Yes — you can smoke in the open air outside the small terminal building at Gangtok Pakyong Airport (PYG), away from doorways and other travellers. There is no indoor or airside smoking room.
Pakyong is a greenfield hill airport about 31 km from Gangtok, Sikkim, sitting on a carved ridge at roughly 4,600 ft — one of the highest airfields in India. It has a single small domestic terminal rated for about 100 passengers. Scheduled commercial flights remain suspended: services stopped in October 2022, a brief SpiceJet Delhi link in 2023 was discontinued, and work to extend the runway is expected to finish around the end of 2026, with IndiGo flights to Hyderabad and Bengaluru planned after that — check current schedules before you fly. Most travellers instead use Bagdogra (IXB) and drive up to Gangtok. As a small domestic airport, Pakyong has no enclosed smoking lounge and no airside (post-security) smoking zone.
Where to smoke
- In the open air outside the terminal, away from entrances and other people.
- There is nowhere to smoke once you pass security, so step out beforehand.
Smoking inside the enclosed terminal is banned under India’s COTPA law; fines apply for smoking in non-designated spots.
For India airport smoking rules, fines, the PECA vape ban, lighter-machine instructions, and other rules, see our India smoking guide.