Yes, you can smoke at Hungary’s main airport after security: Budapest (BUD) has three outdoor terraces after security, the SkyCourt mezzanine, the Pier 1 terrace at Terminal 2A next to Frei Café and the Terminal 2B mezzanine, all listed open 00:00 to 23:59, and designated outdoor areas in front of the terminals before security. Hungarian law allows no enclosed smoking room in an airport, so every smoking place at Budapest is in the open air.
Hungary Airports Compared: Before and After Security
Before security, you can always smoke outside: at a designated smoking area where there is one, or outside the airport property, beyond the terminal kerb and car parks. After security, Yes means there is a smoking area past security and a dash means none is listed. Each airport’s page has the details.
| Airport | Before security | After security |
|---|---|---|
| Budapest (BUD) | Yes | Yes |
For international travel through Hungary, Budapest is the main gateway.
How Hungarian Airport Smoking Works
Act XLII of 1999 on the protection of non-smokers and certain rules on the consumption and distribution of tobacco products, as amended with effect from 1 January 2012, bans smoking, e-cigarettes and electronic devices that imitate smoking in the rooms of a public-access institution that are open to the public (Section 2(1)); an airport terminal is such an institution. No enclosed designated smoking place may be set up in such a building except in a few listed settings, none of them an airport (Section 2(2) and (5)). A designated smoking place must be non-enclosed (the act’s definition of enclosed airspace lets a partly covered place with large openings count as non-enclosed) and, outside hospitality premises, at least 5 metres from the public entrance (Section 4(1)); it must be marked (Section 2(7)); an institution may instead declare itself non-smoking and provide no smoking place at all (Section 4(6)), which Budapest Airport has not done. Heating a tobacco product counts as smoking under the act’s definition (Section 1(b)). A person who smokes where it is banned faces a health-protection fine of HUF 20,000 to 50,000 under Government Decree 39/2013, or up to HUF 30,000 on the spot. In practice:
- Budapest (BUD): three outdoor terraces after security (SkyCourt mezzanine; Pier 1 at Terminal 2A next to Frei Café; Terminal 2B mezzanine), listed open 00:00 to 23:59, no gate numbers published
- Before security: designated outdoor areas in front of the terminals, at least 5 metres from an entrance; a free outdoor terrace overlooking the Terminal 2A apron carries no published smoking rule, ask staff
- No indoor smoking room anywhere, by law
- E-cigarettes and heated tobacco follow the smoking rules under the act; the airport publishes no rule of its own, ask staff
The Hub
Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD). Hungary’s main gateway, with Terminals 2A and 2B joined after security by the SkyCourt. After security, smoke on the SkyCourt mezzanine terrace, the Pier 1 terrace at Terminal 2A next to Frei Café or the Terminal 2B mezzanine terrace, all listed open 00:00 to 23:59; the airport does not say which side of the non-Schengen passport control the Terminal 2B terrace is on, so ask staff. Before security, smoke in the designated outdoor areas in front of the terminals, at least 5 metres from an entrance.
Tips for Smokers at Hungarian Airports
- Budapest’s three smoking terraces are after security and listed open around the clock, so a connection needs no exit when a terrace is on your side of the non-Schengen passport control
- Connecting to a non-Schengen flight? Ask staff whether the Terminal 2B terrace is on your side of passport control
- Vaping and heated tobacco follow the smoking rules under Hungarian law; Budapest Airport publishes no rule of its own, so ask staff before using either