Lazarski Aviation Academy
In every restroom on board the plane you will find an ashtray. However, this does not mean acquiescence to smoking cigarettes. On the contrary – for almost 30 years there have been penalties for this. So why are ashtrays installed? It’s a safety requirement.
Today it is difficult to imagine a passenger nonchalantly lighting a cigarette while sitting comfortably in a seat on an airplane. Yet such a sight was not strange back in the 1990s. Airlines set aside seats for smokers usually in the last rows. Until 1997, smoking was also allowed aboard the legendary Concorde.
The date was no coincidence. It was when the European Union banned smoking on board airplanes. In the United States, the first restrictions on smoking cigarettes were introduced in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and we had to wait until 1998 for an outright ban on smoking on domestic and international flights.
What is the penalty for smoking on a plane?
Since then, there are consequences for violating the smoking ban. In Poland, this is a fine of up to PLN 500. However, you also have to reckon with the possibility of putting an insubordinate passenger on the so-called blacklist of the carrier. In the world, penalties can be even harsher – with a stay in jail or the need to pay the equivalent of tens of thousands of zlotys.
Colin C. Law, author of A Flight Attendant’s Essential Guide, explains in a chapter:
“They are equipped to allow passengers who violate the ban and smoke in the restroom to put out their cigarette safely. A traveler who throws a cigarette butt into the waste basket would cause a high risk of fire. A plane cannot take off if there are no ashtrays on board.”
This means that an ashtray in the lavatory is neither an acquiescence nor an encouragement to light a cigarette. However, if someone decide to break the rules and suffer the consequences, he or she must be able to safely extinguish the cigarette end.
Smoking ban on airplanes. Border Guard warns
In late October, the Border Guard intervened at Chopin Airport for this reason. A 42-year-old Danish citizen “after landing a plane from Copenhagen, in violation of the ban, lit a cigarette in the lavatory and then wanted to leave the plane without waiting for the bus to arrive.” She was escorted off the plane by officers and fined.
The smoking ban on airplanes applies not only to cigarettes and cigars, but also to electronic cigarettes. In early January 2024, a Moroccan man who was flying to Wroclaw decided to smoke an e-cigarette in the plane’s lavatory. The smoke detector alerted the crew, who informed the service. After landing in the capital of Lower Silesia, he was escorted off the plane by the Border Guard. He explained his addiction, which he is unable to cope with. However, this did not absolve him of responsibility – he was also fined.
Aviation at Lazarski University
We encourage you to explore the intriguing world of modern aviation by reading our blog and enrolling in aviation majors at Lazarski Aviation Academy at Lazarski University.
