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Of course there were smoking and non-smoking sections on airplanes. The same air recirculated through the entire airplane, and the non-smoking section began the very next row after the smoking section.

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Fun fact, the air quality on aeroplanes got worse after they banned smoking, because they could cut costs by re-circulating the same air for longer.

Recirculated air is still a thousand times cleaner than air with cigarette smoke in it.

You are naively assuming the only really dangerous part of recirculated air is nicotine byproducts.

Bacteria and virus loads are far more dangerous. Cigarettes take longer than a couple weeks to kill.

Air isn’t recirculated on an airplane. It’s continually brought in from outside the aircraft

50% is recirculated, 50% is from the outside. Before the 80's it was 100% from the outside, though.

That statistic doesn’t mean much.

The question is how long does it take for all the air in the plane to be replaced.

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