Questions About Smoking Ban

Here are the answers to frequently asked questions about the airline smoking ban that went into effect at 12:01 a.m. today.

Question: What flights are covered by the ban?

Answer: Those that are scheduled as lasting two hours or less. Charter flights and international flights and any flight by a foreign airline are exempt.

Q: What if the flight is delayed in the air or on the ground and takes longer than two hours?

A: The no-smoking ban still will apply as long as the scheduled time of the flight is two hours or less.

Q: For purposes of the smoking ban, what is considered a flight?

A: A flight is any single segment between two cities. On a Washington-Los Angeles flight with a stop in St. Louis, for example, the ban would apply to the Washington-St. Louis segment that is less than two hours, but not to the St. Louis-Los Angeles segment, which exceeds two hours.

Q: How do I determine whether a flight is two hours or less?

A: Check the airline schedule or ask the travel agent to give you the scheduled departure and arrival times of each flight segment to determine the duration of the flight. Take note that the departure and arrival will be in local time and any change in time zones must be taken into account.

Q: Who enforces the smoking ban?

A: Normally a flight attendant will advise a passenger to stop smoking. If that does not work, the passenger will be asked to provide his or her name and address, which will be forwarded to the Federal Aviation Administration for enforcement action. If the passenger refuses to provide the information, he or she may be guilty of interfering with the operation of a flight crew, a federal crime, and may be subject to arrest upon landing.

Q: What is the penalty for smoking on a no-smoking flight?

A: A passenger may face a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for each offense. Tampering with a smoke detector in an aircraft lavatory carries a $2,000 fine.

Q: On some flights a trip between two cities may take less than two hours in one direction, but because of head winds or traffic flow take more than two hours when returning. How does the smoke rule treat this?

A: The smoking ban does not apply to flights of more than two hours. However, airlines are free to prohibit smoking on any flight if they wish to maintain consistency. Some airlines have chosen to impose a smoking ban on flights going in both directions between the same two cities if the elapsed times are similar.