What airport is SDF?

Why the code is SDF

Standiford Field, the airport's name from 1947, after Elisha David Standiford.

The airport authority or a contemporaneous record states this directly.

The airport

IATA code

SDF

ICAO code

KSDF

Airport

Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport

City

Louisville, United States

Code origin

Documented

Standiford was a Kentucky legislator and businessman who owned part of the land. The airport was renamed for Muhammad Ali, a Louisville native, in 2019, and kept the code. It is one of the busiest cargo airports in the world because UPS built its global hub here, which means the airfield is at its busiest between midnight and 4 a.m.

The other code, KSDF

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