Smoking Ban on Aircraft and List of No Smoking Airlines

The Australian Government has long been concerned with the adverse health effects of active and passive smoking on people. The aircraft cabin as an area where people are more exposed to passive smoking.

The Australian Government banned smoking on all passenger flights operated by Australian carriers on 1 July 1996.

Regulations

Smoking in aircraft is addressed in Air Navigation and Civil Aviation Regulations. The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government administers the Air Navigation Regulations whilst the Civil Aviation Regulations are administered by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA).

Air Navigation Regulation 25 prohibits smoking anywhere, including the cockpit, in a prescribed aircraft that carries passengers between airports in Australian territories. This regulation also applies to foreign aircraft that carry passengers between Australian domestic ports, but not when they carry them on routes between an overseas country and Australia.

Safety concerns are addressed in Civil Aviation Regulation 255. This Regulation prohibits a person smoking whilst in Australian territory (ie over Australian land or territorial sea) in parts of an aircraft where a no smoking sign is displayed, in a berth of a sleeper aircraft, in an aircraft toilet, during take-off, landing or refuelling.

Civil Aviation Regulation 289 prohibits smoking at an aerodrome where there is a notice indicating that smoking is prohibited, within 15 metres of an aircraft, or where smoking is likely to create a fire hazard endangering an aircraft or the aerodrome.

The policy to promote a smoke-free aviation environment is a well established element of Australia's international air services negotiations. The Department's negotiating teams have consistently encouraged Australia's bilateral partners to ban smoking on services to and from Australia.

The effect of these initiatives, as well as a growing international push to provide a smoke-free environment, has resulted in the vast majority of the world's airlines being completely smoke-free.

In 1992 Australia co-sponsored an ICAO resolution calling on all member states to ban smoking on their international services. In 1994 the Government signed a treaty to prohibit smoking on flights between Australia, the United States and Canada. New Zealand adhered to this treaty in 1997.