Inflight smoking refers to smoking tobacco on an aircraft while in flight. While once prevalent, it is now prohibited by almost all airlines and by many governments around the world. The bans on inflight smoking have been imposed in a piecemeal manner around the world beginning in the 1980s. The use of electronic cigarettes is also prohibited on many flights.
In 1969, consumer advocate Ralph Nader was among the first in the United States to call for a smoking ban on airlines. [1] [2] Pressure for an inflight smoking ban also came from flight attendants' unions, such as the Association of Flight Attendants.
United Airlines created a nonsmoking section in 1971, the first airline to do so. [3] In 1994, Delta was the first US airline to ban smoking on all worldwide flights. [4]
In the United States, both tobacco companies and airlines fought any regulation. [3] In 1976, the US Civil Aeronautics Board banned cigar and pipe smoking on aircraft, [5] but under pressure from tobacco interests, it sought to limit this ban in 1978. [6] Also, CAB banned and then unbanned smoking in 1984, with chairman Dan McKinnon saying, "Philosophically, I think nonsmokers have rights, but it comes into marked conflict with practicalities and the realities of life." [7] After years of debate over health concerns, [8] [9] Congressional action in 1987 led to a ban on inflight smoking. [10] [11] [12] [13] In 1988, airlines based in the United States banned smoking on domestic flights of less than two hours, [14] [15] [16] which was extended to domestic flights of less than six hours in February 1990, [17] [18] [19] and to all domestic and international flights in 2000. [20] [21] [22] [23] The 1990 ban applied to the passengers and the cabin of the aircraft, but not the flight deck; pilots were allowed to continue smoking after the 1990 ban due to concerns over potential flight safety issues caused by nicotine withdrawal in chronic smokers. [24] Despite a prohibition of smoking, the US Federal Aviation Administration regulations mandate that functioning ashtrays be conspicuously located on the doors of all airplane bathrooms. This is because there must be a safe place to dispose of a lit cigarette if someone violates the no-smoking rule. [25]
In 1990, Air Canada adopted a nonsmoking policy on all its routes. In 1994, Canada was the first country to ban smoking on all flights operated by Canadian carriers, which also covered charter flights, but not foreign airlines flying to Canada. It had previously banned smoking on commercial domestic flights in Canada and international flights of less than six hours, which obviously did not cover the Japan route. Canadian Airlines had opposed the blanket ban, saying it would put the airline at a competitive disadvantage especially on the lucrative Japan route. It said it would lose millions of dollars in business from smoking passengers. It estimated it would lose $22 million in annual revenues on its 14 flights a week to Japan. It said that three quarters of its passengers on the Japan route were Japanese and that 60% of them smoked. [26]
In March 1995, the United States, Canada, and Australia agreed to ban smoking on international flights traveling between those countries. [27]
In April 1988, Japan Airlines (JAL) was the first Japanese airline to introduce a smoking ban on domestic flights of less than one hour, which was extended in October 1990 to flights of less than two hours. [29] In 1998, All Nippon Airways and JAL banned smoking on all domestic flights, which covered more than 50% of Japanese domestic travelers. [30] These airlines extended the ban to international flights in March 1999, among the last airlines to ban smoking on international flights. [31] Japan Tobacco lobbied the airlines to reconsider the ban, noting that smoking was earlier banned on all flights of 22 foreign airlines using Japanese airports and that with the smoking ban by the two major Japanese airlines more than 80% of seats on international flights departing from Japan would be nonsmoking. [32]
In 1986, flag carrier of Turkey, Turkish Airlines banned inflight smoking for all domestic flights and international flights of less than six hours. The airline banned all inflight smoking in 1999. [33]
In 1988, SAS made domestic flights in Sweden and Norway non-smoking and in 1989, the policy was expanded to domestic flights in Denmark and flights between the Nordic countries. In 1996, SAS flights to the Benelux countries, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the United Kingdom became non-smoking. In 1997 SAS banned smoking on all flights. Also in 1997, the European Union banned smoking on flights in member states. Air France, the French state-run carrier, did not allow inflight smoking from November 2000.[ citation needed ]
Aurigny Air Services which is based in the Bailiwick of Guernsey became the first airline in the world to ban smoking entirely on its flights, in July 1977. The first United Kingdom airline to ban smoking was Loganair which banned smoking on all flights in 1980. [34] The Flag carrier British Airways introduced a trial ban on smoking on some flights in 1990 and banned smoking on all flights in 1998. Virgin Atlantic banned smoking on all flights in 1995. [35]
Australia banned smoking on domestic flights in December 1987, on international flights within Australian airspace in 1990, and in 1996 banned smoking on all Australian international flights.[ citation needed ]
Cuba’s state-owned Cubana banned smoking on international flights in 2014.
China banned smoking on domestic flights in 1983. In 1993, China announced that all flights would be smoke-free by January 1995. [36] Both 1983 and 1993 bans only applied to passengers smoking in the cabin, while pilots were allowed to smoke in the cockpit. A total ban of inflight smoking was announced in October 2017, and individual airlines were given two more years before a cockpit ban was to take effect; however, this concession was scrapped in January 2019 following incidents that triggered safety concerns. [37]
The first smoking-related accident happened on 6 August 1937, when an international Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Prague crashed near Herina after a passenger lit a cigarette in the toilet, causing accumulated avgas fumes to ignite. All 6 occupants (3 crew, 3 passengers) were killed. [38]
Following the crash landing of Varig Flight 820 -- due to a fire possibly caused by a lit cigarette thrown into a lavatory waste bin -- in 1973, the US Federal Aviation Administration banned smoking in aircraft lavatories. [39] Following a fire that originated in a lavatory (not necessarily from smoking) on Air Canada Flight 797 in June 1983, resulting in the death of 23 passengers, new requirements to install smoke detectors in lavatories were brought in.
Normally, passengers found to be smoking on non-smoking flights will, at least, face a fine and, at most, be arrested and detained upon landing. Due to stringent security measures, this often causes disruption; a flight may have to be diverted or a scheduled landing might have to be expedited upon arrival at the destination airport in order to escort the smoker from the plane.
Such regulations have on occasion met with defiance; in 2010 a Qatari diplomat was arrested upon arrival at Denver International Airport for smoking in the onboard lavatory on United Airlines Flight 663 and for making threats; when confronted by airline staff, he jokingly suggested that he was attempting to set his shoes on fire. [40]
On February 3, 2013, a family of four were accused of smoking during a Sunwing Airlines flight from Halifax to the Dominican Republic. The flight made an unscheduled landing at Bermuda L.F. Wade International Airport, where the two parents of the family were arrested by Bermuda Police Service and subsequently sentenced to a $500 fine or 10 days in prison. [41] [42]
Most new aircraft, built after the no-smoking regulations were put into place, now have a permanently lit no-smoking sign that can not be independently turned off.[ citation needed ]
In October 2015, the United States Department of Transportation prohibited the use of electronic cigarettes on flights, as well as transporting such devices in checked luggage, [43] because of fire risk from their batteries. In July 2019, an Air China aircraft made an emergency descent after a pilot's e-cigarette triggered a false smoke alarm in the air conditioning system, causing a loss of cabin pressure. [44] [45]
Japan Airlines Co., Ltd. is the flag carrier of Japan. JAL is headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Haneda Airport, as well as Osaka's Kansai International Airport and Itami Airport. The JAL group of which it forms part include Japan Airlines, as well as; J-Air, Japan Air Commuter, Japan Transocean Air, and Ryukyu Air Commuter for domestic feeder services, and JAL Cargo for cargo and mail services.
Smoking bans, or smoke-free laws, are public policies, including criminal laws and occupational safety and health regulations, that prohibit tobacco smoking in certain spaces. The spaces most commonly affected by smoking bans are indoor workplaces and buildings open to the public such as restaurants, bars, office buildings, schools, retail stores, hospitals, libraries, transport facilities, and government buildings, in addition to public transport vehicles such as aircraft, buses, watercraft, and trains. However, laws may also prohibit smoking in outdoor areas such as parks, beaches, pedestrian plazas, college and hospital campuses, and within a certain distance from the entrance to a building, and in some cases, private vehicles and multi-unit residences.
A pre-flight safety briefing is a detailed explanation given before take-off to airline passengers about the safety features of the aircraft they are aboard.
Varig Flight 820 was a flight of the Brazilian airline Varig that departed from Galeão International Airport in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 11 July 1973, for Orly Airport, in Paris, France. The plane, a Boeing 707, registration PP-VJZ, made an emergency landing in onion fields about five kilometres from Orly Airport, due to smoke in the cabin from a fire in a lavatory. The fire caused 123 deaths; there were only 11 survivors . Relief Captain Antonio Fuzimoto was the pilot who handled the controls and landed the plane in the field.
Smokers Express was a Cocoa Beach, Florida-based company that would have provided smoking flights to destinations within the United States. Founded in 1993 by William Walts and George "Mickey" Richardson, the company never received enough funding to begin operations.
Smoking is a practice in which a substance is combusted and the resulting smoke is typically inhaled to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream of a person. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, which have been rolled with a small rectangle of paper into an elongated cylinder called a cigarette. Other forms of smoking include the use of a smoking pipe or a bong.
An aircraft lavatory or plane toilet is a small room on an aircraft with a toilet and sink. They are commonplace on passenger flights except some short-haul flights. Aircraft toilets were historically chemical toilets, but many now use a vacuum flush system instead.
In the early 20th century, German researchers found additional evidence linking smoking to health harms, which strengthened the anti-tobacco movement in the Weimar Republic and led to a state-supported anti-smoking campaign. Early anti-tobacco movements grew in many nations from the middle of the 20th century. The 1933–1945 anti-tobacco campaigns in Nazi Germany have been widely publicized, although stronger laws than those passed in Germany were passed in some American states, the UK, and elsewhere between 1890 and 1930. After 1941, anti-tobacco campaigns were restricted by the Nazi government.
The use of tobacco for smoking in New Zealand has been subjected to government regulation for a number of decades. On 10 December 2004, New Zealand became the third country in the world to make all indoor workplaces including bars and restaurants smoke-free. The smoking rate in New Zealand was about 8% as of 2023 when the new government planned to eliminate the nation's smoking ban to fund tax cuts.
Smoking in Japan is practiced by around 20,000,000 people, and the nation is one of the world's largest tobacco markets, though tobacco use has been declining in recent years.
Tobacco politics refers to the politics surrounding the use and distribution of tobacco.
Smoking in China is prevalent, as the People's Republic of China is the world's largest consumer and producer of tobacco. As of 2022, there are around 300 million Chinese smokers, and 2.4 trillion cigarettes are sold there every year, 46% of the world total.
Tobacco smoking in Hong Kong has declined in recent decades, with 10 percent of Hong Kongers smoking on a daily basis as of 2017. It is the policy of the Hong Kong government to discourage smoking. Smoking is banned in most public places and tobacco advertising is prohibited.
The United Airlines Flight 663 incident was a "minor international incident" in 2010 involving a Qatari diplomat on the leg of a United Airlines flight from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to Denver International Airport. The diplomat prompted a mid-air terrorism alert after smoking in the aircraft lavatory, which led the Qatari government to recall him two days later. United no longer uses Flight 663 as a DCA-DEN-LAS route. As of April 2023, UA663 is now used on the Denver-Albuquerque route, flown by a variety of aircraft types.
SmokinginCanada is banned in indoor public spaces, public transit facilities and workplaces, by all territories and provinces, and by the federal government. As of 2010, legislation banning smoking within each of these jurisdictions is mostly consistent, despite the separate development of legislation by each jurisdiction. Notable variations between the jurisdictions include: whether, and in what circumstances ventilated smoking rooms are permitted; whether, and up to what distance away from a building is smoking banned outside of a building; and, whether smoking is banned in private vehicles occupied by children.
Tobacco is an agricultural product acting as a stimulant triggering complex biochemical and neurotransmitter disruptions. Its main ingredient is nicotine and it is present in all cigarettes. Early tobacco usage was for medical cures and religious purposes. In the early 1900s, cigarette usage became increasingly popular when it was sold in mass amounts. In 1964, the Surgeon General of the United States wrote a report concerning the dangers of cigarette smoking. In the United States, for the past 50 years efforts have been made so that the public should be aware of the risks of tobacco usage.
CAAC Flight 2311 or China Northwest Airlines Flight 2311 was a scheduled passenger flight from Changsha Datuopu Airport, in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, China, to the former Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. On 24 December 1982 it was flown by an Ilyushin Il-18B. After landing at Baiyun Airport, a fire in the cabin produced toxic smoke whereupon the crew stopped the aircraft on the runway and evacuated the passengers. The fast-developing fire killed 25 passengers and seriously injured 22 passengers and 4 crew members. The fire, which was started by a passenger's cigarette, destroyed the aircraft.
Tobacco smoking is popular in North Korea and culturally acceptable among men, but not for women. As of 2014, some 45% of men are reported to smoke daily, whilst in contrast only 2.5% of women smoke daily, with most of these being older women from rural areas. Smoking is a leading cause of death in North Korea, and as of 2010 mortality figures indicate that 34% of men and 22% of women die due to smoking-related causes, the highest mortality figures in the world. There are tobacco control programs in North Korea, and although smoking was not prohibited in all public spaces, the smoking rates have declined since their peak in the 2000s.
All domestic aeroplane flights have been totally smoke-free since 1983 and, in 1993, China announced a total ban on smoking on all flights by January 1995.
