Fun times with IATA airport codes

Posted by Seth Miller on September 3, 2012 under Flying | 19 Comments to Read

Yeah, I’m a dork. No other way to explain why I find reading through lists of airport codes to be entertaining. And even more so when you start to play with the names, putting together entertaining "routings" to spell out various thing. I’m not nearly as dedicated as the folks over at Terminal U; their list is top notch. But it doesn’t include SUX or a few others I generally enjoy. But they have awesome ones like this:

FLY-ING-CAN-NOT-BEB-EAT-ENB-YAN-YTH-ING-ITI-SRE-ALC-OOL

Or, a pretty apt explanation of why I’m bothering to write this at all:

THE-WAN-DER-ING-ARA-MEA-NHA-SJE-TLA-GTO-DAY

Some days I entertain myself by finding airport codes one letter apart with actual scheduled flights. HNL-HND is one of my favorites in that category. There are others, too.

Like I said, I’m a dork.

And a special thanks to Joe for sharing that original post. I don’t know that I’d have bothered to share my idiocy had someone else not done so first.

  1. Kerwin said,

    And don’t forget, if you go from FRA to NCE, you’ve gone to FRANCE :-) .

  2. enthusiast said,

    You want airport codes one letter apart with scheduled flights?

    IAH-IAD is an easy one. Let’s keep going!

  3. jetsetboy said,

    Lol. At least now I know that I’m not the only one with a slight airport code obsession :)

  4. MillValleyMom said,

    SAN-SAT (on SWA)

  5. Bas said,

    Love it! :-)

  6. koroleon said,

    LAX-LAS
    ORD-ORF
    SLC-SJC
    SEA-SNA

  7. koroleon said,

    And DXB-DUB for some classic confusion :)

  8. greek2me said,

    I’ll play!
    PHL-PHX

  9. MillValleyMom said,

    How about MadMan? (MAD-MAN)

  10. JetsettingEric said,

    One letter apart is quite common with Canadian airports beginning with a Y. YYZ-YYJ, YYZ-YYC, YYZ-YYT.

  11. Levy Flight said,

    END-NOW-OUR-BAD-FLI-GHT

  12. Samuel said,

    MSY-MSP (I think I saw this as a username on FT possibly?)

  13. Pete said,

    HNL-HND

    best one yet : Fukuoka – Montreal

  14. Pete said,

    CVG-CDG, SJO-SJC

  15. D said,

    DTW-DFW
    ATL-AVL

  16. Chris said,

    MCI-MCO
    PDX-PHX

  17. Pizzaman said,

    Yes, you’re a dork. Though not for this. :P

  18. Andrew said,

    BAT-MAN
    Airport Chafei Amsei (BAT) Brazil to Ringway International Airport (MAN) United Kingdom

  19. Jonathan said,

    this is a good one for the DYKWIA (too bad it’s not possible for the average flyer…):

    PIS-OFF-BUD

    That’s Poitiers to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha to Budapest!

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