We’ve been hearing about it for several years, but it looks like the smoker’s airline is actually going to fly this year. Smintair (short for Smoker’s International Airways), seems set to fly its Boeing 747 between Dusseldorf and Tokyo sometime before the end of the year. Info is still skimpy, but it looks as if the aircraft will be maintained by Lufthansa and have all premium seating. In fact, the airline seems to see smokers as a sociable party crowd–there are three lounges, including a bar with 12 bar stools (I wonder where they put the seatbelts). The plan is to have sponsors for luxury goods involved with the lounges, offering products for consumption at duty-free prices (cigars, caviar, etc.). The airline also promises to have the best air filtration system in the industry, cycling fresh air as well as recycling cabin air. It will be good to see that tested in use, since most of the airlines seem to need better air-circulation systems than they currrently have.  One limiting factor in terms of destinations is that Smintair also promises to have airport lounges. Both Dusseldorf and Tokyo currently allow smoking in certain “smoking ghettos” now, so unless the airline plans to build its own terminals, I’d imagine that its potential routes will be limited to airports that will allow them to have smoking lounges. I think a lot of smokers have adapted, however reluctantly, to nonsmoking flights. I know from personal experience that it was worse to only be able to get a nonsmoking seat on a flight where others could smoke; it’s easier to just bite the bullet (and the Nicorette). I suppose there will be a market for Smintair–the all-premium airline concept is certainly becoming popular–so it will be interesting to see if, literally and figuratively, it takes off.

–Mary Hunt, Editor, eFlyer