Yes, you can smoke at Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport (GPT) after security, in the filtered smoking room the airport lists among its terminal amenities as a “Post Security Filtered Smoking Room”. Before the checkpoint, smoking happens outdoors at the terminal curbs and out toward the parking garage, clear of the entrance doors. The rest of the terminal interior is smoke-free, which makes that one room the thing worth knowing about GPT.
The Filtered Smoking Room — After Security
GPT is one of a very short list of US airports that still keep an indoor smoking room on the secure side, open to any traveller rather than to lounge members or transit passengers alone. The airport names it directly on its own Terminal Amenities page, alongside the free Wi-Fi, the ATM and the Faber News & Gifts store: a post-security filtered smoking room, mechanically filtered so the smoke stays inside it.
Practically, that means a smoke break at Gulfport costs you nothing beyond the walk. You clear the TSA checkpoint once, and the room is in the gate area beyond it — no exit, no re-screening, no rejoining the queue. The airport does not publish a gate number for the room, so follow the signage from the concourse once you are airside; the terminal is small enough that it is a short walk from any gate.
Note that the terminal itself keeps limited hours: the airport says the building opens two hours before the first departure and closes after the last arrival, so the room is available inside those hours rather than around the clock.
Landside — Before the Checkpoint
Outside the terminal, smoking follows the usual US pattern. Step out of the ticketing or baggage-claim doors, move well clear of the entrances, and use the curb. The covered walkway across to the 800-car parking garage gives you more space away from the doorways when the curb is busy with pick-ups, and it keeps the rain off — useful on the Gulf Coast, where summer afternoon thunderstorms arrive fast and pass quickly.
Mississippi has no statewide comprehensive clean-indoor-air act, which is the background reason an indoor airport smoking room has survived here when it has closed almost everywhere else in the country. For US state-by-state rules, our guide to US airport smoking laws by state sets out how the federal, state and airport-authority layers stack up.
The Terminal
Smoking: The filtered smoking room past the TSA checkpoint; the curbs outside the building before it. After security: Yes — the room is inside the secure area, so no re-screening.
GPT runs a single terminal for around 800,000 passengers a year, which the airport describes as the second-busiest in Mississippi. Six carriers serve it — American, Delta, United, Sun Country, Breeze Airways and the Beau Rivage and Harrah’s casino charter programmes — with year-round nonstops to Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston, and seasonal service to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Orlando, Las Vegas and Tampa. Post-security amenities are modest: the news and gift store, computer work stations, and Chandeleur Island Brewing Company, Sonic and Coffee Connection for food and drink.
Because everything runs through one concourse, the smoking arrangements do not vary by gate or airline. If Gulfport is one leg of a longer trip, the connecting hubs are less generous: at Atlanta the smoking areas at Hartsfield-Jackson are the outdoor spots by the numbered terminal doors, and at Charlotte smoking is confined to the outdoor curbside areas well back from the building — both landside, both costing you a fresh trip through security. Our guide to smoking during layovers walks through whether a connection leaves you the time.
E-Cigarettes and Vaping
Vaping follows cigarettes at GPT: the filtered smoking room after security, the curbside spots before it, and nowhere else inside the building. TSA rules put vape devices and spare batteries in carry-on baggage only — they cannot travel in a checked bag — and using one on board an aircraft is prohibited by federal rule.
Summary
| Area | Smoking | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Filtered smoking room (post-security) | Yes | Indoor, filtered; listed by the airport on its Terminal Amenities page |
| Gate area / concourse | No | Smoke-free; the room is the exception |
| Terminal interior (ticketing, baggage claim) | No | Smoke-free throughout |
| Outside the terminal | Yes | Curbs and the walkway to the parking garage, clear of the doors |
| Vaping / e-cigarettes | Same as smoking | Filtered room after security; outdoors before it |
For USA airport smoking rules, state vape rules, lighter rules at TSA, and other federal/state info, see our USA smoking guide.