Comments on: Lunchtime Quiz: Airport Codes

By: Greg Mickelson

Greg Mickelson — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:41:28 +0000

How about Louisville which is SDF? We always remembered that one with the mnemonic \Some Dumb F**ker.\

By: KWildman

KWildman — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:46:56 +0000

The Sacramento, CA code is SMF (Sacramento Metropolitan Field). I think it has something to do with the airport being added onto/moved/etc. like a lot of them.

Once, however, as I was on a flight into SMF, the flight attendant on the speaker accidentally greeted us with “thank you for flying with us today, and welcome to Smackermento.”

By: Lindsey

Lindsey — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:56:17 +0000

I like the New Orleans airport.
The official name is Louis Armstrong International Airport, but the code is MSY, because the airport was built on the Moissant Stock Yards…

By: Larry Fiehn

Larry Fiehn — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:59:18 +0000

I used to live and work in Rochester, Minnesota and dealt with travelers flying in. We emphasized with them to be sure their bags were tagged for RST, and not ROC, which would send their bags to Rochester, NY!

By: Larry Fiehn

Larry Fiehn — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:56:00 +0000

I’m not much of an air-traveler but still got 50%. What makes it confusing is things like O’Hare in Chicago being ORD as it was originally ORcharD Field before it was expanded and re-named O’Hare. I knew that one – a lot of Chicagoans don’t – but some of their other “off-the-wall” codes, I missed.

By: Tex

Tex — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:07:51 +0000

Before George H.W. Bush, it was known as Intercontinental Airport Houston, thus the IAH. I remember taking training where they emphasized the difference between Portland, Oregon PWX and Portland, Maine PME Evidently it was a common mistake to send people to the wrong Portland.

By: Byron

Byron — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:39:03 +0000

MCO = Orlando International Airport

By: tiffany

tiffany — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:16:49 +0000

Fun! I’m at GYR (Goodyear – Phoenix) right now!

By: Carmen

Carmen — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:08:31 +0000

Nantucket Island, MA is ACK, which leads to cries of “ACK nice” and “welcome bACK” and “ACK! summer tourist season”

recaptcha: Nudged Practically

By: Karl

Karl — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:58:12 +0000

I must take you to task about the London question: LHR is the code for Heathrow, LON is the code for the city (incompassing LHR, LGW, and to a lesser extent, STN, LCY, among others). I carefully checked – you asked for the London code, not the Heathrow code.
This takes me back to my Airline training 23 years ago – after the first day of class, we were required to learn all the airport codes for all the cities the carrier serviced — and to learn them all by the next day’s class, and if we didn’t make better than 98%, we would be dropped from class. …Kind of illustrates why I’m a bit picky about the missed one.