Yes, you can smoke at George Best Belfast City Airport (BHD) in the designated area in front of the main terminal entrance, on the landside forecourt before check-in. That forecourt spot is the only place to light up on the airport site; the terminal building is smoke-free from the check-in concourse through to the gates, so time your cigarette before you go in.
The Designated Smoking Area
The smoking area sits on the forecourt directly in front of the main terminal entrance — a few steps from the glass-walled doors, on the drop-off side of the building. Travellers describe the marked spot as immediately outside the entrance doors, so it is an easy find whether you have just been dropped off or have walked over from the short-stay car park. Stand clear of the doorway itself and use the marked area.
The airport’s published guidance has long been that smoking is not permitted inside the terminal building and that visitors can smoke at designated areas in front of the main terminal entrance. Belfast City does not currently run a dedicated smoking page on its website, and its official FAQs cover security, parking and facilities rather than smoking — the forecourt provision is the settled arrangement on the ground.
BHD is Northern Ireland’s city-centre airport in every practical sense: the terminal sits about three miles east of Belfast city centre in the Titanic Quarter, so a taxi from town to a last cigarette on the forecourt is a ten-minute run.
After Security
Smoking at BHD is entirely landside. The departures lounge, the gate areas and the airside Aspire Lounge are all smoke-free, and there is no outdoor terrace or gallery beyond the checkpoint. When Belfast International closed its own airside smoking gallery in January 2025, the BBC noted that no such facility existed at Belfast City or City of Derry — and nothing has changed since.
The consolation is that BHD is unusually quick to re-clear. The airport advertises one of the shortest average security processing times in the UK, under six minutes, so stepping back out to the forecourt for a cigarette and returning is far less of a gamble than at a large hub. Give yourself an hour of slack before boarding and it is comfortable; our guide to smoking during layovers covers how to judge the margin.
If you are connecting onward on Aer Lingus to Heathrow, you land at a hub with outdoor airside smoking areas at Terminals 2 and 4. On KLM’s Amsterdam service, note that Schiphol’s designated smoking area on Jan Dellaertplein is landside, before security — plan a Dutch smoke break for after you have fully arrived rather than mid-connection.
Terminal Layout
Belfast City is a single-terminal airport handling around 2.36 million passengers a year, with everything — check-in, security, one departures lounge, the gates — on a short, straight walk. Aer Lingus is by far the largest operator, joined by British Airways, easyJet, KLM and Loganair on a network built around London, the UK regions, Amsterdam and a handful of European leisure routes.
Airside you will find the Aspire Lounge with runway views, Samson’s Kitchen & Bar, Starbucks, Caffè Nero, WHSmith, World Duty Free and Boots. None of them has a smoking facility attached, indoors or out.
The other Belfast option, Belfast International Airport (BFS), follows the same landside-only rule after closing its airside gallery in 2025, so choosing between the two makes no difference to where you can smoke.
Vaping and E-Cigarettes
Vape at the same designated area in front of the main terminal entrance. Electronic cigarettes are treated exactly as cigarettes are at BHD — the terminal building is vapour-free throughout, including the toilets, the departures lounge and the Aspire Lounge — and heated-tobacco devices such as IQOS and glo fall under the same rule. Since June 2025 disposable vapes can no longer be sold anywhere in the UK, so bring a refillable device rather than counting on buying one at the airport.
Summary
| Area | Smoking Allowed | Location Details |
|---|---|---|
| In front of the main terminal entrance | Yes | Designated landside area on the forecourt |
| Inside the terminal | No | Smoke-free throughout, electronic cigarettes included |
| After security / departures lounge | No | No airside smoking facility |
| Aspire Lounge | No | Airside lounge; smoke-free |
| Vaping | Outdoor area only | Same rules as cigarettes, including heated tobacco |
For United Kingdom airport smoking rules, vaping rules, and other general info, see our United Kingdom smoking guide.