Thai authorities significantly tightened enforcement of the country’s longstanding vape ban in early 2025, arresting 690 people in 666 vape-related cases in a single week (26 February to 4 March 2025) and seizing 455,000 vaping products worth approximately 41 million baht (~USD $1.2 million). Airport customs at Suvarnabhumi (BKK), Don Mueang (DMK), Phuket (HKT), and other major Thai airports now routinely impose substantial on-the-spot fines on inbound travellers found carrying vape devices.
For visitors transiting or arriving at Thai airports — including casual layovers — this is a critical travel-safety update. The vape ban is not new (it dates to 2014), but the enforcement intensity in 2025 has reached unprecedented levels.
What Travellers Face
Reports from inbound travellers detained or fined at Thai airports in 2025 include:
- 20,000 to 50,000 THB on-the-spot fines (~USD $550 to $1,400) for personal-possession vape devices found at airport customs
- Multi-day detention in some cases — a Manchester tourist was detained for 3 days at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi over a single vape pod (reported widely in February 2025)
- Importing vapes carries up to 10 years’ imprisonment under existing Thai customs law
- Citizens who report vape sellers or importers can earn up to 60% of the fine value as informant rewards under a 2025 enforcement programme
The combination of large-scale enforcement, citizen-informant incentives, and prominent airport-customs scanning has created a meaningfully higher risk for travellers compared to previous years when enforcement was inconsistent.
What’s Banned
Thailand’s 2014 ban — strengthened in 2025 enforcement — covers:
- All e-cigarette devices (closed pods, open systems, sub-ohm, etc.)
- All nicotine vape liquid
- Heat-not-burn devices (IQOS, glo, Ploom)
- Importation, sale, possession, and use
There are no carve-outs for tourists, “personal use” quantities, or transit passengers. The law applies equally to inbound travellers, transit passengers, and Thai citizens.
What to Do
For anyone with a flight to or transiting through a Thai airport in 2025-2026:
- Do not bring vape devices into Thailand. Not in checked baggage, not in carry-on, not in your pocket.
- If you forgot a device in your luggage, the safest approach is to declare it at customs voluntarily — penalties for declared items have been lower than for those discovered in scans.
- For transit-only passengers (not entering Thailand): the law technically still applies if you change terminals or exit airside, but enforcement against pure-transit passengers has been less common.
- Heat-not-burn (IQOS) devices: included in the ban. Even if you don’t use them in Thailand, possession in your carry-on is prosecutable.
Why Thailand Treats Vapes Differently
Thailand’s tobacco market is government-controlled (Thailand Tobacco Monopoly), and the country has historically taken a protectionist stance against alternative nicotine products. The 2014 ban predates similar restrictions in some neighbouring countries. The 2025 enforcement increase coincides with public-health initiatives and reported pressure from the tobacco-control community to combat youth vaping.
Cigarettes themselves remain fully legal in Thailand and widely available — both at landside duty-free shops and elsewhere. The ban targets only vapes, e-cigarettes, and heat-not-burn products.
Bigger Picture
Thailand joins a small group of countries that completely ban vapes (alongside India, Singapore, Brazil, Iran, and a few others). For travellers transiting through any of these, the rule is consistent: don’t bring vape devices, even for personal use, even in transit.
For a country-by-country guide to vape rules at airports — including the safe transit alternatives via Doha, Dubai, and Tokyo — see Thailand, India, Singapore, and the Ultimate Guide to Smoking at Airports.