, 2 rooms)
3	Etihad, First Apartments	A380	One shared shower room	9 Apartments share it
4	Singapore Airlines, Suites	A380	None	3 (6 Suites, 2 lavatories)
5	ANA, every cabin	787	None	Washlet in every class

1. Etihad’s The Residence. Etihad describes a 125-square-foot (11.6 square meter) suite with a living room, a bedroom with a double bed and a private bathroom with a full-height shower. It is the one shower in the sky that nobody outside the suite can use.

2. Emirates’ A380 Shower Spa. Fourteen private suites share two rooms, so seven passengers split each shower. The products come from Irish organic brand Voya in two ranges, Revitalise and Tranquillity, and dedicated attendants keep the rooms ready.

3. Etihad’s First Apartment shower room. Each of the nine Apartments has its own vanity unit, and Etihad gives their guests access to the First Class shower room. It is the same idea as Emirates’, shared by more people.

4. Singapore Airlines’ A380 Suites. No shower, but the best ratio of the rest. Singapore Airlines put two lavatories behind just six Suites, and one of them has a sit-down vanity counter.

5. ANA, in every class. The only entry economy passengers can use. ANA fits Washlet toilet seats, Toto’s bidet seats with a hot-water washer, in each cabin class, and said so when its Boeing 787 began flying to Frankfurt in 2012.

Why a Bathroom Became the Selling Point

A flat bed no longer sets a cabin apart. AirAdvisor did not even score conventional lie-flat seats, calling them standard, and the best business class airlines now sell them in the cabin behind First.

A shower is something a rival cannot copy on a 787 or an A350. AirAdvisor’s own method rewards that: rarity counted for 25% of its score, and it threw out anything standard, such as lounge access and conventional flat beds.

Emirates leans on it hard. The airline calls itself the world’s largest operator of international First Class, with 26,800 seats a week, and puts the Shower Spa and the onboard lounge at the top of its A380 First Class page.

The catch is that the shower is tied to one airframe. Airbus handed over the last A380 ever built to Emirates on Dec. 16, 2021, and every airplane shower in service today flies on a jet that will never be replaced like for like.

Our tally of the airlines still flying the A380 found Emirates planning to fly the type into the 2040s, while Qantas and Lufthansa are already scheduling their exits. The shower lasts exactly as long as the superjumbo does.

Where You Can Still Book an Airplane Shower

On Emirates, book First Class on a flight operated by the A380, and check the aircraft. Emirates also flies a two-class A380 with 615 seats and no First Class, which means no shower, and its Boeing 777 First Class has none either.

Etihad’s list is shorter but growing. Its A380s fly from Abu Dhabi to London, Paris, Toronto, Singapore and Tokyo, and The Residence reached a daily Bangkok flight on Oct. 26, 2026, the first time the suite has served Thailand.

Singapore Airlines’ Suites still fly on its A380s, and the full field of premium cabins is in our ranking of the best first class airlines. For everyone else, the best bathroom in the sky is an ANA Washlet, and it comes with an economy ticket.