EMIRATES TO INTRODUCE TOTAL NO-SMOKING POLICY

Emirates, the international airline of the UAE, will introduce a total no- smoking policy on all flights starting August 1 this year.

HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates, said: “This decision has been taken in response to customer requests and in flight surveys we have carried out. The overwhelming majority of our customers continue to indicate to us that they prefer no-smoking flights, and I have now decided to change the company’s long standing smoking policy.

At present, Emirates offers smoking seats on most flights but has introduced non-smoking flights on some sectors in response to passenger demand. These include Dubai-Manchester, some flights between Dubai and London Heathrow and flights between Dubai and Melbourne and Sydney, the airline’s destinations in Australia.

This policy will remain unchanged until July 31. All flights departing on July 31 from any point will offer smoking seats, even if their arrival times at destination fall on August 1.

However, all flights departing after midnight on August 1 will be completely non-smoking. The first flight on which the new policy will be operated is expected to be flight EK 815 departing Colombo for Dubai at 0045 hrs.

With regard to passengers with advance seat assignments in the smoking section, on flights on and after August 1, Emirates is now beginning to notify all travel agents and Emirates booking offices of all smoking seating requests and asking them to request new seating after consultation with their clients.

Ghaith Al Ghaith, Commercial Operations Director of Emirates, said: “Effective today, for flights departing on or after August 1, our reservations system is being updated to remove all seats designated as “smoking” seats. We will immediately communicate this to all booking offices and travel agents via their Global Distribution Systems. Notification to the Official Airline Guide (OAG) will take place today and be processed as early as tomorrow.

In addition, Emirates will also notify all passengers with reservations on flights departing on August 1 or thereafter that their flight will be completely non-smoking.

Mr. Al Ghaith said: “Some of our passengers, who have not pre-reserved a smoking seat, are smokers, and often request a smoking seat at check-in. As a courtesy, we intend to inform everyone of the new status of their flight.” The airline estimates that this new policy will affect less than 10 per cent of its passengers.

Skywards, the frequent flyer programme of Emirates and Sri Lankan, will send a personal message to all its Gold, Silver and Skywards members who are smokers to advise them of the airline’s decision.