Yes, you can smoke at Newcastle International Airport (NCL) after security, at the open-air smoking area behind Bar 11 in the departure lounge. Before security there are designated smoking shelters at the front of the terminal building. The airport’s own guidance lists both areas, and confirms that the terminal building itself is smoke-free throughout, e-cigarettes included.
The Designated Smoking Areas
Newcastle publishes its smoking provision in two parts, one on each side of the checkpoint.
- Before security — designated smoking shelters at the front of the terminal building. The airport’s wording is that these are “available to the front of the terminal building,” and it asks passengers to use the areas provided. Walk out of the departures entrance and they are on the forecourt.
- After security — Bar 11 has an outside smoking area situated at the back of the venue, inside the departure lounge. The airport adds that anyone who needs further direction should speak to staff.
Everything else on the airport site is non-smoking: the check-in hall, the departure lounge interior, the toilets, the walkways and the boarding gates.
After Security: the Bar 11 Area
Bar 11 sits in the departure lounge and opens from the first flight until late, serving breakfast, all-day and children’s menus with floor-to-ceiling windows over the runway. Its smoking area is at the rear of the venue, out through the back of the bar into the open air.
That layout is what makes Newcastle worth knowing about: the smoking area is past the checkpoint, so a cigarette costs you a short walk rather than a full exit and a second trip through security. Take your boarding pass and hand luggage with you, and give yourself a couple of minutes to find the door — the way out is at the back of the bar, and the airport directs passengers to staff for pointers rather than publishing gate-by-gate signage detail.
For a long connection or a delayed departure, that means you can smoke during a layover without re-clearing security. Emirates flies daily between Newcastle and Dubai, and has now carried more than three million passengers on the route; if you are connecting onward there, Dubai International’s airside smoking rooms pick up where Bar 11 leaves off.
Terminal Layout
Newcastle runs a single terminal at Woolsington, about six miles northwest of the city centre, with its own Tyne and Wear Metro station on the Green Line for a direct ride into Newcastle. The airport flies with 16 airline partners to more than 80 direct destinations and is on course for a record six million passengers in 2026.
Jet2 is the biggest holiday operator, and easyJet opened a three-aircraft Newcastle base on 22 March 2026 with eleven new routes, quadrupling its network here. Ryanair, TUI, KLM, Air France, British Airways, Aer Lingus, Lufthansa, Loganair, SunExpress, Blue Islands and Emirates make up the rest of the board. Whichever airline you are on, the departures route is the same — one check-in hall, one security search area, one departure lounge, and Bar 11 with its smoking area at the back.
Vaping and E-Cigarettes
Vape at the same two outdoor areas as cigarettes: the shelters at the front of the terminal before security, and behind Bar 11 after it. Newcastle’s guidance treats e-cigarettes exactly as it treats tobacco, so vaping belongs outside rather than in the terminal building, and heated-tobacco devices such as IQOS and glo follow the same rule. Since June 2025 disposable vapes can no longer be sold anywhere in the UK, so travel with a refillable device from home rather than expecting to buy one airside.
Summary
| Area | Smoking Allowed | Location Details |
|---|---|---|
| Behind Bar 11 (departure lounge) | Yes | Open-air area at the back of the venue, after security |
| Front of the terminal building | Yes | Designated smoking shelters on the landside forecourt |
| Inside the terminal | No | Smoke-free throughout, including toilets and walkways |
| Boarding gates and aircraft | No | Non-smoking |
| Vaping | Both outdoor areas | Same rule as cigarettes, IQOS and glo included |
For United Kingdom airport smoking rules, vaping rules, and other general info, see our United Kingdom smoking guide.