alt Hacker News> Smoking was authorised on Air France flights until 2000.
I'm sorry, what? The first flight I took which I recall in detail was in 1995 and even back then the "no smoking sign" seemed redundant.
Guess it wasn't.
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By some weird overlap of times/policies, as far as I can tell, Air France never flew a Concorde flight where smoking wasn't allowed.
(British Airways banned smoking on their Concorde flights in 1997.)
Lots of Europe especially France is packed with smokers. One of those things you take for granted living in the US and once you travel abroad you realize how much of the world still burns tobacco and it’s everywhere.
"loi Évin", from 1991, do not allow people to smoke in transportation. I used to travel air France and air Inter plane from 1990 to 2000. I never see anybody smoking in a plane.
A couple of things:
From what I remember as a kid in the 1990s in the US, smoking was allowed on international flights. It was one of those grey areas that happen when traveling between countries with different laws.
I've also seen a lot of jokes about French culture being waaay more "pro smoking" than US culture.
Thus smoking beling allowed on Air France until 2000 doesn't surprise me.