Which destinations are commonly referred to by their IATA code?

[Deleted member 29185]

I was just reading comment on another thread where someone queried why we use an airport code rather than just type the full name.

The answer is of course fairly self explanatory, but it got me wondering how many, apart from FFers, refer to destinations with their IATA code?

I can easily think of one. POM. Port Moresby, Jackson Airport. Many of the population refer to the city as Moresby or simply POM, in fact I can't recall the last time I used any other term apart from POM as it's so easy and just rolls off the tongue. Everyone from the coast to remote highland villages know the place as POM. Even tonight I was having a meal with a man running for office and I asked him where he will be basing himself ... his reply was simply, POM!

So how many other places are commonly referred to by the general population as it's airport code?

 

[leadman]

BKK is a common one

 

[Skyring]

I have a lot of friends tell me about SIN.

 

[Pointcollector]

City of Angels... LAX

 

[Flyer 777]

My 5yr old refers to 30 plus destinations by their IATA code, blows the minds of his kindy teachers, more so when he shows them how you get to a destination via another on flight tracker!!

 

[DC3]

... and JFK?

 

[JohnK]

Agree about BKK. A lot of Thais also use that abbreviation when referring to Bangkok.

 

[oh_lol]

Find a lot of Americans will refer to Atlanta as The ATL.

 

[Skyring]

OKC is commonly used in a non-air travel sense.

DFW is very common, but that doesn't refer to a city per se.

 

[andyhui01]

In a spoken sense, only one I will actually say is LAX. The others just sound too weird when speaking to non FF's

But in a written context, ie. sms, email, chat... etc. Quite alot of them (ie SIN, KUL, HKG, MEL, SIN, BKK... etc), except for the ones which cannot easily be decoded if they don't travel often. ie. YVR, ICN, HND, NRT, PEK, PVG... etc

 

[harvyk]

SYD, MEL... Both those are pretty easy abbreviations of the cities full name, and are pretty self explanatory outside an airport context.

With CBR, Tourism Canberra (or whatever they call themselves this week) are using the CBR initials as part of their current campaign, with no actual mention of the airport.

 

[NM]

And of course if you are flying FinnAir and you start in SIN you end up in HEL.

 

[Himeno]

OKC is commonly used in a non-air travel sense.

DFW is very common, but that doesn't refer to a city per se.

DFW itself is considered to be a city.

Lots of americans refer to LAX, DFW and JFK by their IATA codes. DEN could have been another one, but the locals tend to call it DIA.

The ACT government is slapping 'CBR' on a lot of things, it isn't just being used by ACT Tourism

 

[oz_mark]

Pretty sure I've heard the abbreviation for Fukuoka mentioned around the place.

 

[Himeno]

Pretty sure I've heard the abbreviation for Fukuoka mentioned around the place.

I doubt they are referring to the city in such cases.