Yes, you can smoke at Humberside Airport (HUY) at the designated smoking area a short walk from the terminal entrance, on the landside forecourt before check-in and security. The airport’s own FAQ sets it out plainly: Humberside “prohibits smoking, including the use of E-cigarettes, within the airport terminal building and to the exterior of the terminal entrance”, and directs smokers to the area a short distance away, where bins are provided.
The Designated Smoking Area
Smoking at Humberside happens outside, on the landside forecourt, at the designated area set back from the terminal doors. The airport draws that distinction deliberately — its rule covers both the inside of the terminal and the ground immediately outside the entrance, so the few extra paces to the marked area are the difference between a legitimate cigarette and one you will be asked to put out.
That short walk is the whole geography here. Humberside handles a little over 160,000 passengers a year through a single terminal, and the car parks sit directly in front of it, so you can finish a cigarette outside and be at the check-in desks a minute later. Arriving passengers heading for the short-stay bays, the taxi rank or the car hire desks pass the same outdoor space on their way out.
The airport asks smokers to use the bins provided rather than the forecourt kerb, and the same rule applies to e-cigarettes: Humberside’s FAQ names them alongside cigarettes, so there is one outdoor area serving both.
After Security
The forecourt is your last cigarette before you fly. Humberside’s no-smoking rule applies to the airport terminal building as a whole, and this is a small airport with one departure lounge inside that building — a bar and café, the shops, the Aspire Executive Lounge and the gates, none of them with a smoking facility. England’s Health Act 2006 has kept enclosed public places smoke-free since July 2007, and Humberside adds e-cigarettes to that on its own account.
Take the break as part of arriving rather than something to fit in afterwards: park, walk to the designated area, smoke, then go to the desk. Returning to the smoking area once you are through the search area would mean queueing for screening a second time, and Humberside’s checkpoint is a single lane sized for a terminal this small.
If your trip continues through a connecting hub, our guide to smoking during layovers covers how to judge whether a break is worth leaving the secure area for.
Terminal Layout and Airlines
Humberside Airport sits at Kirmington in North Lincolnshire, between Grimsby and Scunthorpe, and works as two airports in one building: a small scheduled and holiday operation, and a busy North Sea offshore helicopter base serving the gas fields off the Humber and the Lincolnshire coast. UK Civil Aviation Authority figures for 2025 put the airport at 161,171 passengers, of whom 8,165 flew on rotary-wing aircraft — an unusually high helicopter share for a UK airport, and the reason the terminal is busiest at shift-change hours.
Everything runs through one terminal: a single check-in hall, one security search area, and a departure lounge with a bar and café, a shop and the Aspire Executive Lounge, which any departing passenger can pre-book or pay to enter on the day. The 2026 schedule is short and easy to follow:
- KLM — Amsterdam Schiphol, the year-round scheduled link and the airport’s connecting gateway.
- TUI Airways — Palma de Mallorca in the summer season.
- Seasonal charters — direct winter flights to Enontekiö in Finnish Lapland.
- Offshore operators — CHC and partner fleets flying crews to the North Sea platforms.
Eastern Airways, which had its head office at the airport and flew the Aberdeen link, stopped flying in October 2025 and went into administration, as ITV News Calendar and the Yorkshire Post both reported at the time — so a Humberside smoker heading north now travels via Amsterdam or by road.
Two nearby airports are worth knowing about. Leeds Bradford Airport keeps its smoking area outside the main terminal entrance, the same landside-only pattern as Humberside. If you connect onward through KLM’s hub, Amsterdam Schiphol’s smoking area is the outdoor Jan Dellaertplein spot in front of the terminal — landside, before security, with nothing airside since the cabins were removed in 2020.
Vaping and E-Cigarettes
Vape at the same designated area outside the terminal. Humberside’s rule names e-cigarettes in the same sentence as cigarettes and applies to the terminal building and the ground at its entrance, which leaves the marked outdoor area as the one place on site for a vape, a pod device or heated tobacco such as IQOS.
Pack the device in hand luggage rather than the hold. Since June 2025 disposable vapes can no longer be sold anywhere in the UK, so bring a refillable device from home rather than counting on picking one up at the airport.
Summary
| Area | Smoking Allowed | Location Details |
|---|---|---|
| Designated area outside the terminal | Yes | A short walk from the terminal entrance; bins provided |
| Terminal entrance and doorway | No | The airport’s rule covers the ground immediately outside |
| Inside the terminal | No | Smoke-free throughout, e-cigarettes included |
| After security / departure lounge | No | One lounge inside the terminal building; no facility past the checkpoint |
| Aspire Executive Lounge | No | Airside within the terminal; same rule applies |
| Vaping | Designated outdoor area only | Named alongside cigarettes; pack devices in hand luggage |
For United Kingdom airport smoking rules, vaping rules, and other general info, see our United Kingdom smoking guide.