I’m sure this question has been asked before in GQ, but since things are always changing in the travel world, I figured it was safe to ask again.
Do any airlines allow smoking? I’ve always assumed that Asian airlines allow smoking, but not sure if this is still the case. How about on very long international flights?
All Chinese airlines ban it, and smoking is huge there. I think it is some international regulation.
In America, I’m pretty sure it is flat out banned on commercial flights.
Not to my knowledge, even Asian airlines carry international passengers. From what I remember Australia wont let a plane land that allows smoking.
Smoking in airports varies, in Australia not within the buildings, in Singapore on the roof of the building in an outside bar, in London allowed in special smoking areas, in Madrid yep in the airport but not on tarmac, in Canary Islands as soon as you exit the plane!
It is also banned on Air Koryo (North Korean Airlines)
According to something that I read somewhere on the Interweb, smoking is not only bad for the people, but bad for the aircraft too. Allegedly, the tar and other crap in cigarette smoke tended to gunk up and reduce the useful life of the cabin outflow valve, which is used to regulate cabin pressure. If that is in fact true, I guess that’s another incentive for the airlines to ban smoking.
The first restrictions on smoking aboard commercial aircraft in the US began in 1973 be the Civil Aeronautics Board. The current statute was enacted in 1989 and significantly upgraded in 2000. Actual specifics, with addendums and modification are available from Federal Register :: Smoking Aboard Aircraft
I’ve flown on Indian airlines (domestic and international) several times within the past eight years, and I’ve never been on one where smoking was permitted.
Official data to back up my lame-ass anecdotal evidence:
Jet Airways: no smoking allowed
Kingfisher Airlines: no smoking allowed
I’m starting to sense a pattern here.
I understand both Johnny Depp and Sean Penn insist on being flown via corporate jet so they can smoke all the way. Joni Mitchell reportedly nearly bankrupted a music festival with her insistence that they had to fly her in one one so she wouldn’t have to have a break in her nicotine intake.
A question for smokers; is it a viable alternative to use a nicotine patch for the duration of the flight? Or how about those e-cigarettes?
e-cigarettes were prohibited on the Southwest flight I was on yesterday.
I used the patch on long flights to Asia. Worked good for me.
Even then, it can be difficult to find a charter aircraft whose owner will allow smoking on board. That stink is impossible to get rid of. The airplane I fly is nearly 25 years old, and I can tell by looking into one of the small venturi outflow ports on the side of the fuselage that someone somewhere along the line smoked. When our guy bought the airplane he completely gutted the interior, so there is no stink anymore.
I checked Aeroflot.
I was highly entertained when I flew into Madrid by listening to the announcement in the airport, first in Spanish then in English, that they were required by law to inform you that you could smoke in the airport, but out of consideration for others, please only do so in the designated areas.
When my friends and I flew from London to Rome on Ryanair in November 2009, they sold smokeless cigarettes in flight. Two of my companions were smokers so they bought some and “smoked” them right then and there.
I’ve made several trips in First Class on Delta, both international & domestic with only a handful of FA’s making any remark. The grumpier coach FA’s don’t like anyone to have a remotely decent flight, so they gripe early & often, or sometimes airlines like oh, I don’t know- Delta- prohibit e-cigs. In which case I simply go Mission Impossible using various disguises, stealth, and trickery to gain entry to the lavatory. I also have a technique that involves the very risky and clandestine maneuver, “Holding your breath”. There is nothing to exhale from an e-cig after about 10 seconds.
Oh yeah, that’s right you nicotine haters- I am right there beside you and you don’t even know it. On a plane. In a theater. In a restaurant. In the office.
And there are millions of me. 
It’s not the nicotine, it’s the tar, carbon monoxide, arsenic and all the other toxins that get wafted around. Chew nicotine gum or suck on lozenges if you need the drug for the time you’re in a shared environment.
How is it that smokers can spend 8 hours or so asleep with no smoking, but can’t spend a couple of hours awake without refraining?
I used to smoke…and this is actually a good question.
I would need a cigarette or two at least every couple hours during the day, but I never found myself needing one after I’d gone to bed, and not even if I woke up in the middle of the night. And I could usually go an hour or two after I woke up in the morning before I really wanted a cigarette.
I wonder why that is.
Right. That is why there is an increasing uproar over e-cigs.
I haven’t seen an in seat ashtray on a 737 in at least 5 years. The last was I believe a plane built for a middle eastern charter airline. The wierd part is that most lavatories still have ashtrays. I was told it was cheaper to leave the ashtrays in new lavs, it was not cost effective to rework the tooling to remove them.