OAG Travel News

Weather systems affect travel all throughout the year, but they seem to make headlines more often during the busy holiday season.  Given that I was impacted – and inconvenienced – due to weather during the holidays this year, I was inspired to research airports that have codes representing weather terminology.

SUN is the official code for Friedman Memorial Airport serving Hailey and Sun Valley, Idaho, U.S. – a resort area in the central part of the state.  Currently travelers can reach SUN nonstop on Alaska Airlines from Los Angeles, Seattle and Idaho Falls, or on Delta from Salt Lake City.  But the only way to SNO is through Bangkok.  In this case, SNO is Sakon Nakhon Airport in eastern Thailand, and the only commercial air service is eight flights per week on PBair to Bangkok.  Given the fact that Sakon Nakhon is located in southeast Asia, snow is a rare occurrence!

BLZ represents Chileka International Airport in Blantyre, Malawi – a location that does not experience blizzard conditions despite its airport code.  Blantyre is the second-largest city in Malawi, and passengers can reach three destinations on Air Malawi nonstop from Blantyre – Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania; Lilongwe, Malawi; and Lusaka, Zambia.  Both Air Malawi and South African Airways provide service to Johannesburg, South Africa.

HOT refers to Hot Springs Memorial Field in Arkansas, U.S.  Currently, Hot Springs is without commercial air service since Air Midwest ceased operations in mid-2008.  Great Lakes Airlines is scheduled to re-initiate service under the Essential Air Service (EAS) program in the near future, connecting HOT with Dallas/Ft. Worth.  The opposite end of the temperature spectrum is CLD, the airport code for Carlsbad, California, with five daily flights to Los Angeles on United.  One might even choose to fall farther on the thermometer by visiting BRR.  In this case, BRR represents the airport code for Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, U.K.  Flybe provides nonstop service from BRR to both Glasgow and Benbecula, also in the Outer Hebrides.

FOG is a weather condition that is not friendly for air travel …. But it is the airport code for Foggia, Italy.  Foggia enjoys nonstop service by MyAir to Milan, Rome, Palermo and Turin as well as service to San Domino by Alidaunia.  RAI is about as close to rain as an airport code can get…. It represents Praia International Airport in Cape Verde, an island nation off the west coast of Africa.  Praia serves as a popular refueling point for transatlantic flights, and an average of 11 daily scheduled flights link Praia with 12 destinations in Africa, North America, South America and Europe.

Several airports with weather-inspired codes do not currently have scheduled commercial air service.  These include wind – Windarra, Australia (WND) – and sleet – Salida, Colorado, U.S. (SLT).  And ICE is still available as it currently does not represent any airport…although this code would probably not be of much help in terms of airport marketing.  Here’s hoping your holiday travels were not impacted by any extraordinary weather!

Source: Official Airline Guide (OAG) Schedule Tapes; scheduled commercial flights for December 2008 only.

Note: Alaska Airlines service between SUN and Idaho Falls is seasonal and ended December 13, 2008.

OAG contributor Laura Jackson was just two weeks old when she took her first flight on Piedmont Airlines.  In junior high school, she developed a business plan for her own airline.  Today she manages strategy and policy issues at one of the world's busiest airports and provides original content and aviation industry analysis for OAG.