Cigars In the Air? Jahwohl, Mein Herr!

A retired German stockbroker is tired of not being able to smoke while flying commercially, so he's promised to launch an all-smoking airline by October that will fly from Dusseldorf to Tokyo and Shanghai. 

"Demand is strong," Schoppmann told a Reuters reporter this week.  "We get people who say they want to fly with us even though they have no business in Tokyo or Shanghai."

Schoppmann, who is 55 and smokes 20 cigarettes a day, says he's got a bead on three, used Boeing 747s from airlines that are replacing them with newer Airbus jumbo jets.  He plans to remove seats and sell only business and first-class tickets.  He promises 139 seats in a jet that normally fits 559 passengers.  He intends to charge no more than other airlines do for front-of-the-plane fares.  Except he'll serve caviar or offer passengers Cuban cigars.

About a third of Germans smoke regularly, though the government is considering issuing new, tougher anti-smoking regulations that will ban smoking in some public places.  Germans have been reluctant to embrace such laws because Adolf Hitler forbade smoking in public places.

But Schoppman belittles health considerations and plans to call his airline Smintair, or Smoker's International Airways.  And if his hunch that the demand for an all-smoking airline is great, he hopes to add flights to Johannesburg and Sao Paulo. 

My take: Don't, uh, hold your breath.