Airport charges passengers for pre-flight smoke
Belfast International Airport has begun charging passengers £1 if they want to have a cigarette before their departure.
The airport issued a statement this week saying: “We recognised that there was a demand for a smoking facility from some customers given that all public places (including airports) are now, and have been for a number of years, non-smoking.
“We are responding to that demand. However, providing a specialist facility for a relatively small number of users is expensive to build and to maintain so it is not unreasonable that a small charge should be levied for the use of the facility.”
Passengers who want to smoke but don’t want to pay can have a cigarette outside the terminal building, but this is landside.
Once they go through to airside, they have to pay the fee.
Last July, Belfast International began charging passengers a £1 drop-off fee when arriving by car. The airport also charges £1 for plastic bags to clear liquid items through security.
By Bev Fearis
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Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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