xkcd.WTF!?

Explanation ➲

This comic is making fun of the three-letter codes assigned to major airports in the world. 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. Randall is obviously confused by these codes, replying to his friend that he definitely knows what those mean without googling, basically revealing that he used Google to search for the codes, and has created a list for us to memorize. In fact, this list is complete nonsense, with some of the "airports" mentioned not even existing, and the existing airports are all paired with the wrong codes, except for Huntsville (HSV), San Diego (one of the instances of SAN) and Toronto Pearson (YYZ).

If we use the table provided, Randall's friend is flying into Edwards Air Force Base and then "down to whatever" -- not a real flight.^{[citation needed]} In actuality, the friend is flying into Newark tonight and Detroit tomorrow.

The title text is a pun about the acronym IATA, stating it stands for International AirporT Abbreviation. This is as wrong as almost everything else here, because the real International Air Transport Association is not an organization only responsible for abbreviations in aviation. This acronym also leads to some redundancy in the title by making the true title of the comic be "International Airport Abbreviation Airport Abbreviations," which might be an example of RAS syndrome.

This comic could be inspired by the recent news about an Indian businessman charged with making a bomb threat at a Mumbai airport claiming he was misheard by a telephone operator while asking for the BOM to DEL flight status.

It may also be a reference to tongue-in-cheek 'teen texting code' explanations for older generations.

IATA Code	Actual Assigned City/Airport	Description in the comic	Explanation
AMD	Ahmedabad (India)	Amsterdam	Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands. Its airport (called Schiphol) has the IATA code AMS. "AMD" is also an abbreviated name for "Advanced Micro Devices", a company that makes computer processors and graphics cards, among other products.
ANC	Anchorage (USA)	Ankh-Morpork	Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state featured in Discworld. ANC is also an abbreviated name for the African National Congress.
ATL	Atlanta (USA)	Atalantë	Another name for J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional island of Númenor (which is in turn a reference to the sinking of Atlantis). This may also be an intentional misspelling of "Atlanta". ATL may also be an abbreviation for "above the line" - the area in an internet article or post containing the main content; as contrasted with BTL ("below the line") where readers' comments appear.
BAE	Barcelonnette (France)	Beijing	Beijing is the capital of China, served by two airports: Beijing Capital (IATA: PEK) and Beijing Daxing (IATA: PKX). Both IATA codes are probably originated from Peking, alternate former spelling of the city's name. BAE Systems is the world's second-largest defense contractor, while "Bae" is a slang term meaning girlfriend, boyfriend, or significant other. Randall has presumably assigned this to Beijing as, when pronounced as a word, rather than an abbreviation, it resembles the first syllable.
BLT	Blackwater (Australia)	Baltimore	A "BLT" is a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. Baltimore is served by two airports with the codes BWI and MTN.
BUF	Buffalo (USA)	Sunnydale	Sunnydale is a fictional California city that serves as the primary setting for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
CLT	Charlotte (USA)	[CENSORED]	The censored word may be "clitoris" (or "clit" for short). Randall has used this word in the comic before (243: Appropriate Term, and 492: Scrabble), but it is censored here for comic effect.
DFW	Dallas/Fort Worth (USA)	Down For Whatever	"Down for Whatever" is an expression used to indicate that one is okay with doing whatever one's friends are doing in a social situation, or whatever comes up during a social situation.
DTF	not assigned	Dartford	"DTF" is an abbreviation used to indicate "Down To Fuck". Dartford is a town in Kent, UK, about 10 miles SE of London. It does not have an airport. The nearest is probably London City Airport, LCY. The name also resembles a portmanteau of Dartmouth and Harvard, two prominent and well-known Ivy League universities; given the American context of the webcomic, Randall could also have been using "Dartford" as an ironic reference to an exclusive college.
DTW	Detroit (USA)	Down To Whatever	See "DFW". "Down to Whatever" could indicate that one is getting on a plane with the intention of being fine with whatever the plane's destination turns out to be.
DWI	not assigned	Delaware International	"DWI" is an abbreviation for "Driving While Intoxicated" or "Driving While Impaired." Randall writes in the what if? book that Delaware has no commercial airports; in fact, Wilmington Airport (Delaware) has had intermittent commercial air service with gaps of several years in between. This entry is also a play on the nearby real airport BWI, Baltimore/Washington International Airport.
EWR	Newark (USA)	Edwards Air Force Base	Edwards Air Force Base (which has the IATA code EDW) is a United States Air Force installation north of Los Angeles in southern California. It is notable for its pivotal role in NASA spaceflight development.
FFS	not assigned	Flagstaff Station	"FFS" is an abbreviation for "For Fuck's Sake." "FLG" is the code for the Flagstaff, AZ airport. Wikipedia has a page titled "Flagstaff station" (lowercase 's'), which was a former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway depot, and is now an Amtrak station. However, Amtrak calls the station simply "Flagstaff", without the word "station", on their station lists. Melbourne, Australia also has a Flagstaff station, which has station code "FGS".
FHQ	not assigned	FHQWHGADS	The string "fhqwhgads" appeared as the first part of the sender name in the email "i love you" sent to Strong Bad in the Homestar Runner cartoons; Strong Bad ended up writing a song dedicated to the "character", and, after this comic's release, Strong Bad's official Twitter account posted about the reference.
FYI	not assigned	Fayetteville	"FYI" often stands for "For Your Information". Fresno Yosemite International Airport has the code FAT for Fresno Air Terminal. Fayetteville is the name of many cities in the United States. Fayetteville, NC is the only Fayetteville served by airports: POB and FAY.
HGM	not assigned	Hogsmeade	Hogsmeade is a fictional location in the Harry Potter series.
HSV	Huntsville (USA)	Huntsville	This is one where Randall and the IATA agree. It is worth noting that the Marshall Space Flight Center and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center are both located in Huntsville and linked to NASA, which Randall worked for prior to October 2006.
IAD	Washington (Dulles) (USA)	Idaho (Boise)	IAD is the symbol for Dulles International Airport (which was originally "DIA" but it was felt that could be confused when hand-written with "DCA", the sign for nearby Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport). The Idaho Falls airport is IDA, while Idaho (Boise) is BOI; Randall probably chose Boise as it is the largest and best-known city in Idaho.
IUD	not assigned	Washington (Dulles)	An "IUD" is an intrauterine device, a form of birth control. The actual IATA code for Dulles is IAD (see above).
JFC	not assigned	Jefferson City	"JFC" is an abbreviation for "Jesus Fucking Christ." JFK is John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York's main airport and one of the most famous in the world. Jefferson City is the state capital of Missouri served by the JEF airport, and also the name of several other cities.
KUL	Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)	Kingdom of Loathing	Kingdom of Loathing is an online, browser-based RPG. It contains an International Airport, previously lacking a three digit code. Kuala Lumpur is the capital city of Malaysia.
LAX	Los Angeles (USA)	Las Angalas	"Las Angalas" is a "Los Angeles" with every vowel replaced with an "a" character. It's sometimes used as a joking nickname for "Los Angeles." The Frank Black song "Los Angeles" uses this pronunciation.
LOL	Lovelock (USA)	Louisville	"LOL" often stands for "Laughing Out Loud". Lovelock is a city in the state of Nevada. Louisville is the largest city in the state of Kentucky. The latter is served by the LJC and the SDF airport.
MDW	Chicago (Midway) (USA)	Midway Atoll	Midway Atoll was the site of one of the most significant World War II Pacific naval battles and is the namesake of the Chicago airport. Its actual IATA code is MDY.
MIA	Miami (USA)	Colombo, Sri Lanka	M.I.A. is the stage name of a rapper of Sri Lankan heritage, although as a supporter of separatists from the north and east, where her family are from, she might not appreciate being associated with the southern capital. Colombo, Sri Lanka is served by three airports: CMB, RML (domestic) and BYV (domestic, seaplanes only). The use of MIA for Colombo may be a reference to the fictional TV detective Columbo, whom one might have consulted in the case of a missing person. MIA also stands for "Missing In Action".
OMW	not assigned	Omaha	Eppley Airfield in East Omaha, Nebraska, has an IATA code of OMA. "OMW" is an abbreviation for "On My Way."
ORD	Chicago (O'Hare) (USA)	Orlando	O'Hare Airport was once known as Orchard Field Airport, hence ORD. Orlando is served by four airports: ORL, DWS, MCO and SFB.
PDX	Portland (USA)	Pordlanx	Consider how LAX has a random "X" at the end. And "ORD" is an actual IATA code. Randall messes with "Portland" here in much the same way.
PHL	Philadelphia (USA)	Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh International Airport has a IATA code of PIT. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are the two largest cities in Pennsylvania and are at opposite ends of the state, so Randall is teasing Pennsylvanians.
SAN	San Diego (USA)	San Diego San Juan San Jose San Francisco San Antonio	San Diego International Airport (San Diego, California) has SAN; nearby airports include Montgomery Field (MYF), MCAS Miramar (NKX), NAS North Island (NZY), Brown Field (SDM), and Gillespie Field (SEE). There are several cities named San Juan or San Jose. Their airport codes are as follows: San Juan, Puerto Rico: SJU and SIG. San Juan, Argentina: UAQ. San Jose, California, USA: SJC. San Jose, Costa Rica: SJO. San Jose, Mexico: SJD. San Jose, Philippines: SJI San Francisco, CA has the airport code of SFO. San Antonio, TX has the airport code of SAT. Randall is perhaps commenting on the arbitrariness of assigning SAN to San Diego rather than any of the other cities starting with "San"; his plan to assign the code SAN to every place name beginning "San" would likely cause chaos for travelers.
SEA	Seattle/Tacoma (Sea-Tac) (USA)	[Indicates Water Landing]	This is presumably a reference to the fact that "SEA" could be interpreted as "Sea". Unlike some other major airports (e.g., San Francisco International Airport and LaGuardia Airport), SeaTac is not actually on a major body of water, but missing the airport could still result in a water landing, as it is located only a few miles east of Puget Sound between the cities of Seattle and Tacoma, WA. Seattle has a water-landing-only airport on Lake Union run by Kenmore Air, but its IATA code is LKE. SEA is also a common abbreviation for Southeast Asia.
SMH	Sapmanga (Papua New Guinea)	Smithfield	"SMH" often stands for "Shaking My Head". Sapmanga is a location in Papua New Guinea. There are various cities named Smithfield around the world, none of them having airports.
STL	St. Louis (USA)	Silent Hill	Silent Hill is a fictional city appearing in the series of video games and movies with the same name. .stl is a file format, used to store 3D models intended for 3D printing.
SWF	Newburgh (USA)	Sherwood Forest	.swf is the file extension for ShockWave Flash files. "SWF" can also stand for "Single White Female" in personal ads. In legend, Sherwood Forest was the location of Robin Hood's hideout, and Doncaster Sheffield Airport (IATA DSA) was formerly called Robin Hood Airport.
TBA	Tabibuga (Papua New Guinea)	Tribeca	"TBA" often stands for "To Be Announced". Tabibuga is a location in Papua New Guinea. Tribeca (original styled TriBeCa) is an area in New York City, which does not have an airport. The closest airport to it is Downtown Manhattan Heliport (JRB). "TBA" is a similar indication of uncertainty to "TBC", which often stands for "To Be Confirmed".
TMI	Tumlingtar (Nepal)	Turkmenistan International	"TMI" often stands for "Too Much Information". Tumlingtar is a city in Nepal. Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia which has six airports: ASB, CRZ, KRW, MYP, TAZ and URL. None of them are called "Turkmenistan International", but KRW is called "Turkmenbashi International".
YYY	Mont-Joli (Canada)	Toronto Downtown	Mont-Joli is a city in Quebec, Canada. The small airport in downtown Toronto is Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, which has an actual IATA code of YTZ. This may be a play on the below designation for the larger Toronto airport, YYZ. It could also be Randall asking "why why why" some of these codes are so odd. Like YTZ, most airports in Canada have IATA code designations beginning with the letter Y, as many codes were created by adding the letter Y to preexisting two letter National Weather Station city designations.
YYZ	Toronto (Canada)	Toronto Pearson	This one is correct. The band Rush is from Toronto and named an instrumental song after the airport call sign. See YYZ (instrumental).