At One Place

Airport codes in United States

32 airports in United States, with the origin of each code rather than just its expansion.

Code Airport City Where the code comes from
JFK John F. Kennedy International Airport New York The initials of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, assigned in 1963 when the airport was renamed for him.
LAX Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles LA plus a filler X, added when two-letter codes were extended to three in the 1930s.
ORD O'Hare International Airport Chicago Orchard Place, the hamlet the airfield was built over, by way of its wartime name Orchard Field. The airport was renamed for Edward O'Hare in 1949; the code was not.
ATL Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Atlanta The first three letters of Atlanta.
MCO Orlando International Airport Orlando McCoy Air Force Base, the Strategic Air Command base the civil airport was built alongside.
DFW Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Dallas Dallas Fort Worth. The airport sits between the two cities because neither would let the other have it.
EWR Newark Liberty International Airport Newark The letters of nEWaRk. The obvious code, NEW, was unavailable because N was reserved.
SFO San Francisco International Airport San Francisco San FranciscO — the first two letters plus the last.
LGA LaGuardia Airport New York Fiorello La Guardia, the mayor who forced it into existence.
DEN Denver International Airport Denver The first three letters of Denver, inherited from Stapleton when that airport closed.
MIA Miami International Airport Miami The first three letters of Miami.
LAS Harry Reid International Airport Las Vegas The first three letters of Las Vegas.
SEA Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Seattle The first three letters of Seattle.
MSY Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport New Orleans Moisant Stock Yards — the land was a stockyard, and before that the field where the aviator John Moisant died in 1910.
IAD Washington Dulles International Airport Washington A deliberate scramble of DIA, which was too easily misread as DCA in handwriting.
DCA Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Washington District of Columbia Airport — although the runways are physically in Virginia.
BOS Boston Logan International Airport Boston The first three letters of Boston.
IAH George Bush Intercontinental Airport Houston Intercontinental Airport Houston, its name when the code was assigned.
BNA Nashville International Airport Nashville Berry Field Nashville. The field was named for Harry Berry, who ran the works programme that built it.
PHX Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Phoenix PH for Phoenix, plus the filler X.
CLT Charlotte Douglas International Airport Charlotte CharLoTte, using the consonants because CHA was already taken by Chattanooga.
CVG Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport Cincinnati Covington, Kentucky — the nearest town to the site, and in a different state from the city the airport is named for.
PDX Portland International Airport Portland PD for Portland, plus the same meaningless X that LAX and PHX carry.
MSP Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport Minneapolis Minneapolis Saint Paul, the two cities it sits between.
DTW Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport Detroit DeTroit Wayne, from Wayne County, where it sits.
HNL Daniel K. Inouye International Airport Honolulu HoNoLulu, using the consonants.
BWI Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport Baltimore Baltimore Washington International, adopted in 1973 when the airport rebranded to attract Washington traffic.
MCI Kansas City International Airport Kansas City Mid-Continent International, the airport's name when the code was assigned in 1972.
SLC Salt Lake City International Airport Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, initials.
SDF Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport Louisville Standiford Field, the airport's name from 1947, after Elisha David Standiford.
ANC Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport Anchorage The first three letters of Anchorage.
SNA John Wayne Airport Santa Ana Santa Ana, the city it sits in, despite the airport being named for John Wayne.

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