Akron-Canton Airport Goes Smoke Free
Tuesday March 29, 2005 11:23 am ET
GREEN, Ohio, March 29 -- The Airport Authority Board of Trustees voted to make Akron-Canton Airport a smoke free facility at their March meeting. The smoking ban goes into effect immediately. Smoking will still be permitted outside the terminal between doors four and five in the designated smoking area. Smoking will not be permitted at any other terminal entrance.
"Most airports throughout the US and many communities are becoming smoke free environments," said airport director Fred Krum. "Our customers told us that second-hand smoke from the bar (the only place in the terminal where smoking was permitted) was negatively affecting their travel experience. Because customer experience is so important to us, it felt like the right thing to do."
AirTran Airways, Delta Connection, Northwest Airlink, United Express and US Airways Express serve the growing Akron-Canton market. Additionally, Frontier Airlines announced earlier this month that it would commence twice- daily nonstop service to Denver starting June 15, 2005. The airport is currently in the third phase of the $60 million, five-year STAR expansion project, which focuses on building a new $24 million gate concourse and a new Shuffel Road interchange. The first two phases included longer runways, a new baggage claim wing, additional car parking and a food court with national brands. Additional airport information is available at www.akroncantonairport.com . Akron-Canton Airport, a better way to go.
ALERT! Smokers Avoid Reno Airport. No Smoking Ban In Effect!
26 September 2002
Reno/Tahoe International Airport plans to remove its smoking rooms, leaving some passengers fuming because they won’t have a place to light up once they pass security checkpoints.
The Reno airport is bucking a national trend back to accommodating smokers. The new Denver airport, which initially relegated smoking customers to the outdoors, established smoking areas within the terminals. Boston is the latest of a series of airports that has announced that smoking areas will be reintroduced. As the promises of groups such as the Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights are proven to be hollow, owners of airport concessions, as well as airport governing boards, are discovering that treating smokers as second-class passengers is bad for business.
BANGOR, Maine (AP) Pan American Airways said it needed to make temporary changes to its Bangor flight schedule and cut staff at its headquarters in Portsmouth, N.H., in order to keep the company viable.
''It will save our life, preserve our future, basically,'' company spokesman Dan Fortnam said.
Fortnam would not reveal how much money the company expects to save by making changes to flights and furloughing about 50 of its 500 employees at Pease International Tradeport in New Hampshire.
Reductions are expected at an airport in Sanford, Fla., and at other locations.
Fortnam would not say whether staffing at Bangor International Airport would be affected.
In Bangor, Pan Am will cut jet service to Sanford and Baltimore from six flights per week to four per week while adding a daily commuter flight to Baltimore through its Boston and Maine affiliate.
A newly inaugurated flight to St. John, New Brunswick, remains on the schedule.
The changes result in more flights in total from Bangor although there will be fewer jets and more commuter planes, Fortnam said.
''It saves a lot of gas, it saves a lot of payroll, landing fees and maintenance costs on the ground,'' Fortnam said. ''From our point of view, it's very consistent with what's going on in the industry.''
The changes will be in place for 60 days, he said.
A dramatic downturn in the number of people traveling, coupled with the usual seasonal slump, are the reasons behind the schedule changes, Fortnam said.
Rebecca Hupp, director of the Bangor airport, said Pan Am's commitment to the area remained strong.
''Bangor has consistently been a good market for them,'' Hupp said.
Smoking bans at airports are scrutinized
By Ken Leiser
Of The Post-Dispatch
07/13/2002 06:07 AM
Smokers can choose from nine glass rooms at Lambert Field to take a few drags between flights. At Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, you can smoke, too. If you can find your way to the curb.
"It's an air-quality issue and a health issue," said Minneapolis-St. Paul airport spokesman Patrick Hogan. "People can't smoke aboard the airplanes, and we don't see a need to provide space for that here, either."
With St. Louis aldermen weighing whether to ban smoking in Lambert Field terminals and other city buildings, the sidewalk may someday be the lone refuge for smokers catching planes in St. Louis.
To the delight of anti-smoking groups, St. Louis Alderman Freeman Bosley Sr. introduced the bill Friday.
"The trend nationally is definitely moving toward smoke-free workplaces and smoke-free public places," said Bronson Frick, associate director of Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights.
But doing away with airport smoking lounges could have unintended consequences, according to passenger groups, tobacco companies and airport officials who are rethinking existing smoking bans.
David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, said the rooms alleviate one more potential source of tension smokers face while flying. Although he doesn't smoke, he supports the lounges.
"Flying in and of itself is an anxiety-laden experience," Stempler said. "From the beginning today, it is filled with deadlines. There is a lot of tension associated with the security process."
Eliminating airport smoking rooms would force people to go outside when they want to light up - just as they do in Minneapolis-St. Paul - and thrust them into the screening queue a second time.
"It is no longer a simple matter to exit security, stand out at the curb, smoke a cigarette and get back to your gate area if you are trying to catch a flight," said John Singleton, spokesman for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
Gerard Slay, deputy director at Lambert Field, said the added foot traffic through the security checkpoints would add to the congestion travelers confront while getting to their airline gates.
Lambert officials already are adding three screening portals in the main terminal to help meet Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta's goal of keeping checkpoint lines to 10 minutes or less.
A June survey by the Airports Council International-North America found that 65 percent of those who responded said security lines at their airports were running more than 10 minutes.
Detroit Metropolitan Airport is a nonsmoking facility in accordance with a Wayne County ordinance, but airport officials are seeking proposals for a restaurant or pub with a smoking area.
With the increased emphasis on passenger screening after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, it is "more cumbersome" to point smokers out the front doors of the airport, said Detroit airport spokesman Len Singer.
"Basically, observation tells you that it is more of a problem and more of a frustration for smokers," Singer said.
First, the airport must be assured that the ventilation system will be adequate and that steps can be taken to satisfy the county ordinance, he said. Space for the smoking area is being sought in the airport's busiest terminal, which opened in February.
Boston's Logan International Airport may soon have a new smoking lounge in its international terminal, but airport spokesman Phil Orlandella said the idea was hatched months before Sept. 11.
The bar would permit smoking "under some rigid conditions," he said. Right now, it can take up to 10 minutes for an international traveler to get from the terminal to the street, where smoking is allowed.
Frick, of the Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, accused the tobacco industry of trying to undermine airports' smoke-free policies.
"Airports are highly visible locations, and the tobacco industry desperately wants to maintain the acceptability of smoking in these high-profile venues," Frick said. "The vast majority of airport patrons are nonsmokers and support smoke-free environments."
In St. Louis, Atlanta-Hartsfield and some other airports, the smoking lounges fail to prevent secondhand smoke from escaping through the entryways into the public gate areas, Frick said.
"What the tobacco industry wants is smokers and nonsmokers in the same place without physical separation," he said. "By not having the door, the tobacco industry sees it as more socially acceptable."
Hogan, the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport spokesman, said security lines at that airport are moving briskly, at a pre-Sept. 11 pace. Smokers, it appears, are not clogging the security lines too much.
"It really hasn't been that controversial," he said.
Reporter Ken Leiser: \
E-mail: [email protected] \
Phone: 314-340-8119
Maine airports to get new equipment
Tuesday, July 9, 2002
Federal teams will be visiting the airports this week to draft plans for the new checkpoints and for installing the new equipment.
As usual, the antis have the facts wrong. Butane (and disposable) lighters
ARE on the prohibited list published by the FAA online for carry-on
materials. All lighters with liquid fuel reservoirs are prohibited from
being carried on commercial flights (though they, like fingernail clippers,
can be transported in checked baggage). Zippo-type lighters (without liquid
fuel reservoirs) and safety matches (the paper ones) CAN be carried onboard
on one's person. I printed out the list from the FAA site in case I was
ever challenged about my Zippo (I have carried it and safety matches in my
purse onboard six flights and no security personnel challenged either).
Wanda
Logan to accommodate international smokers with a lounge
The Boston Globe - 6/9/2002 - click here
Security Tips for Air Travelers
Before You Leave
Air Travel Service Problems:
How complaints are handled
(Too funny)
The Portland Airport said they have hundreds of lighters and they have "NO" idea what to do with them!
One Account of What Maine Airports Are Doing With Lighters-Do Not Take With You If You Do Not Want To Lose It.
January 24,
Alan is doing a lot of traveling with this new work contract....he flew out of Portland, Maine last week and you are not going to believe this one...maybe you can email the airport and get their take and reasoning on it.
He checked in his bags. Went to enter the waiting area. They took away is lighter. It went into a container with dozens of other lighters and matches....
everything from cheap Bics to expensive Zippos! He ask if he would get it back when he came home and he was told NO. They didn't know where they were going, but they were gone.
A few minutes later he told the guard that he was going out for a cigarette. He asked if he could pick out his own lighter instead of just grabbing any one. They said yes and he found his Nascar lighter. He went outside and had a cigarette.
By now he is really mad. They could have warned him to put his lighter into his bags being checked in at the desk. It wouldn't have killed them to be sensible!
Instead, they are STEALING people's lighters with no warning. I gave him that lighter for Christmas!! So, he found an outside phone, reached up behind it and jammed in his lighter. When he returned to Portland it was still there and he got it back. He asked the guard if there would be lighters when he got to NY and they said NO.
Now....we are all for safe travel and understand that certain things must be done... but this is past any sense of sanity! Just tell us to pack our lighters, don't steal them. Treat us like adults, not children.
Is this happening now at every airport? Why isn't it on the news? Are we still Americans? People like Alan have to travel a lot....will the biggest companies in the world react when their best technical people refuse to travel? Will adult travelers get tired of this bull and look for jobs where they don't have to fly?
Would you give up an expensive heirloom lighter just to get to work? Will the airport pay for it? Can't they hold it until the end of the flight? Hell no.....we are only smokers.....we don't count.
Yours,
Samantha
Airports Open Smoking Facilities To Combat Drop-Off in Travel
Several airports -- including LAX, Dallas/Fort Worth, Boston and Detroit -- are considering opening new smoking facilities in terminals. An important reason for the change: With retail sales off 14%, airports are looking for ways to keep travelers in the terminal. Right now, many of them have to go outside to smoke.
