Northwest won’t join
smoking ban

Too many of its customers
want to smoke on board, the airline says

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Northwest Airlines says it's too bad, but it is going to have to keep on letting passengers smoke on its flights between Japan and Hawaii for a while.

Following a ban on smoking on U.S. domestic flights, many airlines have already banned smoking on international segments too.

Others plan to do so July 1. Northwest, however, said its Japanese customers are still too keen on smoking and it would lose too much business to competitors if it were to disallow it.

Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, who both fly regular Honolulu-Japan service, have smoking sections.

"We would like to ban smoking in the Pacific, but JAL is a prime competitor," said Doug Killian, a Northwest spokesman.

United Airlines, which also has Hawaii-Japan service, still has a smoking section on each of those flights but that is about to end.

"As of July 1, we're going to be smoke-free every place we go," said a United spokesman, Joe Hopkins.

That's okay for United, said Northwest, because its passengers on the Japan flights are predominantly Americans who understand a smoke-free atmosphere.

"United's traffic majority is Americans. The majority of ours are Japanese," Killian said, noting that the Japanese population has one of the highest percentages of smokers anywhere.

The issue has arisen in negotiations with the Teamsters Union unit that represents Northwest's flight attendants. The union wants a smoking ban because of the danger of secondary smoke to its members.

Honolulu-based flight attendants met with a Northwest official yesterday at Honolulu Airport and were told the airline can't introduce a smoking ban on Japan flights just yet.

"We're gathering their input," Killian said of the meeting with the cabin crew members. "Likely we want to change our policy," he said, but economic data in hand so far shows it as a risky step, he said.

Killian pointed out that Northwest was the first U.S. airline to ban smoking on its domestic flights, back in 1988.

United said it still has some flights to Central and South America and Asia where smoking is allowed. "Our feeling is that the majority of passengers don't want it," so it will all stop July 1, Hopkins said.

Delta Airlines was the first U.S. airline to ban smoking on all of its flights worldwide, in January 1995, said a spokeswoman, Jackie Pate. Delta found business actually picked up on its Asia flights, she said.

American Airlines said it will ban smoking worldwide on July 1.

Continental Airlines already is smoke-free worldwide.

The national Association of Flight Attendants, the union for cabin crew on 26 major airlines (but not Northwest) said it has testified and fought hard for the domestic ban now in place. "And we would like to see a complete international smoking ban," said a spokeswoman, Jill Gallagher.