State’s Anti-Smoking Bill Lights Up Airline Travelers

When Bob Johns, a Tustin salesman, stepped off a plane in Denver recently to meet a new client, the man took one whiff and asked if Johns had spent the morning in a bar.

“Rather sheepishly, I told him no,” Johns said. “I had been sitting near some smokers.”

Johns’ problems with airborne smokers were echoed by other Labor Day weekend travelers at John Wayne Airport Saturday who reacted to news that the state Assembly last week passed a bill that would prohibit smoking on all commercial flights beginning and ending in California. Smokers and nonsmokers alike generally applauded the bill, which the state Senate is expected to adopt this week and send to Gov. George Deukmejian. The governor has not taken a position on the issue.

Chris Harrelson had just stepped off a plane at John Wayne and had lit a cigarette when he was asked if smoking should be banned on all commercial flights.

“I think it’s a damn good idea,” he said, taking a long drag while waiting for a ride outside the terminal. “Ever sit next to a smoker on a flight? It’s awful. Even I can’t stand it.”

Beatrice Emmons, waiting to board a Northwest flight home to St. Paul, Minn., agreed, “It’s a wonderful idea.” A nonsmoker, Emmons said she is allergic to tobacco smoke. When she flies, “I don’t like to smell somebody’s cigar for 2,000 miles.”

Clutching her bag and Bible, the 50-year-old grandmother proudly said that Minnesota is attempting to become the first “smoke-free state” in the nation. Referring to California’s proposed in-flight smoking ban, she added: “I think Minnesota could learn a little something from your Legislature.”

To Johns, 46, smoking is an emotional issue, particularly when somebody lights up 25,000 feet in the air.

“It is a royal pain . . .,” said the salesman, who flies once week and was returning Saturday from a weeklong swing to the East Coast. “When people smoke on a plane, your clothes smell like it for days.”

His hope, he said, was that “the politicians have the courage to carry through with this ban. “

Industry officials were not as quick to praise California lawmakers. Spokesmen for several air carriers operating at John Wayne Airport questioned whether the state has the right to set policy for an industry that is already regulated by the federal government. And they said that the public, not elected officials, ultimately should decide the smoking question.

React to Customers

“We react to the demands of our customers, and if the cry becomes loud enough to do away with smoking we would probably consider it,” said William Wren, a spokesman for Minneapolis-based Northwest Airlines. “But for now we have a percentage of paying passengers who like to smoke.”

Al Becker, a spokesman for American Airlines at company headquarters in Dallas, agreed:

“Even though there are ever greater numbers of nonsmokers, it remains a fact that millions of people still smoke, and many of them are revenue-producing customers. . . . We must recognize the interests of both.”

Becker, who said American was one of the first national carriers to offer no-smoking sections on flights back in the early 1970s, argued that existing laws go a long way to protect the rights of nonsmokers. Under federal law, he said, airlines must provide a seat in a nonsmoking section for every passenger who requests one, even if it means reducing the size of the smoking section.

Only one airline has ever voluntarily prohibited smoking on flights, but the experiment ended when it was determined that the ban hurt business. The policy became something of a trademark for Dallas-based Muse Air, which went out of business in 1985 because of financial troubles.

Ban Seen as Extreme

To some, banning tobacco on all flights is bit extreme.

“I can see it on flights shorter than two hours,” said Kathy Lazor, a smoker who had just arrived from Monterey to spend the long holiday weekend with her mother in San Juan Capistrano. “But if I was going to Paris, I’d need a cigarette. It’s a long flight.”

Continental flight attendant Shaun Zinuga said smoking is a “non-issue” among most passengers. He said he rarely gets complaints while in the air about smokers and that he doesn’t find the habit all that offensive.

“The airlines have it under control,” he said, rushing to catch a flight for Chicago. “So what’s all the fuss.”

Ken Griffithe, a general aviation pilot from Long Beach, views the issue this way:

“Whether the airlines are happy or not, the ban on smoking was coming. . . . It was bound to. People don’t want to be trapped in a tight space with someone who chain-smokes. It’s a ghastly thought, isn’t it?”