United May Extend Smoking Ban : Chairman Says Federal Restrictions Don’t Go Far Enough

United Airlines is likely to toughen smoking restrictions on its airliners soon, its chairman said Tuesday, extending the current federally mandated smoking ban during domestic flights of two hours or less to some longer flights.

Stephen M. Wolf, head of both United and its parent company, Allegis Corp., said in a speech to members of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers here that the two-hour ban is too short and “awkward.”

“If we apply the current rule, you wind up with some unusual aberrations,” he said. As an example, he said a Chicago-Washington flight can be less or more than two hours, depending on which direction the flight is going and on how strong the winds are.

“It is difficult to tell travelers that on certain flights on a route they can smoke and on others they cannot,” Wolf said. He said United may put its smoking prohibition in terms of miles rather than hours. A decision is “imminent,” he added.

He said the airline is also “continuing to look at” the possibility of a total ban on smoking similar to rules put into effect by Northwest Airlines on April 23, the same day that the government’s two-hour ban became effective.

Wolf, former chairman of Tiger International, parent of the Los Angeles-based air cargo carrier Flying Tiger Line, became head of Allegis in December. Tuesday’s speech and question-and-answer period constituted his first meeting with journalists since then.

Commenting on the effort by United’s pilots union to buy the airline, Wolf did not rule out the possibility but said that it would take “a black satchel full of cash.”

Pilots Pursue Acquisition

The pilots said last year that they were interested in buying the airline from Allegis for about $4 billion, saying they were primarily interested in encouraging the company to dispose of its hotel and car rental subsidiaries so that it could devote all its efforts to operating the airline.

Some of Allegis’ major shareholders felt the same way and that resulted in a restructuring of Allegis, the sale of all the non-airline subsidiaries and a change of management.

Although Allegis’ actions have satisfied 90% of the pilots’ goals, Wolf said, “I think they are still quite interested in acquiring United and (they) continue to pursue acquisition of the company.”

He said, “the management and the board of directors is not going to stand in the way of a transaction that works for shareholders, customers and employees.”

Won’t Rule Out Deal

There has been speculation recently that Allegis, which will change its name back to UAL Inc. later this month, may buy Tiger International or Flying Tiger. Wolf, in answer to a question, said Allegis has no current interest in such a move, but he would not rule out the possibility.

“You must leave me the ability to reconsider,” he said. “No one knows what tomorrow holds, but at the moment it is ‘no.’ ”

In his prepared talk, Wolf said the airline industry is moving from price competition to service competition.

“I believe that the competitive arena will firmly move to service,” he said. “(It) will be the prime determinant of how well any airline competes in the future. Now that we are back to running an airline at United--and nothing else--we have put the focus of our attention directly on service.”