1937: IATA Airport Abbreviations
| IATA Airport Abbreviations |
 Title text: IATA stands for International AirporT Abbreviation. |
Explanation
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This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Expansion needed. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks. |
This comic is making fun of the three-letter codes assigned to all airports. These codes are overseen by the IATA (International Air Transport Association). Some airport codes are very intuitive, taking letters from the city name (e.g., DEN for Denver). Other codes are somewhat intuitive, taking a letter or two from the nearby city name but adding an additional letter (e.g., LAX for Los Angeles). Other codes make seemingly no sense at all (e.g., ORD for Chicago's O'Hare International, due to it formerly being named Orchard Field). In many cases, the airport codes appear to have been chosen (or invented) because they are also common abbreviations and acronyms.
If we use the table provided, Randall's friend is flying into Edwards Air Force Base and then down to whatever. This is not a typical flight[citation needed]. In actuality, the friend is flying into Newark tonight and Detroit tomorrow.
| IATA Code | Actual Assigned City/Airport | Description in the comic | Explanation |
| AMD | Ahmedabad | Amsterdam | Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands. Its airport (called Schiphol) has the IATA code AMS. "AMD" is a brand of computer processors. |
| ANC | Anchorage | Ankh-Morpork | Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state featured in Discworld. |
| ATL | Atlanta | Atalantë | Another name for J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional island of Númenor (which is in turn a reference to the sinking of Atlantis). |
| BAE | Barcelonnette | Beijing | Beijing is the capital of China. Its airport has the IATA code PEK. "Bae" is a slang term meaning girlfriend, boyfriend, or significant other. |
| BLT | Blackwater | Baltimore | A "BLT" is a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. |
| BUF | Buffalo | Sunnydale | Sunnydale is the fictional setting of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. |
| CLT | Charlotte | [CENSORED] | The censored word may be "clitoris." Randall has used this word in the comic before, so it is not known why he censors it here. |
| DFW | Dallas/Fort Worth | Down For Whatever | |
| DTF | not assigned | Dartford | "DTF" is an acronym used to indicate "Down To Fuck". Dartford is a town in Kent, UK, about 10 miles SE of London. |
| DTW | Detroit | Down To Whatever | |
| DWI | not assigned | Delaware International | "DWI" is an acronym for "Driving While Intoxicated" or "Driving While Impaired." |
| EWR | Newark | Edwards Air Force Base | Edwards Air Force Base (which has the IATA code EDW) is a United States Air Force installation in southern California, about 22 miles (35 km) northeast of Lancaster and 15 miles (24 km) east of Rosamond. |
| FFS | not assigned | Flagstaff Station | "FFS" is an acronym for "For Fuck's Sake". |
| FHQ | not assigned | FHQWHGADS | The string "fhqwhgads" appeared as the sender name in a spam email sent to Strong Bad in the Homestar Runner cartoons; Strong Bad ended up writing a song dedicated to the "character". |
| FYI | not assigned | Fayetteville | "FYI" often stands for "For Your Information". |
| HGM | not assigned | Hogsmeade | Hogsmeade is a fictional location in the Harry Potter series. |
| HSV | Huntsville | Huntsville | This is one where Randall and the IATA agree. HSV is better known as the Hue-Saturation-Value color space. |
| IAD | Washington | Idaho (Boise) | |
| IUD | Doha | Washington Dulles | An "IUD" is an "IntraUterine Device," or form or birth control. |
| JFC | not assigned | Jefferson City | "JFC" is an acronym for "Jesus Fucking Christ." |
| KUL | Kuala Lumpur | Kingdom of Loathing | |
| LAX | Los Angeles | Las Angalas | "Las Angalas" is a "Los Angeles" with every vowel replaced with an "a" character. |
| LOL | Lovelock | Louisville | "LOL" often stands for "Laughing Out Loud". |
| MDW | Chicago, IL (Midway) | Midway Atoll | Midway Atoll was the site of one of the most significant World War II Pacific naval battles. The actual airport code is MDY. |
| MIA | Miami | Colombo, Sri Lanka | MIA is a rapper who is of Sri Lankan heritage. |
| OMW | not assigned | Omaha | Eppley Airfield in East Omaha, Nebraska, has a IATA code of OMA. "OMW" is an acronym for "On My Way." |
| ORD | Chicago, IL (O'Hare) | Orlando | |
| PDX | Portland | Pordlanx | |
| PHL | Philadelphia, PA | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh International Airport has a IATA code of PIT. The satirical folk-pop band Moxy Früvous performed a song called "Intra-Pennsylvania Rivalry" in Philiadelphia, featured on their album Live Noise. In this song they stated that they wished to create an Intra-Pennsylvania Rivalry, and encourage citizens of Philadelphia to invade Pittsburgh with pitchforks and spades. |
| SAN | San Diego | San Diego San Juan San Jose San Francisco San Antonio | |
| SEA | Seattle/Tacoma or SeaTac | [Indicates Water Landing] | This is likely in reference to the fact that "SEA" could be interpreted as "Sea". SeaTac is a city in WA, adjacent to the airport. |
| SMH | Sapmanga | Smithfield | Shaking My Head |
| STL | St. Louis | Silent Hill | Silent Hill is a fictional city appearing in the series of video games and movies with the same name. |
| SWF | Newburgh, New York | Sherwood Forest | ShockWave Flash extension |
| TBA | Tabibuga | Tribeca | To Be Announced |
| TMI | Tumlingtar | Turkmenistan International | "TMI" often stands for "Too Much Information". |
| YYY | Mont-Joli | Toronto Downtown | The small airport in downtown Toronto is Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport which has an IATA code of YTZ. |
| YYZ | Toronto | Toronto Pearson | This one is correct. |
Transcript
Confused by those airport abbreviations used by your friends who fly a lot? Just memorize this list.
- Aside 1: I'm flying into EWR tonight, then DTW tomorrow.
- Aside 2: Ok, cool. I definitely know what those mean without Googling.
| AMD | Amsterdam |
| BAE | Beijing |
| ORD | Orlando |
| IAD | Idaho (Boise) |
| JFC | Jefferson City |
| IUD | Washington Dulles |
| FYI | Fayetteville |
| LOL | Louisville |
| ATL | Atalante |
| HGM | Hogsmeade |
| OMW | Omaha |
| ANC | Ankh-Morpork |
| HSV | Hunstville |
| SAN | San Diego |
| SAN | San Juan |
| SAN | San Jose |
| SAN | San Francisco |
| SAN | San Antonio |
| DWI | Delaware International |
| DFW | Down for Whatever |
| DTW | Down to Whatever |
| TMI | Turkmenistan International |
| LAX | Las Angalas |
| EWR | Edwards Air Force Base |
| PHL | Pittsburgh |
| SWF | Sherwood Forest |
| KUL | Kingdom of Loathing |
| STL | Silent Hill |
| BUF | Sunnydale |
| TBA | Tribeca |
| SMH | Smithfield |
| BLT | Baltimore |
| YYY | Toronto Downtown |
| YYZ | Toronto Pearson |
| MIA | Colombo, Sri Lanka |
| CLT | Censored |
| FHQ | Fhqwhgads |
| FFS | Flagstaff Station |
| DTF | Dartford |
| MDW | Midway Atoll |
| PDX | Pordlanx |
| SEA | Indicates Water Landing |
|
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This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks. |
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refresh comments!Discussion
CLT is Charlotte Douglass International, but maybe the [censored] tag is referring to what this acronym sounds like when it's pronounced phonetically? 172.69.68.219 16:01, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
- Maybe someone just flew in or out of it and realized how messed up it is. :) (I live in Charlotte and fly 4 times a year) --108.162.237.106 14:19, 5 January 2018 (UTC)
IATA actually stands for [Air Transport Association]. Nutster (talk) 16:12, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
Ankh-Morpork is from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Hogsmeade is from Harry Potter. Kingdom of Loathing is a web-based multiplayer game. Sunnydale is from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BUF). fhqwhgads is from a Strong Bad email (Homestar Runner). 108.162.238.35 16:15, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
The Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (Downtown Toronto) actually uses the call sign YTZ, not YYY. Nutster (talk) 16:18, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
- List of the codes and airport names
AMD Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport BAE Barcelonnette – Saint-Pons Airport ORD O'Hare International Airport IAD Washington Dulles International Airport JFC - IUD - FYI - LOL Derby Field ATL Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport HGM - OMW - ANC Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport HSV Huntsville International Airport (Carl T. Jones Field) SAN San Diego International Airport DWI - DFW Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport DTW Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport TMI Tumlingtar Airport LAX Los Angeles International Airport EWR Newark Liberty International Airport PHL Philadelphia International Airport SWF Stewart International Airport KUL Kuala Lumpur International Airport STL Lambert–St. Louis International Airport BUF Buffalo Niagara International Airport TBA Tabibuga Airport SMH Sapmanga Airport BLT Blackwater Airport YYY Mont-Joli Airport YYZ Toronto Pearson International Airport MIA Miami International Airport CLT Charlotte Douglas International Airport FHQ - FFS - DTF - MDW Midway International Airport PDX Portland International Airport SEA Seattle–Tacoma International Airport
Jefe9247 (talk) 16:33, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
Could "Las Angalas" be the way Tommy Wiseau pronounces it? Tait marconi (talk) 20:17, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
Re SWF being Sherwood Forest. Robin Hood airport, nearish to the historic location of Sherwood Forest actually exists. Sadly the IATA code is DSA (Doncaster Sheffield airport) - Putters -- Putters (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
I think that substituting PHL for Pittsburgh's airport might also be a jab at how Facebook got confused a few months ago, labeling posts from Pittsburgh as originating in Philadelphia. -- FuzzyBoots (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Possibly also relevant that quite a few of these are common abbreviations used in text-based communication (e.g. LOL, FYI, FFS, TMI, etc.). I wonder if it's something like https://xkcd.com/1015/, where once you've memorised these abbreviations you can't help but think of the (annoying and incorrect) airports that they stand for when reading text messages from others. 162.158.89.31 23:00, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
I think KIX should be added as well, it stands for Kansai International Airport. Boeing-787lover 05:28, 5 January 2018 (UTC) -- Xkcdreader52 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- Major Omission
i'd like to add BHD -- Baggage Handlers' Decision. MCMXLVII (talk) 02:34, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
- Also: HIJ - hijacking; ISS - self-explanatory141.101.76.16 09:50, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
- A Question
The page has the line "Randall notes in the what if? book that Delaware has no airports. This entry is also a play on the nearby real airport BWI, Baltimore-Washington International." Which what-if is this from?
--173.245.52.151 16:49, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
- The chapter in the book is "Flyover States: Which US state is actually flown over the most?" Rtanenbaum (talk) 18:16, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
- Observation
SeaTac isn't esp close to water (closest is >1 mile, perpendicular to runway orientation), although some of the flight patterns have segments over Puget Sound [Flight Patterns]. Still, nothing like LGA or SFO where a short/long can put the plane in the water. 172.68.141.238 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- Another Missing Airport
What about FUK? The first time I saw this one, I checked with my boss. It is for Fukuoka, Japan. 162.158.75.232 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
I was disappointed not to see Montreal's weird-ass code YUL in here (until I read the chart and found out nearly none are real), but it's nice to still see an explanation of the Y, LOL! NiceGuy1 (talk) 05:58, 5 January 2018 (UTC)
- I wanted to see HMB (Sohag International Airport) 173.245.52.109 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- I'm still disappointed that my local airport (for Dunedin, New Zealand) has the unfortunate abbreviation DUD. 198.41.238.22 11:53, 6 January 2018 (UTC)
In the explanation it mentions that Dartford is likely a portmanteau of Dartmouth and Harvard, but I would have thought Dartmouth and Oxford would be more of a match. Is there a reason for those two specifically? 162.158.106.102 15:24, 17 June 2019 (UTC)
ok so i knew their actual meanings and play kol, so the kuala lumpur one (kul) being changed to "kingdom of loathing" made me say just 1 thing: ffs, randall, i know "u" looks like "o" but no need to say it An user who has no account yet (talk) 00:51, 17 September 2023 (UTC)
