Smokers at Belfast's largest airport can't decide whether to be delighted with a new smoking area or livid at the £1 charge for using it, writes DAN KEENAN, Northern News Editor
‘IT’S A DISGRACE, so it is,” says one. “It’s not fair,” says another. “It’s a good idea,” says a third, with a pensive flick of the ash. “Or not,” she adds. “Well, maybe.”
The burning topic is the provision by Belfast International Airport of a smoking facility for checked-in passengers and the £1 charge it attracts.
Torn between sullen acceptance of another charge and gratitude that it’s now possible to have a cigarette before boarding a flight, smokers are certainly using the airport’s most talked-about facility.
Located on the first floor near the extensive duty-free area, cafe and bar, the new, controversial provision is a humble affair.
Clear signposting directs the would-be inhaler from the perfumed shopping area to a corridor overlooking the business end of the airport. A coin-operated locking mechanism releases a substantial door into the 6m by 4m metal platform, which is partially enclosed in accordance with the legislation that has shoved smokers outside everywhere from Malin Head to Mizen Head.
It’s neither beautiful nor welcoming. There is no view and nowhere to sit. There is a metal bin that, although clearly used by some, has been ignored by others, as evidenced by the abundance of smokers’ litter. It is an example of sheer functionality: somewhere to have a quick (legal) fag, and little more. Only the levity of the smokers’ camaraderie, a sort of modern-day Dunkirk spirit, lifts the pall.
Grumbles centre on the imposition of yet another charge. It already costs £1 to be dropped off at the airport entrance and another £1 for the little plastic bag you forgot to take with you for carrying your liquids through security.
Those opting for the car park find it hard to ignore the warnings that use of a credit or debit card attracts a 3 per cent charge. Others have noted the levels of air-passenger duty levied on all travellers departing from any airport in Britain or Northern Ireland on an aircraft with 20 seats or more. This costs £12 for any flight within the UK or EU but rises to £60 for Belfast’s scheduled transatlantic service, to Newark. The equivalent charge in the Republic is €3.
Budget air travel, with its attendant charges, add-ons, fees and other terms for the same thing, has gradually become a lot less budget. For some the £1-per-smoke levy is a charge too far. “I think it’s a disgrace,” says the only man amid a dozen or so users of the smoking facility. “I’m only off a cruise liner and it had a beautiful smoking room: settees and armchairs and everything; a coffee table and a waiter service.”
Belfast International is a greatly expanded and more agreeable place of late. Passenger numbers are up to 4.2 million annually, despite the recession, and, having removed much of the grim security infrastructure that marked the Troubles era, the airport has just invested a further £10 million to upgrade its facilities and to incorporate the new security demands imposed in the post-September 11th climate.
As a result the place is bright, open, passenger-friendly and devoid of the manic crowds that make up the Heathrow shuffle.
The smoking facility opened early last month, just before the Easter holidays, “in response to customer demand”, says Deborah Harris of Belfast International Airport. “Because of security there was no real mechanism to get back outside again,” she says. With two or three hours’ check-in time needed these days, some airport staff had to accompany flyers in need of a cigarette back to the entrance, where a smoke is still free.
Delayed flights made the problem worse.
“The £1 charge comes from the fact that we had to design [the smoking area], construct it, maintain it, and the decision was taken that in order to recoup those costs there would be a charge.”
The publicity, some of it harsh, has surprised Harris and management at the airport. “We’ll see how it goes, and we’ll review it once it’s paid for. It’s been running now for over two weeks – until the media turned up,” she says, laughing.
Belfast International has its supporters, though, in the perhaps unlikely form of the smokers’ lobby group Forest. It has commended the airport on its efforts to accommodate tobacco users. “The modest charge of £1 for entry to the smoking room seems fair, providing that the charges go towards the maintenance of the smoking facility, as the airport assures us they will,” says Paul Rowlandson of Forest.
