I am often confused by contributors on the forum using airport codes in place of writing actual words. It seems to be a thing where many people have memorised them, and assume everyone else knows them.
Here's a link to a site where one can look them up, and pick up a whole load of other information, aside from the three letter code.
Hey, Americans and our acronyms, we love 'em. Reminds me of my business days, in international meetings, we often had to pause and explain an acronym. My company even published a booklet with all the main acronyms to hand out to new hires and visitors.
To be honest, I find using airport codes to be far less confusing, especially for destinations that have more than one airport.
For a domestic example: folks flying to Washington, DC, could fly into one of three airports that identify as being a "DC airport." So using the codes is easier: DCA (National Airport), IAD (Dulles), or BWI (Baltimore-Washington) clarifies things a lot in terms of logistics.
And for you, Gerry, look at London's snarl of airports: LHR (Heathrow), LGW (Gatwick), LTN (Luton), STN (Stanstead), LCY (London City). The code is simple clarification, at least to my eyes.
And for you, Gerry, look at London's snarl of airports: LHR (Heathrow), LGW (Gatwick), LTN (Luton), STN (Stanstead), LCY (London City). The code is simple clarification, at least to my eyes.
The actual names are easier for me. Would you say the airport code out loud in conversation or just when writing it down?
When I am researching flights, the first thing I learn is the airport code. When you are checking flight options and prices on various websites, it is so much faster than typing in the airport name.
When I see an airport code I don’t recognize it is because I have never flown to that city. I’m always surprised when people on this board complain about posters using airport codes in their posts.
OTOH, there's nothing illegal, immoral or fattening about using airport codes, or other acronyms in one's online writings, IMHO. But, WTH, YMMV. LOL.
Where I live DFW is always DFW verbally or written down. But I would say Heathrow in conversation but LHR if it is a written communication. My husband was active duty USAF for 20 years so acronyms are still used in our life frequently.
it may just be a British thing or just a thing among people I talk with, but I never hear the airport code used instead of a city name or airport. If I am going to Heathrow or Gatwick, then I say Heathrow or Gatwick.
Sometimes in the railway industry we as insiders used a few codes for stations in common use, but not normally with civilians.
I personally usually gloss over acronyms in whatever context.
When I am researching flights, the first thing I learn is the airport code. When you are checking flight options and prices on various websites, it is so much faster than typing in the airport name.
Fair point. I suppose one may absorb that information when looking up flights. I'd never think to use it without first using the actual name and having the code in brackets, as you would do with any obscure acronym. Apart from the obvious US airports like JFK or LAX which have solidified a place in language and culture with their codes, I'd count the majority of airport codes as obscure.
I've got nothing against acronyms per se, but if someone said they were catching a flight from LCY or STN, it would definitely take me several seconds of mental CPU activity to work out what they meant.
My husband was active duty USAF for 20 years so acronyms are still used in our life frequently.
Maybe that has something to do with it.
OTOH, there's nothing illegal, immoral or fattening about using airport codes, or other acronyms in one's online writings, IMHO. But, WTH, YMMV. LOL.
"Text speak" or acronyms used in conversation online are definitely more widely understood. I have no hesitation in using acronyms in computing or other technical fields either.
It's interesting. I suppose it's one of those cases where the US and the UK are "separated by a common language".
In New York we always use JFK for Kennedy but say LaGuardia or Newark. Actually for Newark we sometimes say, You going out of Jersey?
It's interesting. I suppose it's one of those cases where the US and the UK are "separated by a common language".
I am not so sure about this particular case. In oral communication, I’d say Heathrow and I think most Americans would do the same. If I were emailing a friend about my trip, I’d also spell out Heathrow. When I am posting on a board devoted to travel, I use LHR because I assume the code is known to those who have experience traveling to Heathrow.
IATA has an over arching LON airport code to cover all the London airports, as well as the specific airport codes. This can be very useful if just searching for flights to any London airport.
IATA also has official Minimum Connecting Times (MCT's) between all LON area airports.
LCY is (or maybe was) especially interesting as it has (had?) differing MCT's LHR to LCY depending on whether LCY or LHR bound, reflecting the ease of use of LCY- 3 hours 30 eastbound, 3 hours westbound.
The LON code also includes London Southend (SEN) and London Biggin Hill (BQH). Southend is a functioning airport with a number of scheduled services (and the shortest time train to check in of any London airport). Biggin Hill used to have scheduled service (including from Carlisle- CAX), and wants to do so again, but is currently prohibited in doing so by Croydon Council. However you can still fly in there on non-scheduled executive flights. The most recent flights to Carlisle (Crosby on Eden to locals) were from SEN.
In normal everyday speech many Mancunians still refer to Manchester as Ringway airport and many Liverpudlians to Liverpool John Lennon airport as Speke. The latter is potentially confusing as the old Speke Terminal still exists- albeit as a hotel.
I find it strange as well Gerry. It’s not usual in Britain. Heathrow is just Heathrow. You would never come across anyone calling it LHR in spoken or written comms. Most people probably recognise the codes for London airports if they see them but would not be able to confidently list them. Even my local airport I have to think about. I don’t know it instinctively.
There are fun codes like the one for my hometown that make little sense unless you know the history. SDF = Standiford Field which looks and sounds nothing like Louisville, but that was the name of the airfield.
Some places seem to have adopted their codes as shorthand for their city names? Thinking of PDX, SFO, and DFW.
Also, when searching for the DC area (at least on Kayak), I think you can use WAS similar to LON mentioned above.
GerryM, I don’t think it is a country issue using the Acronym or not using it, as I am in New England. It drives me nuts having to look up the airport codes or other codes, and generally I just skip those comments. I do use LOL and YMMV, but mainly to set a tone on here.
So I am with the ‘just write out the ID name’ group! I fly from Boston Logan.
In Los Angeles, we always say LAX. But never BUR. It's Burbank. And the other airports are always called by the full name: Long Beach, John Wayne, Ontario.
I have to admit this thread was inspired by another asking about flying from FRA to FCO. I expected to click through and have the codes revealed to me in plain English, but alas no. FRA just says "France" to me in my brain until the CPU cycles take place and I had no idea what FCO was, hence the site I linked to in the OP. It didn't help that this was posted in the Netherlands section, totally throwing me!
(It's Frankfurt and Rome btw)
I once got raked over the coals for suggesting that we can help new forum members improve their posts so they get more useful responses.
Therefore, I will not now suggest that if you want a more useful response, you should make it clear what airport you are asking about so you don't require responders to look up the airport code. Any combination of city name, airport name, and IATA code (IATA = International Air Transport Association) can help. But you didn't hear it from me.
"Text speak" or acronyms used in conversation online are definitely more widely understood.
That's a bold assumption
I understand and sympathize with the difficulty - but I fly out of DFW and NO ONE says Dallas Fort Worth (and only occasionally in conversation referring to the area as opposed to the airport). It’s sure a lot easier to write DFW.
D'accord, Joe. I rarely use text speak (or text icons). I guess it's my age. About the only one I use often is IMO, and that is on this forum. I also use airport codes here, but for the better known ones (SFO, JFK, LAX, CDG). In speech I use the location (London, Paris, etc.) not the code. It just seems more natural and more comprehensible. Likewise, my comments on the forum are usually too long, but I find it really hard to use text speak, as it seems I am not giving proper respect to the person(s) I am responding to. That is not to say that those who use text speak regularly are disrespectful, but for me it is rare to take the shortcuts. OId habits die hard (like cursive...anyone remember the samples above the blackboards of the Palmer method of penmanship?).
Like GerryM, I have had to delve a bit to know what airport someone is talking about. A miniscule inconvenience that teaches me something new. Not a bad thing!
Oops! A too-long response again! Sorry!
I use a lot of acronyms and text speak, but have never said FRA for Frankfurt airport. I might say Fraport, but not FRA. No one does.
I agree with Wray and Lane.
I recognize the airport codes for the airports I have flown into and out of multiple times, but other codes I would have to look up, so I usually just pass by any posts that have a lot of codes that I don’t recognize. Not going to look them up so I can follow the question.
In conversation, at least among friends and acquaintances in my area of the US, I don’t hear anyone refer to airports by airport code. (I realize some parts of the country with well-known airports may be different).
Somewhat related, I find people here like to make acronyms out of things that are normally not acronyms- such as “CT” for cinque terre (to me that is Cape Town or Connecticut), “HEX” for Heathrow Express, and the dreaded “HOHO.” I also see “MSM” a lot, and in my field of work that means something totally different to Mont Saint Michel. There are lots more but those are the first that come to mind.
In Canada, Toronto’s main airport is consistently referred to as Pearson, Montreal’s as Trudeau (a bit of a Prime Minister name trend…Trudeau, the senior, not the junior). But in Vancouver our code is YVR and pretty much everyone here calls it that or will say the very creative ‘the airport’:)
Words (and Airport Codes) have meanings. LHR is unambiguously London Heathrow Airport. If I ask a question about how to get from LHR to Greenwich, I will not get confusing information about trains from Gatwick. Likewise, if I am interested in finding the lowest airfare from Northern Virginia to the UK, I might search for flights from Washington DC to London and might be interested in good deals from DCA, IAD, BWI, CHO or RIC. I might consider flying into Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton or even Manchester or Birmingham, (see what I did there?). I don’t suppose that I would making things clearer if I referred to SJC by its official name, (Norman Mineta International). Be precise in your use of language and everyone will be happier. Acronyms are sometimes useful and necessary. You just have to look them up.
Cat VH, I will own up to using "HOHO," especially if I'm using the term more than once, because I can type it so much more quickly than I can type "hop-on, hop-off bus." And if I'm speaking it, it's just fun to say. :)
I don't mind people using airport codes when they're discussing airports, even though many codes are unfamiliar to me and I have to keep a Google tab open to look them up if I'm reading a discussion among frequent flyers.
What does bug me--and this appears to be a U.S. thing--is when people use a city's airport code instead of its name, in online conversations that are not about airports at all. If you say that you're going to PHL next weekend, I'm going to wonder why you'd want to spend a weekend in the Philadelphia airport.
I might make an exception for using "PDX" for Portland, Oregon. You can't just write that city name without adding the state, as Portland, Maine, is also a fairly large city and a popular tourist destination. (Apparently, the airport at the one in Maine is "PWM," but I never see anyone using that to refer to the city itself.)
Um ok what if you're looking up Portland Airports, Norfolk, or San Carlos Airports?
Airport codes are specific, names not necessarily.
Like Rachel said:
There are fun codes like the one for my hometown that make little sense
My favorite is Orchard Field. Then it got a little bigger and changed it's name. Now they just call it ORD, You've probably heard of it.
And I grew up not far from Idlewild... You probably know it by it's new name.
I might make an exception for using "PDX" for Portland, Oregon. You can't just write that city name without adding the state, as Portland, Maine,...
Well, some things are dependent on ones location or point of reference.
I suspect the vast majority of the folks from the Rockies west, when they hear "Portland" will think Oregon. It makes sense that someone from New York, would have Maine come to mind.
Where I am, if one says "I'm going up to Vancouver", it means British Columbia
If one says "I'm going down to Vancouver," its the one in Washington, just across the river from Portland
What about the two American tourists who wanted to go “to Nice” but ended up in Tunis?
Years ago, I remember a story about a man flying out of LAX with the planned destination as Oakland. When he had been in the air for hours, he discovered he was on a flight to Auckland.
I speak the name of the city but will write the acronym for the airport on a forum since personally I find that more exact when trying to get information related to specific airports or travel plans. I can't say that I am concerned that someone is not familiar with the acronym since I prefer feedback from those who actually are familiar with the airport and thus I feel the use of the acronym weeds out posters who post on everything, even things that they have no personal experience with. And for new posters, I think it would be helpful to post the city name and the acronym for airports, trains stations etc, so they can become familiar with the acronym and avoid buying the wrong tickets. For example Milan (MXP) or Milan (LIN), the acronym is helpful.
In Canada, Toronto’s main airport is consistently referred to as Pearson,
Agreed. And in the case of Billy Bishop Airport, I can't stop calling it the island airport.
And to follow up on Cat VH's post, it's too bad that Rick Steves and Road Scholar are both RS, because people who travel with those companies refer to them that way. That can also get confusing on the forum.
Years ago, I remember a story about a man flying out of LAX with the planned destination as Oakland. When he had been in the air for hours, he discovered he was on a flight to Auckland.
He wasn't curious why the gate agent asked for his passport? Do LA folk really think of Oakland as a foreign destination?
Would you say the airport code out loud in conversation or just when writing it down?
Actually, I do say the acronyms quite a bit but it depends on who I'm talking to. I have two brothers; one is a retired Delta pilot, and the other is a very frequent flyer for business, so when we talk about travel and airports, we use acronyms. However, IF I use them here, I usually do so after I've said the city name at least once.
But I agree that we are a nation of acronyms. I guess it's similar to how the Aussies abbreviate every word. :-)
Regarding airport codes: There are also airports that have multiple codes, adding to the confusion:
Basel Airport is known as EAP, MLH and BSL...
By coincidence a question was asked on an ITV quiz show this week: "Which Florida Airport has the three letter code MCO?". Chosen I guess because many people will have flown on holiday from Britain to Orlando. However, no one got it although one was close I suppose with Sanford.
What I find confusing is when people make up their own three letter abbreviation rather than use the official code.
This is an interesting topic as I never considered using airport codes as an "American" quirk. Everytime I book a flight (either in US or in Europe), the airport code is listed as a choice (and you can always use to search.) In writing, I'll often use the more specific code if I'm writing about a specific airport. However in conversations I'll usually use the city/airport name with some exceptions (JFK, DFW, CDG are the 3 that come to mind.) With airport codes used in every airline ticket purchase, I'm surprised that it's confusing.
To make it a bit more confusing, in Paris it’s written CDG, but some still call it Roissy as that is the name of the village that was engulfed by the giant airport. Nobody would understand CDG if verbalized because that could be a lot of monuments, the Arc de Triomphe, etc. So it’s verbally either aéroport Charles de Gaulle or Roissy when giving taxi instructions or the first mention in a conversation.
I figure if I don’t know the acronym, I probably don’t know the answer and move on.
"Years ago, I remember a story about a man flying out of LAX with the planned destination as Oakland. When he had been in the air for hours, he discovered he was on a flight to Auckland."
This was actually the plot of an episode of the tv show Full House- I think that may be what you are thinking of.
I'm sure I saw coverage of that trip to Auckland at the time
Then sometimes there is history in the code. TGD is the Podgorica Airport (offical name: Podgorica Airport). But the airport opened between 1946 and 1992 when the city was called Titograd. Similar is PEK for Beijing. Then we have some of the funny ones:
SUX for Sioux Gateway Airport, Iow; POO for Pocos de Caldas Airport, Brazil; LOL for Derby Field, Lovelock, Nevada; OMG for Omega Airport, Namibia.
I’m with GerryM. It’s frustrating.
In college we would have to write Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and then “ LAX” could be used there after.
I skip posts for the most part that don’t t name the airport.
The main airports for which acronym use in oral speech is more common than the full airport or city name comprises, so far as I know:
There are others that might be 50-50: CMH, ATL, PDX and MGM come to mind. And "SEA-TAC" was commonly used in the past. Otherwise it's the full (or slang) city or airport name that's most commonly used.
I could be wrong about one or more of these; feel free to correct me or add others.
CDG is more commonly called "Chucky-D"
I don't often use IATA codes when talking about airports verbally, but when writing they are a lot simpler.
But yeah, the vernacular often wins out. Here in DC, you can tell a local by how they reference DCA. The official name is "Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport," but most locals call it "National" or "DCA".
Most folks call Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport simply "BWI" because the official name is word salad.
Dulles International Airport is typically just called "Dulles," much like Londoners would use "Heathrow" or "Gatwick."
Los Angeles International Airport is almost always called "LAX" by basically everybody I encounter.
As mentioned above: in New York City, JFK is commonly used, while the other two big airports are "La Guardia" and "Newark" (though I know quite a few in the Tri State area who say "EwwwwwR" for the latter, given its not-so-stellar reputation).
I still know folks in and around Denver who call the "new" Denver International Airport (DEN) airport "DIA," which was its temporary IATA code before Stapleton International Airport (the original DEN) was shuttered in 1995.
Many Portlanders (Oregon ones) call their airport "PDX."
CDG is more commonly called "Chucky-D"
Sure, Mr E, whatever you say. :o)
Never heard "Chucky-D" before. Now, "Mickey-D's" for McDonalds...a long-time nickname here and in Europe.
We had a former poster here who left quite a while ago who said Chucky-D. I've never heard or read it elsewhere.
I don't know what English-speakers say, but French speakers don't say CDG. So if speaking to a hotel clerk or taxi driver, you need to say aéroport Charles de Gaulle.
I call it Reagan and tge taxi knows where to go. Best airport serving DC.
Like London Paris also has an overall IATA code for all airports- PAR.
The PAR code also includes JPU (La Defense Heliport), JDP (Heliport de Paris), XDT (Charles de Gaulle TGV Rail Station), XPG (Gare du Nord Rail Station) and XGB (Montparnasse Rail Station)- those three for through Air/Rail bookings on Air France. (as well as several other even more obscure codes to non commercial airports).
I'd forgotten until looking it up just now about the through rail/air bookings being possible.
I, personally, would be inconsistent and say that I was flying to CDG, Beauvais or Orly.
I recognize the airport codes for the airports I have flown into and out of multiple times, but other codes I would have to look up, so I usually just pass by any posts that have a lot of codes that I don’t recognize. Not going to look them up so I can follow the question.
Same. I like how Lane said he wouldn't suggest it but .....allowed one to draw one's own conclusion.
In 2015, The Express conducted an online survey asking people what
they call "the airport in Northern Virginia that's not Dulles". The
results found that only 31% of people referred to the airport as
"Reagan" and only 12% as "Reagan National", compared to 57% dropping
the former president from the name.[48] Political preference was shown
to have a direct correlation with how people called the airport, with
72% of Republicans referring to the airport using "Reagan," while 64%
of Democrats call it "National" or "DCA."[49]
Of course, one can look at it this way: There is a post today asking about FRA in its title. At least there won’t be any comments (gently) advising the poster that he means Frankfurt rather than Frankfort.
The code for my airport (Kansas City) is MCI for Mid-Continent International**, but usually referred to as KCI, for Kansas City International, by locals. Nobody would recognize MCI if they weren't from here. I once had a "discussion" with a gate agent in Australia who refused to believe that I knew the correct code, and insisted on tagging the bags for MKC, which is our cargo airport.
** in the '50s and '60s, KC was the main stopping point for flights between the east coast and west coast
In the 50s/60s/70s my Dad was an Air Traffic Controller so Airport Codes were “normal speak”. When I went to University of Florida in Gainesville he made sure I knew to confirm the routing tag on checked luggage to make sure it was going to the correct Gainesville, lol.
Gainesville FL - GNV
Gainesville GA - GVL
Now flying in/out of GEG -Spokane WA, I still check because it’s one of the odd ones. GEG = Geiger Field, a WWII airfield.
Not sure if anyone is still reading but even away from Washington I hear people say, “DCA.” For that airport (named after TWO presidents) it’s pretty fraught politically whether to use the name Reagan or National. Saying DCA avoids the issue. Noting that adding Reagan to the name was the idea of outsiders so another reason why not popular locally.
Adding the fairly straightforward abbreviation MSP (Minneapolis-St Paul) was always locally called “the airport” but increasingly now called just MSP.
With a few exceptions I find the 3 digit codes concise and easily understood.
With a few exceptions I find the 3 digit codes concise and easily
understood.
That exception could be all of Canada; YYC, YEG, YUL, YYZ, YOW, YQR, YXE....
And why is O'Hare ORD, San Diego is SAN? is that the only city in the US starting with San? Bush is IAH, Orlando-MCO, Nashville-BNA....
Count me as one guy that skips by posts with too many abbreviations, not just airport codes, but for regular words as well, like IMHO.
Allan I also skip over those posts wth those abbreviations. Anyway my son lives in Florida and flies out of .Fort Myers Airport. The code is RSW. It stands for regional south west, therefore.RSW!
Bush is IAH
This one fits a certain pattern "International Airport Houston"
much like IAD "International Airport Dulles."
Someone in Canada had a good sense of humor with those abbreviations.
The Canadian codes are not a sense of humour- but a sense of history-
Y is the initial letter of the three letter IATA [International Air Transport Association] code for the vast majority of Canadian airports.
The second and third letters of the code replicate the original morse code allocations for the transcontinental railway stations of the respective cities, and the leading Y apparently just means 'Yes'- a 'Yes' that in the immediate post WW2 years when three letter codes were allocated the airfield had a weather tower/radio transmitter.
MCO-Orlando Originally McCoy AFB; The big runways are a legacy of the B-52s that were based there and its use as a training center.
BNA-Nashville Originally Berry Field and when the official designation was assigned BerryNAshville is not hard to fathom.
Some airport codes are fairly straightforward (SEA- Seattle) , others require digging into the history to understand.
Toby, it was originally Houston Intercontinental Airport for which the IAH worked, then changed to George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
Sometime an obvious airport code can be misleading. When I fly on Delta especially, I am mindful to stress which state i live in. Why? Home airport is Albany. Is the code ALB (ALBany) or ANY (AlbaNY)? Actually it’s ALB since I live here in Upstate New York. ANY is for Albany, Georgia. Delta serves both cities. I always carefully check the code once ticketed.
Intercontinental Airport
I find these terms like “Intercontinental” and “Sunport” (Albuquerque International Sunport) a little pretentious.
There’s another one, it’s usually called ABQ.
Noting that London Airports have real names, not long strings of 5 words ending in “International Airport.” Few US airports have real names like for example O’Hare, LaGuardia, or Logan, hence the default to the 3 letter codes.
Houston is George Bush Intecontinental. The full name of O'Hare Airport is Chicago O'Hare International Airport. The full name for Logan Airport is General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport
And Chicago O’Hare is ORD not for O’Hare but for Orchard Field. It was later renamed O’Hare after the US Navy’s first Medal of Honor recipient in WWII.
Toby, you made me look. I learned. It's great. I live threads where I learn. Joke or serious all good and happy. But the names are a bit ridiculous.
Well, this is a fun thread. I've always wondered (albeit, not enough to look it up) why Orlando's airport code was MCO. And now I know!
It really depends on the airport whether I use the code. If I'm flying into DC I'll use DCA; same with ORD for Chicago. It gives specificity when there are multiple airports in a city, but also I've been flying long enough that that's just the name that comes to mind for them. But, as others have mentioned, I'd always call Heathrow by name, although I would know what it was if someone used LHR.
CVG is the main airport for Cincinnati, but the letters come from CoVinGton, KY, which is the nearest city to where the airport is physically located (and I can't tell you how much it pisses off Kentuckians that an airport in their state is always referred to as being in Cincinnati, Ohio). It was named that because there was already a CIN airport in Iowa.
Did I miss someone mentioning New Orleans? MSY = Moisant Stock Yards. Moisant after an early aviator who was killed in a crash on land near where the airport was later built. Apparently the owner of the land where he crashed ran cattle on it, then developed a stock yard which he named Moisant Stock Yard to honor the pilot.
GTR- Golden Triangle Regional Airport in Mississippi is an interesting one. In the Delta booking system you can't find it unless you use the GTR code as they call it Columbus Airport. Whereas American use it's proper name.
I was looking at that today just in case I ever decide to visit the Ulysses S Grant Presidential Library in Starkville- a relative of mine was head hunted from a teaching job in Wrexham (Wales) in 1868 to ghost write a biography of the then General. So we don't know the title of the book or the attributed author's name. Thus the only way to trace the book would be to visit the Presidential Library. I doubt I could ever justify the diversion, but worth salting away the knowledge of how to get there just in case.
This is an interesting thread! I like learning the history of airport codes. If a comment uses airport codes and I am also interested in the subject, I’ll look it up. Codes can also cause confusion, as we know. I fly from Tampa International Airport (its official name), but the airport code is TPA. Understandably, folks might think the code would be TIA. But no, TIA is Tirana International Airport in Albania.
Ulysses S Grant Presidential Library
I never would have guessed that there is a series of self-proclaimed “presidential libraries” aside from those in the National Archives system.
