Yes, you can smoke at San Salvador Óscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport (SAL) — outdoors, in the open air outside the terminal buildings, before you clear security. The interior of both terminals and every airside gate area is smoke-free, so the landside forecourt is the only place to light up.
SAL, El Salvador’s only major international gateway, sits south of San Salvador and handles around 5.3 million passengers a year through two connected terminals.
Outside the Terminal: Before Security
The only place to smoke at SAL is outdoors, landside, outside the terminal buildings before the security checkpoint. This is where departing passengers smoke before check-in and arriving passengers smoke after collecting their bags.
Inside the Terminal and Airside: Smoke-Free
Neither terminal has a smoking room past security. The airport’s own three VIP lounges — the two Aeroconnections lounges airside near Gates 13 and 19, and the Avianca Sala VIP in the main terminal — each publish a non-smoking policy, so a lounge pass does not buy you a place to smoke. El Salvador’s tobacco control law names air terminals directly among the enclosed spaces where smoking is banned, and the airport’s practice matches that: nothing indoors, nothing airside, in either terminal.
Connecting Through SAL: The Avianca Hub
SAL carries a large share of Avianca’s Central American connecting traffic. For the transit passenger, no smoking facility after security is confirmed anywhere at SAL — smoke landside, outside the terminal buildings, before you clear the checkpoint that leads into the gate areas.
E-Cigarettes and Vaping
SAL publishes no separate rule for e-cigarettes. El Salvador’s Decreto 63, the regulation implementing the tobacco control law, extends the indoor smoking ban to e-cigarette use in the same enclosed spaces, including air terminals; the open-air landside option before security applies to vaping too.
Summary
| Area | Smoking | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal 1 interior | No | Smoke-free throughout |
| Terminal 2 interior | No | Smoke-free throughout |
| After security / airside (both terminals) | No | No smoking room; VIP lounges are non-smoking |
| Outdoor forecourt (landside) | Yes | Before security only |
| Vaping / e-cigarettes | Same as smoking | Outdoor forecourt only |
For El Salvador’s airport smoking rules and vaping law, see our El Salvador airport smoking guide.