UPDATE | Perth Airport has issued the following clarification to the report in WA Today which claimed the airport was set to open the first of two smoking rooms at its domestic and international terminals.
"Perth Airport is not constructing ‘smoking rooms’ as implied in the WA Today article" a spokesperson for the airport stressed.
Instead, it is building a "well-ventilated outside smokers’ shelter in the vicinity of Domestic Terminal 3, but well away from the main doors of the terminal", and not a fully-enclosed facility inside the airport.
The shelter is designed "to address the issue of smoking on the forecourt of the terminals so that passengers, visitors and airport workers did not have to walk through a curtain of smoke to enter the terminals."
“This is a pragmatic approach to eliminate the impact of passive smoking on all workers and visitors to the airport" said Perth Airport CEO Brad Geatches.
"The facility we are building is not a room, but a well-ventilated area away from the front of the terminal to improve the airport experience.”
Perth Airport previously operated a smoking room at Terminal 1, but this was closed in mid-2006 when Western Australia introduced a state-wide ban on indoor smoking.
What's your take on this? Should smoking remain limited to dedicated areas outside the terminal, or should Australian airports have indoor smoker's rooms, similar to those found in many Asian and some European airports?
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas
10 Sep 2011
Total posts 162
From what I have heard from users of smoking rooms, you only have to walk in and breathe deep to get your nicotine fix. I'm happy with the idea as long as you don't have to walk through smokers at the entrance to the airport as well.
Mt Isa Airport has the best smoking setup. There is a tree across the road from the terminal adjacent to the dirt carpark. For smokers flying Air North DRW to OOL, this is brilliant break to the journey, and keeps the cigarettes away from the rest of us.
04 Nov 2010
Total posts 670
LOL, I was about to say rhe same thing as here2go, you can smell the smoker's rooms at Changi Airport as you get near them and that's outside, I reckon a smoker would only need to walk in and take a few deep breaths!
Outdoor smoking areas are all that people need, but for domestic airports they need to be landside and well away from the entrance to the airport so I don't have to walk through that cloud of smoke. International airports should have them airside but outdoors where there's a lot of fresh air.
10 Jun 2011
Total posts 56
There are only a handful of airports in the world that handle the "smoking room" issue well, Singapore which offers outdoor smoking areas airside - and indoor smoking rooms that are well ventatilated and separate from sitting/retail and food outlets, BNE international offers a smoking terrace, and airports like ICN and NRT, who have invested in top quality rooms that take away all the smoke and you cannot smell even when near. It can be done - but most airports choose not to invest, and therefore most airports now face that issue of smokers standing in droves outside the terminal entrances
Regardless of the arguments of smoking, there is still a large number of people who smoke, and as flying can be very stressful and involve long distance flying there is a high demand for people to smoke
Most airports handle this very poorly by not providing enough or large enough smoking rooms resulting in people smoking outside of them. Try transitting in DXB BKK, AUH, HKG at peak periods and see what a problem it can create
Ideally space needs to be created outdoors airside - most airports wont invest in that - although you can make a revenue generating area by providing an outdoor bar area
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