Yes, you can smoke at Cluj-Napoca Avram Iancu International Airport (CLJ) — the airport keeps designated smoking rooms airside, past security, in both the Schengen and non-Schengen departure zones. Outside the terminal building, landside, Romanian law permits smoking in the open air, before security or after you collect your bags.
Cluj-Napoca is Romania’s second-busiest airport after Bucharest, serving Transylvania and the country’s second city through a single integrated terminal. The departures concourse splits into Schengen and non-Schengen flows once you clear security, each with its own designated smoking room.
Romania’s Law 15/2016, the country’s indoor smoking ban, permits smoking only in “designated rooms in the transit areas of international airports” as the airport exception — a carve-out that later Law 64/2024 extended to e-cigarettes rather than replaced — so the two areas Cluj-Napoca names on its own site are enclosed rooms, not open corners of the concourse. A 2024 public tender notice for the spaces, reported by a local Cluj news outlet, puts the Schengen-side room at 51.33 m² on the ground floor, north zone, and the non-Schengen room at 63.60 m² one floor up, in the north-east zone.
After Security — Schengen Departures (Gates A6-A7)
The airport’s own site names a designated smoking room on the ground floor of the Schengen departures restricted area, near boarding gates A6-A7. If your flight is to another Schengen-area country, this is the room on your side of the gate cluster once you’re through passport control and security.
After Security — Non-Schengen Departures (Gates B3-B4)
A second designated smoking room sits one floor up, in the non-Schengen departures restricted area, near gates B3-B4. Flights outside the Schengen zone use this concourse, so non-Schengen passengers have their own room rather than needing to backtrack into the Schengen side.
Landside — Outside the Terminal
Landside, smoking is outside the terminal building, in the open air — Romania’s indoor ban covers enclosed public spaces, not open-air ground outside the building. This is the option before you check in and pass security, and for arriving passengers once they’ve collected their bags; the terminal interior itself, including the check-in hall and arrivals hall, is smoke-free.
Vaping
Romania’s Law 64/2024 bans e-cigarette use everywhere cigarette smoking is banned, carrying over the same airport exception: the designated rooms in the transit areas. Vape in the same two rooms as cigarettes — near gates A6-A7 or B3-B4 airside — or outdoors landside.
Summary
| Area | Smoking | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Check-in / arrivals hall | No | Smoke-free throughout |
| Schengen departures (airside) | Yes | Designated smoking room near gates A6-A7, ground floor |
| Non-Schengen departures (airside) | Yes | Designated smoking room near gates B3-B4, one floor up |
| Outdoor (landside) | Yes | Open air outside the terminal building |
| Vaping | Same as smoking | Designated rooms airside, or outdoors landside |
If you’re connecting through the capital, Bucharest Otopeni’s airside smoking areas by the international gates follow the same law.
For Romania’s airport smoking rules and vaping law, see our Romania airport guide.
Useful Links
Cluj-Napoca Airport — smoking areas (official) Cluj-Napoca Avram Iancu International Airport (official)