Tunisia Airport Smoking Areas

If you smoke, Tunisia is one of the more relaxed countries to travel through. Smokers passing through the main international airport can light up in the airside smoking areas the operator lists in the controlled zone, or in the open air outside the terminal, and everyday enforcement of public-place rules is famously laid-back.

The airport that matters most here is Tunis-Carthage International Airport (TUN) — the country’s primary gateway, run by OACA. The resort airports of Djerba–Zarzis (DJE) and Enfidha–Hammamet (NBE) follow their own patterns, covered below.

How Tunisia Airport Smoking Works

Smoking in Tunisia is shaped more by practice than by paperwork. The country has tobacco-control decrees on the books, and enforcement of public-place smoking bans is weak and relaxed, so smoking is broadly tolerated in everyday life and at the airport.

At Tunis-Carthage, OACA’s own passenger-services page states that smoking inside the terminal building is prohibited and that smoking areas are provided in the controlled zone at both departures and arrivals — travellers who used the departures rooms in 2022 placed them in the Terminal 1 concourse near Gate 53 and Gate 58. Landside, smokers use the open air outside the main terminal near the entrances. Vaping sits in a legal grey area: e-cigarettes are sold in Tunisia with no clear regulation, and vapers use the same designated smoking areas as cigarette smokers, so carry what you need and keep it discreet.

The Hub

Tunis-Carthage International Airport (TUN) is Tunisia’s main international airport and the one most travellers pass through. Operated by OACA, its main passenger building is Terminal 1. OACA lists smoking areas in the controlled zone at both departures and arrivals, giving you somewhere to light up after security in either direction. Before security, the open air outside the terminal entrances covers landside smokers.

Djerba–Zarzis (DJE) and Enfidha–Hammamet (NBE)

Djerba–Zarzis International Airport (DJE), the gateway to the resort island of Djerba, follows the same OACA pattern as Tunis-Carthage: its own services page names a smoking area in the public hall before security and a second one in the departure controlled zone after security, with smoking prohibited elsewhere inside the terminal. OACA’s text does not state whether either named area is an enclosed room.

Enfidha–Hammamet International Airport (NBE) is different — it is operated by TAV Airports rather than OACA, and its passenger-guide pages publish no dedicated smoking-area listing. The option that follows from Tunisian law is the open air outside the terminal building, landside, where the country’s tobacco-control decrees restrict enclosed public places rather than the open air; the airport lists no marked smoking spot of its own.

Tips for Smokers at Tunisia Airports

• Follow the “Espace pour Fumeurs / Smoking Area” signage along the TUN concourse after security; travellers who used the rooms in 2022 placed them near Gate 53 and Gate 58.
• Use the open air near the main terminal entrances landside for a smoke before you check in or after you land.
• Gate numbering shifts over the years, so treat those numbers as orientation and give yourself extra time to locate the areas.
• The airside areas are free and open to any passenger who has cleared security — no lounge membership needed — and each holds only a handful of people, so expect a wait at busy departure banks.
• Carry your own cigarettes and any vaping gear, and use them in the designated areas; vapers are treated the same as cigarette smokers.

Tunisia Airports Compared: Indoor, Outdoor & After Security