MEXICO ADVICE


Alejandro Osorio Attorney at Law


Licensed to practice only in Mexico


Consulting services for Canadians intending to: Invest in Mexican real estate


O O


Living in Mexico seasonally or all year round


We will help you to enjoy Mexico with peace of mind!


aosorio@mexicoadvice.ca Cell: 250-681-5368 Mexico Consulting Inc. 1665 Smithson Pl. Kelowna BC, V1Y 8N5


WHAT’S IN A NAME? BY ROBERT FINE, MANAGER ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CENTRAL OKANAGAN REGIONAL DISTRICT


F


lying in and out of Kelowna International Airport, you may notice the airport is also referred


to as “YLW”, as this magazine title says. So how are the three letter codes for airports determined, and what is the value of airport letters and names in terms of regional marketing?


The airport codes are overseen by the Montreal-based International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the codes cover locations all over the world. The history of the codes goes back to the days when the US National Weather Service assigned two letter codes to tabulate weather data from cities across the country. With the boom in air travel that began in the 1930’s, a federal civil servant suggested adding a letter to the existing weather codes, and the three- letter airport code was born. Interestingly, a number of cities simply added an X to their existing code, which appears today in LAX (Los Angeles), PDX (Portland) and PHX (Phoenix.) In the early days of the system, a number of organizations claimed a letter, with N airports identified as being military-based and Canadian airports grabbing the letter Y to put at the front of their code (hence the Y in YLW).


Many people wonder how large cities like Chicago ended up with an ORD tag when that airport might more logically be called CHI. Chicago’s airport was established in the 1940’s in an area known as the Orchard, hence the ORD. The issue of codes and naming airports is still a timely one; with discussion underway to change San Jose California’s airport – officially known as Norman Y Mineta San Jose


International (there goes my word count for this column!) to Norman Y Mineta San Jose/Silicon Valley International. As a city councillor in San Jose put it, “We need to think about how we can do things differently to market our airport and our region. The term ‘Silicon Valley’ has global cachet.”


The three-letter identifier codes have indeed become an interesting way to market communities. SUX is the airport code for Sioux City, Iowa. I was amazed to see Sioux City SUX tee shirts and hats when I first flew in and out of that airport, and the community has identified ways to take advantage of its unique position. Others may have more difficulty including Perm Russia, (PEE) and Pocos de Caldas, Brazil (POO); Butler, Missouri (BUM); Fukuoka, Japan (FUK) and Princeville, Hawaii (HPV). FAT is the airport code for Fresno, California, and GRR is the home of Gerald Ford Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan.


So I am happy to let the world know that the city I represent, in airport lingo, is YLW. I sincerely hope I have not offended anyone with these codes; after all, I was not trying to be a certain airport in Dickinson, North Dakota.


SPRING 2011 | 15


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32