An airline cabin full of sophisticated, world-trotting travelers leisurely puffing away on their cigarettes has long been a familiar feature on international flights.
But with the health hazards associated with smoking becoming as much a concern abroad as they have been in the U.S., the days when travelers can light up aboard ocean-spanning flights without regard to the health of their fellow passengers may be ending.
United Airlines announced Monday that it will test smoke-free international flights from March 1 through Sept. 30.
The Elk Grove Township-based carrier will ban smoking on one of its two daily round-trip departures from New York’s Kennedy International Airport to London’s Heathrow Airport. It also will ban smoking on its daily flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Australia, a 6,504-mile journey that lasts nearly 13 hours.
In addition, United officials said that as of June 8 they will designate as smoke-free other flights from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., to London.
If the test proves popular with customers, United said it may make the smoking ban permanent and extend it to all 200 of its daily international departures from the U.S.
“We believe cutomer demand will support the smoke-free concept, but we intend to validate our thinking by sampling customer reactions,” said James Guyette, United’s vice president of marketing and planning.
United becomes the second U.S. carrier to implement a smoking ban on international flights.
Last week Northwest Airlines banned smoking in the first-class cabin sections of all its international flights.
Smoking has been prohibited on domestic flights of two hours or less since 1988. In 1990 the airlines extended the ban to include all domestic flights of six hours or less, plus all flights bound for Alaska and Hawaii. Several airlines, including United, also have banned smoking on flights to and from Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico.
Until now, however, the nation’s major carriers have been reluctant to institute even limited smoking bans on flights outside North America because of the length of the flights and for fear that many of their foreign passengers, who do not always share Americans’ concerns about smoking, would switch to European or Asian carriers.
There has been increasing movement among foreign governments and the private sector toward smoke-free environments in public buildings, workplaces and restaurants, as well as on commercial airline flights, Guyette noted.
In addition, recent market research has shown that European-based international travelers are just as concerned about the health risks of smoking as their American counterparts and that a majority of Asian international travelers also prefer a smoke-free environment while flying.
In fact, market research conducted for Northwest Airlines determined that “more than 70 percent of our (international) customers expressed a preference for smoke-free cabins,” said Bill Slattery, executive vice president of international service for St. Paul-based Northwest.
“Among U.S. and European-based international travelers, 80 percent prefer smoke-free, and among Asia-based international travelers, 63 percent prefer smoke-free,” Slattery said.
Dave Fielding, Northwest’s vice president of product development, said his carrier realizes that there are still many travelers, especially among Asians, who prefer a smoking section.
“These passengers still will be able to purchase smoking seats in our business-class and coach-class cabins,” he pointed out.
Fielding added that Northwest will monitor its first-class cabin smoking ban on international flights to see whether expansion of the ban to other cabin sections is warranted.
United’s Guyette noted that his airline now allocates 34 of 168 seats on its flights to London’s Heathrow from New York’s Kennedy for smoking and 50 of 418 seats on its flight to Melbourne from Los Angeles.
The flights on which United will test the smoke-free concept, he said, include 901 and 902 between New York’s Kennedy and London and 841 and 842 between Los Angeles and Melbourne.
Effective June 8, Flights 962 and 963 between Los Angeles and London, 954 and 955 between San Francisco and London and 920 and 921 between Washington and London also will be smoke-free through the end of September.
