Why Airplane Bathrooms Have Ashtrays (Even Though Smoking Is Banned)

The open use of cigarettes in public places has been restricted for many years, preventing smokers from lighting up in restaurants, stores, and even outdoor theme parks. While it's hard for people under the age of 40 or so to believe that smoking was once freely allowed in such places, it's even harder to imagine that once upon a time, airplane passengers could smoke onboard. But even though smoking on commercial airlines was banned in 2000, airplane restrooms still have ashtrays, which confuses some passengers.

According to an Airworthiness Directive posted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 1996, ashtrays were left in place due to fires in airplane restrooms. Evidently, passengers that decided to smoke despite the ban were tossing their cigarette butts into the trash. Leaving ashtrays intact reduced the chances of a fire, thus keeping everyone safe during the flight. Though cigarette smoking in the U.S. has dropped over the years, it appears that airplane ashtrays aren't going anywhere.

Flight attendant Heather Poole spoke to CNN in 2017, revealing how passengers managed to cover their bathroom smoking while onboard. "Smokers know how to hide it," she remarked. "They cover the smoke detector. They're quick."

Airplanes are widely considered to be the safest way to travel, and eliminating cigarette smoking onboard has undoubtedly made them even safer. Though smoking was banned from all commercial airlines 25 years ago, the dangers of smoking in the skies were clear before that.

According to Delicious, tragedy struck a Brazilian airline in 1973 when a tossed butt in a bathroom trash can caused a fire onboard. The smoke was so bad that the pilot had to make an emergency crash landing, which resulted in the death of 123 passengers. The first real change in regulations came in 1977, four years after the crash, when the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board banned pipes and cigars on planes.

The group continued to make progress toward reducing airline smoking in the years that followed, and the 21st century finally saw the practice banned across the board. A 2024 Flightright article noted that smoking in the air isn't just dangerous, but can also be expensive, as fines for passengers caught in the act can go as high as $4,000. So for smokers needing a good reason to quit, if health isn't a concern, perhaps money is.