What airport is BNA?

Why the code is BNA

Berry Field Nashville. The field was named for Harry Berry, who ran the works programme that built it.

The airport authority or a contemporaneous record states this directly.

The airport

IATA code

BNA

ICAO code

KBNA

Airport

Nashville International Airport

City

Nashville, United States

Code origin

Documented

Berry Field opened in 1937 under a Works Progress Administration grant, and Harry S. Berry was the state administrator who oversaw it. The airport was renamed Nashville International in 1988; the code kept the initials of a man most passengers have never heard of.

The other code, KBNA

Every airport has two codes. The three-letter IATA code, BNA, is the one on your boarding pass and your luggage tag, and it is assigned for commercial use. The four-letter ICAO code, KBNA, 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 KBNA looks nothing like BNA.