It's time for another fan appearance! Keyboards You notice three of your airport codes that appear on your bag tag on your boarding pass? If you ever wondered where they came from, you sack them up in the airline business. My whole family was in the industry. To me, these little codes are a little piece of history. So for the next 300 seconds, I want to share with you some of those stories. You see, in 1903, there were no airports. And it wasn't until the right about this first flight that commercial aviation was born. To this day, the National Park Service maintained small airport outside of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The city code is FFA, first flight air strip. The International Air Transport Association keeps track of nearly 4,000 airports worldwide. Resolution 763 outlines the rules for location IDs. And the airline coding directory is published twice a year on June 1st and on December 1st. The National Weather Service maintains weather stations at the sites of present-day airports. However, there are only two-digit codes. So early on, airports is added in an X to the existing weather designator. That's how Fenix got the code at PHAX. The National Air Cardi Director says that when possible, airports must use the first three letters of the city name and their airport code. However, due to restrictions, that's not always possible. And when two metropolitan areas are served by the same airport, both city names are represented. Some letters are not available for use. K&W were used by radio stations, and the Navy uses all the in letters. Zeeb or Charlie X-rays, not even an airport all. But it's the National Weather Transportation Center in Washington, DC. The Canadians use all the Y codes. If you know something about geography in the area, then city codes start to make sense. New Orleans code of MSY stands for the Moizont Stockyards. And when you're flying into Cincinnati, Ohio, you're actually landing in Covington, Kentucky. You're not even in Ohio at all. With the Navy using all the in letters, the cities that begin with a letter in have a little problem on their hands. Just drop the letter in and use the next three letters, and you know why Newark, New Jersey, EW are. The 200-mile rule states that when two airports are in close proximity of each other, they can only share a single character. Therefore, the original airport in Houston's HOU and the newer Intercontinental Terminal is IAH. Similar ID and DC, where DCA is the District of Columbia Airport and the newer Dole's International Airport was going to be DIA. But avoid confusion, we flip DIA around and we get Dole's current city code of IAD. The rock band rushes from Toronto, Canada. They do attribute to their hometown, the starts like this. That's the VOR, outside of Toronto Airport, broadcasting and more code of the letters, YYZ, the city code for Toronto. In the 1950s, Kansas City built a mid-continent international, but later on, it changed their minds because they felt that MCI didn't properly identify with Kansas City. So it's tried to change the code to MKC. Unfortunately, the navigational charts are already been published, so they were stuck with it. It's popular to use the name of pilots, some of them who crashed to airports. In 1950s, that's right. This one pilot crashed outside of Orlando, he missed the population below, and so now they named the airport after him, MCO. The Idle Wild Airport in New York is called IDL, it's named after a golf course. But an unusual example of airports changing city codes, IDL changed the code to JFK on December 24, 1963, after President Kennedy was assassinated. The city code for Suicide I was SUX. The mayor tried to petition IADA for a new set of codes, but the codes they gave him were not any good. So they had an image problem on their hands, right? Now we're all marketing a PR people, are we not? Okay, now what are marketing people do when they have an image problem on their hands? They try to monetize their unique opportunity. They take advantage of the situation and they make lemonade out of lemons. I love it. Here's some of the items for sale on the Su City gift shop and available online at sucitygifts.com. I want that mug. Here's some more interesting airports. If you fly in the Sudan, you fly in a dog. If you're looking for a cat, you have to go to the Bahamas. And everybody knows when you're looking for a pot. Where do you go? Jamaica, man? Good at Jamaica. This is Butch O'Hare who the Chicago airport was named after. But ORD is not an abbreviation of Butch's name. Instead it's named after the community of Orchard Park Douglas Field. Now in the 1940s, Douglas Field was the place where the military house captured and experimental military aircraft. The next time you fly, I hope you take a second look at your bag tag. Where are you from? What's the history of the airport you call home? Let me know. Or better yet, we'll find out together. Thanks for flying.