I mentioned OGG as the three-letter airport code for Kahului Drome happening the Hawaiian island of Maui in the Middling clause for no greater implication than I launch it amusing and it sounded like something a caveman might say. A little Intertubes sleuthing LED Pine Tree State to an well-heeled account at Airport First rudiment, an article reprinted from the December 1994 edition of Air Transmission line Pilot. Why OGG? The designation was created "in honor of air power caption, and Lihue native, Capt. Bertram J. James Hogg (pronounced Hoag)."

The International Air Conveyance Connexion a merchandise grouping of "240 members comprise 84% of the total air traffic" and renowned more commonly by its acronym IATA, allotted these codes. Nearly circumpolar to the average airline traveler, those are the sometimes cryptic three-missive combinations unmatchable sees printed on baggage tags that route them to their proper destinations. Usually. Unique codes identify hundreds of distinct airports everywhere around the human race, king-sized and small, served by commercial airlines.

This Airport SUX

Codes ranged from Abdominal aortic aneurysm (Anaa Airport, French Oceania) to ZZV (Zanesville Airport, Ohio, United States Army), and offered a dizzying array of entertaining combinations. It would approach neglect if I failed to mention the best of the lot even though it's already well noted. I just couldn't supporte myself. You knew what was coming — Sioux Gateway Airport serving Sioux City, Iowa (map).

Sioux City Airport. Photo by Alexander Rabb; (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Sioux Gateway Airport

The SUX designation had been applied in an earlier fourth dimension before "sucks" became thusly closely substitutable with awful situations and things. Sioux City politicians began lobbying for a new code in the 1990's. They derelict their effort a few years late and decided to stick to SUX after being offered nothing better. They later came to vista it as a selling tool. Now the drome website proudly proclaims flysux.com and sells trade.

Twelve Mile Circle reviewed every three-varsity letter encrypt to gather the second-best of the rest. I got about intermediate through my task and discovered I'd assembled principally a list of obscenities. Being a family-friendly site, operating theatre at any rate a family-tolerant site, I felt an obligation to bug out anew and shift my focus away from the profane and tacking back towards funny. Good-for-nothing Fukuoka Drome and your ilk, I discarded you. In reality a couple of codes were even more explicit — enough to make 12MC blush — and I South Korean won't even confidential information at those.

I gathered some of the vast array of remaining options and placed them in a a few logical groupings. Readers give notice gaming this game at plate with other groupings. Options are practically endless.

Bumpy Landings

Hamad International Airport, Doha, Qatar. Photo by David McKelvey; (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Hamad International Airport, Doha, State of Qatar

Several codes power comprise completely harmless in their home languages while unsatisfactory to instill A level of trust through a prism of English language and popular culture. To wit, Doha, Qatar's DOH (map) came perilously close to Homer Simpson's D'OH!

Former difficult transits might be inferred by,

  • Swingeing – Barksdale USA Base, Bossier City, Louisiana, United States
  • BOO – Bodø Airport, Bodø, Norway
  • EEK – Eek Airport, Eek, Alaska, United States
  • LIE – Libenge Airport, Libenge, Democratic Commonwealth of the Republic of the Congo
  • MUD – Mueda Airport, Mueda, Mozambique
  • SAD – Safford Territorial Airport, Safford, Arizona, United States
  • WAA – Wales Airport (FAA: IWK), Wales, Last Frontier, United States

Airport Self-assurance

Separate airports seemed to mean vastly superior experiences. I don't know how tiny Finley, NSW, Australia managed to hang-up FLY, though. I would have thought airports around the world would have fought hard for that one. Any city in Florida or Finland power take in also put that write in code to good use.

A hardly a other attractive options,

  • ACE – Lanzarote Airport, Arrecife, Canary Islands, Kingdom of Spain
  • EZE – Ministro Pistarini International Airport Ezeiza, Argentina
  • SKY – Griffing Sandusky Airport, Sandusky, Buckeye State, United States
  • TLC – Lic. Adolfo López Mateos International Airport, Toluca, Estado de México, México
  • Howler – Willow Airport, Willow, Alaska, United States

Barnyard Theme

I needed to come with up with something innocuous and family line-appropriate after my earlier content failure. An "Old MacDonald" farmyard motif arose from the lengthy list, although admittedly UDR for bag might have been stretching things a bit too far (no pun intended).

  • ARF – Acaricuara Airport, Acaricuara, Colombia
  • BAA – Bialla Airport, Bialla, Papua Newfound Guinea
  • CAT – New Bight Airport, Caterpillar Island, Bahamas
  • Moo-cow – Coquimbo Airport, Coquimbo, Coquimbo Region, Chile
  • DOG – Dongola Airport, Dongola, Sudan
  • MOO – Moomba Airport, Moomba, South Commonwealth of Australi, Australia
  • PIG – Pitinga Airport, Pitinga, Brazil
  • RAT – Raduzhny Aerodrome, Raduzhny, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Russia
  • UDR – Udaipur Aerodrome, Udaipur, India

My Airport

Airport_in_Timbuktu-1-. Photo by James Joel; (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Airport in Timbuktu

So I got selfish. Which airports, I wondered, had three-letter codes that mattered to me in person. Obviously TOM would rank high on that list, although Timbuktu, French Sudan might non be the best place to see at the moment imputable civil unrest and insurrection. The code TOM derived from information technology French language spelling, Aéroport International Delaware Tombouctou, a remnant of European nation colonial rule that lasted into the 1960's (map).

In recognition of my given name, my immense EGO, my fancy for food and fermented drink, and my geo-oddity proclivities, I selected,

  • Self-importance – Belgorod Airport, Belgorod, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
  • Tom turkey – Timbuktu Drome, Timbuktu, Mali
  • BBQ – Codrington Airport, Codrington, Barbuda in Antigua and Barbuda
  • Ham actor – Hamburg Airport, Hamburg / Fuhlsbüttel, Germany
  • PIE – St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Drome, Pinellas Cobalt., Florida, US Government
  • ALE – Alpine-Casparis Assemblage Airport, Alpine, Lone-Star State, United States
  • IPA – Ipota Airport, Ipota, Erromango, Vanuatu
  • Strange – Rumjatar Airdrome, Rumjatar, Nepal
  • GEO – Cheddi Jagan International Airport (Timehri Int'l), Georgetown, Guyana
  • LOL – Derby Theatre, Lovelock, Battle Born State, United States
  • USA – Concord Regional Airdrome, Concord, North Carolina, United States

That would follow an newsworthy world tour.