Smoking was banned on airplanes in a phased manner over several years. In the United States, smoking was first banned on domestic flights under two hours in 1988, then extended to flights up to six hours in 1990, and a complete ban on all domestic and international flights was imposed in 2000. In Europe, the European Union enforced a full smoking ban on all flights within EU airspace in 1997, and the UK followed suit in the same year. These bans were driven by health concerns over secondhand smoke, fire hazards, and overall air quality on planes, and were widely adopted globally by the early 2000s.
