Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 28, 1993 TAG: 9309280057
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STANLEY ZIEMBA CHICAGO TRIBUNE
DATELINE: CHICAGO LENGTH: Medium
A California-based charter airline known as Freedom Air will make the first of three test flights between Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and Los Angeles. And smokers will be allowed to freely indulge in their habit.
If the flights succeed,the carrier hopes to offer regular service within months. The tests will determine whether there "is sufficient interest on the part of cigarette smokers in having their very own airline," said Edward Hall, a retired United Airlines pilot who founded the new carrier.
This may seem a curious marketing ploy when the medical community is not only warning against smoking, but, increasingly, about the dangers of secondhand smoke.
But Hall, a smoker for 46 years, believes such a carrier will make sense to the millions of passengers who now must put away their cigarettes every time they board an aircraft.
An advocate of "freedom of choice" and "smokers' rights," Hall is investing $300,000 of his own money to find out.
Hall won't say how many smokers have booked reservations on the test flights - the others are scheduled for Oct. 5 and 12 - but acknowledges that unless more bookings are made, his idea is likely to go up in smoke.
"There's been a lot of interest expressed in our charter operation by people across the country, but, so far, there hasn't been a lot of bookings," he conceded in a telephone interview from his home near San Diego.
Part of the problem, Hall said, is the early departure - 9 a.m. The return flights, scheduled for the same days, are to leave Los Angeles International Airport at 12:45 p.m. Pacific time.
Another problem is that travel agents in Chicago and Los Angeles haven't been aggressively marketing the new service, Hall said.
Still, he's optimistic, and determined.
"We will go through with the first three flights for which we have contracted, regardless of how many people we have aboard," he said.
Hall came up with the idea in 1988, when the government ordered a smoking ban on domestic flights of two hours or less.
To get around the ban and a 1990 federal law that banned smoking on all domestic flights shorter than six hours, Hall obtained approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation to establish Freedom Air as a public charter company. To take one of the company's flights, travelers, in effect, take out "membership" in the charter, paying a one-time membership fee of $20 in addition to their fare.
Freedom Air has a marketing campaign in the Chicago and Los Angeles areas, advertising the availability of the smokers-only flights in newspapers and on radio. The carrier also planned to run local TV commercials.
Hall has contracted with American Trans Air, the largest charter airline in the country, to provide a 362-seat L-1011 wide-body aircraft and crews.
Tickets for the flights are $201 one way and $402 round trip. That's about $130 cheaper than a one-way ticket on a commercial airline and about $40 cheaper than the standard round-trip cost, Hall noted. Reservations can be made through a travel agent or directly with Freedom Air.
Hall is not unaware of the potential dangers of smoking or immune to the legal consequences businesses face when they allow people to smoke on their premises.
Passengers will have to sign a waiver stating they are aware of the health hazards of smoking. Because people younger than 21 cannot sign binding contracts in several states, they will not be allowed to use the service.
Hall, who flew domestic and international flights for United for 28 years before retiring in February, is convinced the government ban has enough smokers fuming to warrant an airline exclusively for them.
And the Clinton administration's hopes of getting smoking banned on all international flights by 1995 should give smokers even more impetus to support their own carrier, he said.
"Twenty to 25 percent of the people in the U.S. are still smokers, and they should have the opportunity to enjoy what was previously afforded them, instead of being treated as second-class citizens," he said.
If Freedom Air does succeed, it likely won't be the only carrier around to cater to smokers. A charter airline in Florida, Smokers Express, plans to begin service in October with a flight between Orlando and Las Vegas.
by CNB