Imagine this: You get on an airplane and the guy sitting next to you lights up a cigarette. You’re shocked. You try to hold your breath until you can call a flight attendant. Suddenly you look around and everyone else on the airplane is smoking too. Is this a nightmare? A flashback to back-of-the-plane air travel in the 70s? Nope. You’re just flying Smintair! The smokers airline! Smokers International Airline, Smintair for short, is the creation of Alexander Schopmann, a 55-year-old German retired stockbroker and cigarette fiend. Schopmann is a three-pack-a-day sort of fella, and says that this is not just about smoking but also about the declining quality of air travel. "I’ve been an airline passenger for 50 years," Schopmann told USA Today "It made me very angry that the gap between service and price became so big with regular airlines. Especially in the first class and business class, service is at its lowest point ever." So Schopmann’s plan is to have a premium service airline where flight attendants wear "couture," where the seats are all business and first class, caviar is served, and everyone is allowed to smoke. Is this visionary? Or just plain … smelly? We’ve smoked, and hanging in the "smoker’s lounge" in airports is bad enough. Being locked in a tube with no air coming in or going out — frankly, it sounds downright miserable. So when does Smintair start flying? Schopmann says March, but experts doubt he’ll be able to get it off the ground by then since it seems the air industry has a lot of little rules that must be abided before you can start flying. By the way, if you were wondering, the price for a smoking flight toTokyo from Düsseldorf is $12,500 for first class and $8,125 for business class. Smintair will not have any "coach" seating. Which we feel is the first good thing the wealthy have done for the working class in a long, long time.
Bravo’s The Dish
Brilliant idea, I have to admit, but seriously a bad one.
