Yes, you can smoke at Kotoka International Airport (ACC) — outdoors, in the open air on the landside forecourt outside Terminal 3, before you pass through security. The terminal interior is smoke-free and there is no airside smoking room, so plan your last cigarette for the open-air area outside the building.
Kotoka is Ghana’s main international gateway, serving the capital, Accra. It is operated by the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), whose Terminal 3 — opened in 2018 — handles every international flight through a modern, fully air-conditioned, smoke-free building. Smoking is confined to the open-air landside areas, so smokers should light up before check-in and security rather than count on anything inside.
Where to Smoke — Landside Forecourt
Smoking at Kotoka is outdoors and landside — on the open-air forecourt outside the Terminal 3 building, before you reach check-in and security. There is no officially marked smoking spot, so use the open areas near the terminal entrance and drop-off, standing well clear of doorways, walkways, and crowds. This is the one place at the airport where you can smoke, and it is the same spot to head back to if you arrive with time before a departure.
Because smoking is landside only, time your last cigarette carefully. Once you check in and clear security you are committed to the airside area, and re-entering the landside forecourt means passing through screening again on the way back in.
Terminal 3 — International Departures & Airside Lounges
Terminal 3 is entirely smoke-free indoors, from check-in through to the departure gates. There is no airside smoking room anywhere in the building. The airside lounges — including the Adinkra Lounge and the Akwaaba Pearl Lounge (Level 5, after security and passport control) — are all non-smoking, and the Akwaaba lounge notice bans vaping as well as cigarettes. That means departing and transit passengers have nowhere to smoke once they are airside; the only option is the landside forecourt before security.
Ghana’s Public Health Act permits designated indoor smoking areas in principle, but Kotoka Terminal 3 does not operate one, so the practical situation is a fully smoke-free terminal with outdoor smoking only.
Vaping at Kotoka
Vaping follows the same pattern as smoking: keep it outdoors on the landside forecourt, not inside the terminal. Ghana’s tobacco law does not specifically regulate e-cigarettes, so there is no dedicated airport vaping rule; airside lounges such as Akwaaba explicitly prohibit vaping. Use your vape discreetly outside the building, away from entrances, and treat it as you would a cigarette.
Summary table
| Area | Smoking | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Outdoor landside forecourt | Yes | Open air outside Terminal 3, before security |
| Indoor (Terminal 3) | No | Smoke-free from check-in to gates |
| After security / airside | No | No smoking room; Adinkra and Akwaaba lounges are non-smoking |
For Ghana’s national airport smoking rules and vaping law, see our Ghana airport guide.