Yes, you can smoke at Aberdeen International Airport (ABZ) after security — the airport runs a smoking shelter at the top of the ramp leading from gate 5, adjacent to the main departure lounge, entered with a £2 card payment. Landside there are shelters directly outside the main terminal building, plus a beer garden at the Granite City bar on the concourse before security.
The Designated Smoking Areas
Aberdeen publishes three designated places to smoke, and the airside one is what sets ABZ apart from most of the UK:
- Airside smoking shelter — at the top of the ramp leading from gate 5, adjacent to the main departure lounge. Entry is £2, card only.
- Outside the main terminal building — shelters on the landside forecourt, in front of the terminal, before check-in and security.
- Granite City beer garden — the landside bar on the concourse has an attached beer garden where smoking is permitted, useful in Aberdeen weather because you can sit with a drink between cigarettes.
The airport’s wording on the secure side is firm: smoking after security, anywhere other than within that designated shelter, is strictly prohibited. Neither Edinburgh nor Glasgow offers anything comparable — Edinburgh’s shelters and Glasgow’s central-island area are both landside only — so Aberdeen stands out among Scotland’s main airports.
After Security
The airside shelter is reached from the main departure lounge: head for gate 5 and take the ramp, and the shelter is at the top of it. Payment is by card at the door, with most major credit cards accepted, and Aberdeen states that the £2 goes towards maintaining and running the facility.
Two practical points. First, the charge applies per entry, so a delayed departure with several smoke breaks costs a few pounds rather than one. Second, you do not need to buy a lighter after security: Aberdeen’s hand-baggage guidance allows a single cigarette lighter carried on your person through the checkpoint.
Because the shelter is inside the secure area, a smoke break at ABZ costs you nothing in time — no exiting, no queueing again. That makes Aberdeen a comfortable place to sit out a connection or a delay compared with the usual UK routine of planning smoke breaks around a layover.
Terminal Layout and Airlines
Aberdeen operates a single terminal at Dyce, about seven miles northwest of the city centre, handling roughly 2.3 million passengers a year. The terminal opens at 03:30, or two hours before the first departure, and closes after the last arrival. The departure lounge has an upper level as well as the main floor, and the gates run at least as far as 11 and 12; gate 5, with the smoking shelter at the top of its ramp, is signposted from the main lounge.
British Airways, KLM, easyJet, Loganair, Ryanair, TUI, Wizz Air, SAS, Widerøe, Aer Lingus and airBaltic all serve Aberdeen, alongside island services to Kirkwall, Sumburgh and Wick and North Sea routes to Bergen, Stavanger and Esbjerg. Aberdeen is also the hub for North Sea energy-sector travel and publishes dedicated guidance and parking for offshore workers; the shelters described here are the main passenger terminal’s.
Connecting on KLM’s Amsterdam service? Note that Schiphol’s designated smoking area on Jan Dellaertplein is landside, before security — so the ABZ shelter is your last easy cigarette until you have fully arrived at the far end.
Vaping and E-Cigarettes
Vape at the same designated shelters as cigarettes — the airside shelter by gate 5, the shelters outside the main terminal building, or the Granite City beer garden. Aberdeen’s published guidance names its smoking shelters and does not set out separate e-cigarette rules, and the terminal interior is smoke-free under Scotland’s Smoking, Health and Social Care Act 2005, so step outside to a shelter rather than vaping at the gate or in the toilets. Since June 2025 disposable vapes can no longer be sold anywhere in the UK, so bring a refillable device from home instead of counting on the airport shops.
Summary
| Area | Smoking Allowed | Location Details |
|---|---|---|
| Airside smoking shelter | Yes | Top of the ramp from gate 5, by the main departure lounge; £2, card only |
| Outside the main terminal | Yes | Landside shelters on the forecourt, before check-in |
| Granite City beer garden | Yes | Landside bar on the concourse, attached garden |
| Inside the terminal | No | Smoke-free throughout, including toilets and gate areas |
| Vaping | Designated shelters | Same three places as cigarettes |
For United Kingdom airport smoking rules, vaping rules, and other general info, see our United Kingdom smoking guide.