Pecked to death by (flying) ducks: court decision may extinguish smoking on aircraft.

Abstract

A case this month in the Australian court may force Australia's national airline, Qantas, to make all its flights non-smoking now rather than next year and in the meantime offers hope of compensation to Australian passengers who are refused non-smoking seats. Mrs Leone Cameron brought a case against Qantas for seating her in the smoking section of a Sydney to Bangkok fight after she had booked a non-smoking seat. She subsequently suffered minor illnesses. She and nine other similarly affected passengers claimed that Qantas had misled them. The judged ruled that Qantas had misled passengers in five of the cases though he refused to rule that Qantas had misled those placed in non-smoking seats next to the smoking area. He also refused to order Qantas to make all its flights non-smoking. The ruling is important for enabling other passengers to seek compensation through consumer claims tribunals when refused a requested non-smoking seat. It also brings closer the day when smoking will be forbidden on all flights.