What airport is ATL?

Why the code is ATL

The first three letters of Atlanta.

The airport authority or a contemporaneous record states this directly.

The airport

IATA code

ATL

ICAO code

KATL

Airport

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

City

Atlanta, United States

Opened

1926

Code origin

Documented

It has been the busiest airport in the world by passenger numbers for most years since 1998, which is a consequence of geography and hub design rather than of Atlanta being a large destination: most people in the terminal are changing planes. The old joke that you have to connect through Atlanta to get to heaven is a fair description of Delta's network.

The other code, KATL

Every airport has two codes. The three-letter IATA code, ATL, is the one on your boarding pass and your luggage tag, and it is assigned for commercial use. The four-letter ICAO code, KATL, is the one pilots and controllers use, and it is assigned geographically: the first letter or two identify the region, so every airport in the same part of the world shares a prefix. That is why KATL looks nothing like ATL.