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Accommodation Takes Off in Airport's Nationwide Thanks to equal measures of entrepreneurial spirit and hard work, accommodation is fighting its way back into many of America's major airports and onto some international flights. Three innovators in the air travel segment of the hospitality industry -- Anton Airfood, Skyport Companies and Air France -- are satisfying customers in the air and on the ground. When the state-of-the-art T.F. Green Airport opened this past fall in Providence, RI, it featured "The Federal Tavern", a creation of Anton Airfood, Inc. This upscale, full-service food-and-beverage establishment warmly embraces accommodation of non-smokers and smokers alike. "The airport authority asked us to create a separate facility for smoking," said William C. Anton, chairman of Anton Airfood, which is one of the leaders in the airport hospitality industry. "we created a space that's part of the bar and part of the restaurant and we did it in such a way that customers using the smoking space don't feel as though they're in prison." Anton designed its smoking space using wood-and-glass partitions. The real secret to its success, however, is the facility's heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system. "It's so powerful," Anton says, "that you can be a non-smoker sitting at the same table as a smokers and you'll

be comfortable as the system takes the smoke right up into the ceiling." Busy Washington National Airport is opening a new concourse this spring, and airport officials originally planned not to allow smoking anywhere in the facility -- until Anton proposed the same system he had just installed in Providence. "The bottom line is that the free market system should prevail," Anton says. "If people want to operate restaurants that are in airports or anywhere else, and they choose to have a smoking environment, then God bless 'em! °We want to accommodate all of our customers," he said, "non-smokers and smokers alike, in a first class manner -- especially in the -airports, where a tremendous amount of our customers are international visitors. These people are tourists and business people from Europe and Asia, where the percentage of smokers is higher than it is here." With a non-smoking policy in an airport, Anton says, 'you're basically telling customers who smoke, 'You're not welcome,' which is not the kind of message anyone in the - hospitality industry likes to deliver." Patricia Miller, president of Anton Airfood, estimates that at least 30 J per~of the company's business would disappear if it could not accommodate its customers who smoke. Anton Airfood also practices accommodation at its establishments at LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy Airports in New York City and at Meadowsfield Airport in Bakersfield,

CA. The company has eight new airport properties planned for the next three years, and they'll be accommodating "wherever smoking is permitted," Anton says. The Aviator's Club smoking lounges, soon to celebrate their second anniversary at Denver's $5 billion International Airport, prove that accommodation can generate significant results. The two Aviator's Clubs, which are operated by Skyport Companies, have already been named among the top revenue producing concessions at the terminal. David Mosteller, president of Skyport Companies, developed the smoking lounge concept at Denver International Airport. He estimates that about 2,000 people visit the establishments each day. Like Anton facilities, Mosteller's Aviator's clubs are upscale, full-service venues which provide a comfortable environment for non-smokers and smokers who are waiting for flights or incoming passengers. Mosteller believes it is good business to provide comfortable accommodations for all of his customers and to meet the preferences of both non-smokers and smokers. "We viewed this as a major business opportunity,"_ said Mosteller. 6 "As in all such ventures, the sucess of the lounges was ~ dependent on many factors, including the highpercentage of the traveling public who smoke, the locations/,' competitive pricing, the overall atmosphere, and a good core of top-notch employees."

Both Mosteller and Anton are participants in Philip Morris USA's The Accommodation Program. The Accommodation Program works with businesses in the hospitality industry to provide training resources and materials to help design and implement plans for effectively designating separate non- smoking and smoking areas. Currently more than 30,000 businesses nationwide participate in The Accommodation Program. Some airlines are also embracing the accommodation trend. On many Air France flights between U.S. cities and Paris, passengers can now enjoy a smoker's bar -- a space enclosed by curtains, serviced by an exhaust fan and stocked with magazines, snacks and alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. The smokers' bar is available to all first and business class passengers on all Air France Boeing 747-400, 767 and Airbus A340 flights to Paris from Newark, New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. J "This service-is a big success with our customers," siad Bruce Ha~hausen, and Air France communication official in New York. "We're planning to introduce the smoker's bar on additional flights in the near future." ###