Commentary

The Smoky Skies

Modern-day lepers will soon have an airline all their own:

A new airline for smokers only is scheduled to make its first flights in March 2007. Smintair (Smokers’ International Airways) has been founded by a German businessman, Alexander W. Schoppmann, in the hope of attracting the Asian business market as well as pro-smoking Europeans. Smintair plans to fly jumbo jets with 30 first-class and 108 business-class seats equipped with televisions, DVDs, gourmet food and “charming and beautiful” flight attendants. And ashtrays, of course.

Article here, and from the Smintair website:

Allowing our guests to smoke is one of the freedoms we are happily prepared to grant. Non-smokers will find the cabin air more refreshing than on any other flight with any other airline, as SMINTAIR adds fresh outside air to the conditioning system! This is more expensive, as it burns more fuel, but it is seen as an additional service to our guests.

Related: A Pack of Lies: The Surgeon General hypes the hazards of second-hand smoke