I’m Abhi — the creator of Airport Smoking Zones, and the person who personally writes every airport guide, news article, and long-form guide on this site.
Why I started this site
I’ve flown more than 400,000 km across 100+ airports worldwide as an aviation enthusiast and frequent traveler. Somewhere around airport #30, I realised the same problem kept happening: I’d land at a new airport, try to find the smoking area, and end up wandering for 20 minutes asking strangers, ground staff, and (occasionally) confused security personnel. The information online was fragmentary, often years out of date, and rarely terminal-specific.
The official airport websites were even worse. Most either didn’t mention smoking areas at all, or used generic copy like “designated areas are available” with no map, no terminal, no gate number. For a smoker on a 90-minute layover, that’s not useful.
So in 2017 I started Airport Smoking Zones. The premise was simple: every airport page would tell you exactly where the smoking room is — which terminal, which floor, which gate cluster, what door — based on actual recent travel experience, not corporate press release copy.
How the site works
I write all the airport pages, country guides, and news articles myself. Every page goes through the same checklist:
- Terminal-specific detail: which gates, which floors, indoor or outdoor, before or after security
- National regulatory context: the actual law (COTPA in India, Health Act 2006 in the UK, Federal Law N 38-FZ in Russia, etc.) and how it applies to airports specifically
- Vape and IQOS rules: separate from cigarettes because the rules often differ
- Layover practicality: can a transit passenger actually reach the smoking area without re-clearing security
- Recent verification: I check policy changes regularly. The site went through a full content sweep in April 2026 to flag every airport that changed indoor-to-outdoor (or vice versa) over the last 24 months.
Where I haven’t personally flown an airport recently, I rely on a network of frequent-flier readers who share photos, ratings, and tips directly on each airport page — every airport listing has a Contribute form and a rating widget built in. Every contribution is moderated before going live: I check the photo, the description, and cross-reference against the latest known policy. The site shows the contributor’s name (or “Anonymous” by default) on the airport page so credit goes where it’s due.
Travel & airport background
- 400,000+ km flown across business and personal travel since the early 2010s
- 100+ airports visited, ranging from major hubs (Doha, Tokyo Haneda, Frankfurt, Singapore Changi) to small regional airports (Imphal, Vilankulo, Hakodate)
- Specific deep familiarity with: Indian airports (60+ visited including all major metros and 25+ tier-2 cities), Southeast Asian transit hubs, Middle Eastern long-haul connection points, and Western European Schengen routing
- Aviation interest: I follow airport infrastructure changes — terminal openings, runway expansions, policy amendments — as a hobby, which keeps the site current with industry shifts (e.g., China’s 2016 indoor-smoking ban, India’s 2019 PECA vape ban, the 2022-2023 Mexico Ley Antifumo amendments)
Why trust the information on this site?
Three things underpin the site’s reliability:
Single-author voice. Every page is written by me, with consistent verification standards. No content farms, no AI-generated filler, no scraped descriptions from other sites. If you read 10 airport pages here, the same person wrote all 10 and held them to the same bar.
Reader contributions, moderated. Frequent flyers share photos and tips through the contribution system. I personally review each one before it goes live, looking for: does the photo match the airport, does the description match the verified layout, does the tip align with current policy. About 85% of contributions are accepted; the rest are either incorrect, outdated, or duplicates.
Near-real-time updates. When an airport changes its smoking policy (closes a room, opens a new terminal, raises a setback distance), the site is updated as soon as I learn about it — usually within days. The full site footer shows the last sitemap update; individual airport pages show their
lastmoddate in the meta.
Get in touch
If you’ve travelled through an airport recently and the page here is wrong, please tell me — either through the Contribute form built into the airport page itself or via the contact form. Your boots-on-the-ground report is the most reliable input I get.
If you’re a journalist, researcher, or aviation industry contact who needs to reach me for a quote or fact-check, the contact page goes straight to my inbox. I respond to legitimate inquiries within 48 hours.
Safe travels, and may your layover always have a smoking room within 100 metres of your gate.
— Abhi