Trivia: United States Airport Firsts

We have a trip coming up where we'll be meeting our travel companions across the country at a large airport that we don't know well. While looking at maps on the airport's website, I stumbled across a fascinating list of all of the "firsts" that happened there. It inspired me to put together this list of US Airport Firsts. 

United States Airport Firsts

1909

The oldest continually operating airport, not just in the US but worldwide, is College Park. It has operated continuously since 1909, when it was started as a military demonstration site for the Wright Brothers. 

1927

Cleveland offered the first scheduled interstate passenger services in the US in 1927. 

1928

When Newark opened in 1928, it was the first commercial airport in the US and the first to have a paved runway. 

1929

The first international airport in the US was Douglas Municipal Airport, located on the Mexican border of Arizona. Starting in 1929, passengers would board in Arizona, then the plane would taxi through a gate to the airport in Agua Prieta, on the Mexican side of the border. After clearing customs, the plane would take off and head to its destination in Mexico. 

1930

In 1930, Newark became the first airport with an air traffic control tower and an airport weather station in the US. 

When Cleveland installed an airfield lighting system in 1930, it became the first airport in the world to have a lighted airfield. 

1935  

Newark opened the first passenger terminal in the US in 1935. It was dedicated by Amelia Earhart. 

1939

When the American Airlines Admirals Club opened at LaGuardia in 1939, it became the first official airport lounge. 

1946

Indianapolis started operating the first control tower equipped with radar in 1946.

1952

Newark installed runway lights in 1952, becoming the first airport allowing nighttime operations. 

1958

In 1958, O'Hare introduced the first passenger boarding bridges. These air bridges provided shelter between the terminal and the plane and significantly sped up aircraft turnaround times. The air bridges were better known by the brand name "Jet Way." 

1965

In 1965, Cleveland was the first airport to establish an emergency medical technician (EMT) program.

1970

In 1970, New Orleans became the first airport to use walk-through metal detectors to screen passengers. (There were there were 40 plane hijackings in the US and a total of 89 worldwide.... just in 1969.)

1973

Concorde 002 flew to Dallas-Fort Worth in 1973, markng the first US visit of the Concorde.  

2001  

Shortly after 9/11, therapy dog Orion began offering comfort to anxious passengers in San Jose. This was the first airport to introduce therapy animals in the terminals. 

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I left it off the list since "First Desegregated Airport" only makes sense if you ignore the many US airports that were never segregated in the first place, but the story of the desegregation of Washington National Airport in 1948 is well-worth a read. There are many other fascinating stories of aviation on the National Air and Space Museum website. 

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Interested in other fun facts about US airports? Check this out!

The License Plate Challenge, Part 3

This is the third and final part of the License Plate Challenge. See if you can identify the remaining 17 plates!

 

Click the link when you are ready for the answers!

The License Plate Challenge, Part 2

Here is Part 2 to the License Plate Challenge. Good luck! 

 

Click the link when you are ready for the answers!

The License Plate Challenge, Part 1

Anyone remember Bumper Stumpers? If you weren't watching TV in the 1980's, you can see what you missed here. I didn't watch it religiously, but when it was on I enjoyed trying to solve the puzzles before the contestants did. 

I recently gave myself a fun challenge: make up a Bumper Stumpers style license plate puzzle based on each of the 50 states and Washington DC. I limited myself to 7 characters, the maximum number of letters and numbers allowed on a license plate in California. I tried to make it so each plate could only be one state. For example, PACIFIC is 7 characters long, but it could refer to California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, or Hawaii. Likewise, MIDWEST or POPULAR or BEACHES would not work for my challenge because the answer could be multiple states. 

I've divided the challenge into three parts, each with 17 license plates. See how you do with today's batch. 

 

Click the link when you are ready for the answers!

Fun Facts about United States Airports

I really enjoyed trying to figure out which metro areas in the US are the most connected to other states via nonstop flights. Today I want to look at some other interesting airport stuff I discovered along the way. Enjoy!

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How many airports are there in the United States?

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, there are 19,633 airports in the United States. Of these, 5082 are public. Of those, 503 are considered Primary airports. This means they provide scheduled passenger services and have over 10,000 passenger boardings a year. 

What are the busiest commercial airports in the United States?

In 2022, the airports with the most emplanements (the term for how many people board an aircraft) were: 

1. Atlanta Hartsfield: 45,396,001
2. Dallas-Fort Worth: 35,345,138 
3. Denver: 33,773,832 
4. Chicago O'Hare: 33,120,474
5. Los Angeles LAX: 32,326,616
6. New York JFK: 27,154,885
7. Las Vegas: 25,480,500
8. Orlando: 24,469,733
9. Miami: 23,949,892 
10. Charlotte/Douglas: 23,100,300

What are the least busy commercial airports in the United States? 

In 2022, the airports with the fewest emplanements were: 

10. Tuntutuliak, Alaska: 2,788

9. Togiak, Alaska: 2,727

8. Pilot Station, Alaska: 2,724

7. McGrath, Alaska: 2,700

6. Kongiganak, Alaska: 2,680 

5. Adak, Alaska: 2,616

4. Eek, Alaska: 2,616

3. Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska: 2,597

2. Hana, Hawaii: 2,562

1. Sand Point, Alaska: 2,552

Which state has the most airports? 

Alaska has the most airports by far, with approximately 400 airports. However, only 24 of them are Primary airports. Alaskans use air travel much more frequently than the rest of the US does. The number of enplanements in Alaska is 6.5 times the state population. Compare this to 2.4 times the U.S. population for all states.

Which state has the fewest airports?

You might assume that the smallest state, Rhode Island, would have the fewest airports. It has 6 total, of which three are Primary. But it is Delaware which has the fewest airports. There are three, none Primary. 

Which United States airports have direct flights to all inhabited continents?

As noted in a previous post, you can fly to North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceana nonstop from LAX. There are two other airports in the US with nonstop flights to six continents: O'Hare and JFK. 

Which United States airports have the best on-time record? 

In 2023, Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) had the best on-time record in the United States... as well as worldwide! Salt Lake City (SLC) was the second best in the US, followed by Detroit (DTW), Seattle-Tacoma (SEA), and Philadelphia (PHL). (Here are the six worst in the US in 2022.)

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Did anything surprise you? Have other questions about US airports you'd like me to research? Let me know in the comments!

The Busiest, Yet Least Connected, Airports in the United States

Previously, I looked at which metro areas in the United States are the most connected to the rest of the states via nonstop flights. Chicago took top honors. You can fly nonstop to 48 of the 50 states from Chicagoland.

Today I'd planned to focus on the least connected locations, but almost immediately I realized that's not reasonable. There are literally thousands of airports in the US, many of which don't offer commercial service. Of the ones that do offer commercial flights, you're not interested in seeing a list of 400+ municipal and regional airports in tiny towns you've never heard of that only fly to a single state. Instead, I'm going to focus on commercial airports that are the busiest in their state yet fly nonstop to a surprisingly small number of other states. 

Let's take another look at Fargo, North Dakota. I found it notable for being the only airport I've visited that shuts down security between flights. Yet Fargo (FAR) is the busiest airport in North Dakota, serving the most populated city (131,000) in the state. It has nonstop flights to only 8 states. The busiest airport in New Hampshire, Manchester (MHT), also flies to 8 states. What about tiny Rhode Island, our smallest state? The airport in Providence (PVD), which is only an hour from Boston Logan (BOS) airport, flies to a whopping 19 states! That really surprised me. 

  

Let's head west. Wyoming is really interesting. The most populated city is the capital, Cheyenne (CYS), with a population of 63,000. Their airport flies to exactly ONE destination (a 57-minute flight to Denver). But Cheyenne is not Wyoming's busiest airport. That honor goes to Jackson Hole (JAC), located within Grand Teton National Park and close to Yellowstone. There are nonstop flights to 10 states in the summer. 

It jumps to 12 in the winter. I would have expected the opposite - more tourists coming to the national parks in the summertime. Instead, it looks like it's Wyomingites heading to (mostly) warmer climates. (Note that Minnesota is a summer option only and Arizona and Florida are winter options only). 

Twelve seems to be a fairly common number for mid-size cities. There are nonstop flights to 12 states from Little Rock (LIT) and Boise (BOI), the capitals of Arkansas and Idaho respectively. Wichita (ICT) is the most populated city (389,000) in Kansas and has nonstop flights to 12 states as well. Same with Birmingham (BHM). It's the busiest airport in Alabama with nonstop flights to 12 states. 

When I was trying to find the most connected locations, the states that were most often missing off the list of nonstop flights were Mississippi, West Virginia, and Delaware. Let's look at those. Jackson-Medgar Evers (JAN) is the busiest airport in the state of Mississippi. We flew home from Jackson on New Year's Day 2020 (unaware that we wouldn't be flying much for the next 2 years) via Houston, because there weren't any nonstop flights to California. It definitely was a small airport, but didn't seem as small to me as Fargo. Yet it has nonstop flights to only 6 states. 

Yeager International Airport (CRW) is West Virginia's busiest airport, located in the state capital of Charleston. It has nonstop flights to 7 cities in 6 states, which include: Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, and Virginia. Fun Fact: As of July 2021, the airport's full name is West Virginia International Yeager Airport. They changed the name following the completion of the U.S. Customs Building in the General Aviation portion of the airport, yet there are no commercial international flights in or out of Yeager. 

Finally, Delaware. Delaware's busiest commercial airport is Wilmington (ILG), which currently has scheduled flights to exactly one state - Florida. It makes a lot more sense to drive the 25 miles from the Wilmington airport to Philadelphia (PHL), which offers nonstop service to 36 states. Even those who live in the southermost part of Delaware are better off driving 90 miles to Philadelphia, or a little bit farther to Baltimore, than flying from their home state. 

Time to update my map!

Delawareans have the least options for flying nonstop to other states from their home state, but they are close to major airports in other states. Even though they each have nonstop flights to six states, people in many parts of Mississippi and West Virginia live farther away from a major airport. And then we're back to Fargo. It is 254 miles to Minneapolis, the closest major airport. That's not a reasonable drive just to take a nonstop flight. 

I realize that I may be alone in how much I loathe layovers. I will go far out of my way, or pay significantly more money, to fly nonstop to a destination rather than deal with a layover. In some cases, I've actually chosen my destination based on nonstop flight options. While I wish I had as many options as the Chicagoans do, I'm glad to be as well-connected as we are. Visiting all 50 states would have been a lot more challenging (or at least more time-consuming) without the many options we had to fly nonstop to other states. 

Even though it was a lot of work, I really enjoyed doing this research. I learned so much about airports and air travel in the process. So much, in fact, that I'm working on a post dedicated to some of what I learned. I expect that to run next week. 

The Most Connected Locations in the US, Part 2

Yesterday, I tried to answer the question of what metro area in the United States is most connected to the rest of the US. Specifically, I'm looking at how many states a traveler can reach via a nonstop flight. So far, we have this: 

With three major airports in the metro area (JFK, LGA, EWR), New York is a strong candidate to upset our current leader, Chicago. I started by checking JFK, which is the busiest of the three. From JFK, you cannot fly direct to Idaho, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island, or New Hampshire. That's 33, far lower than I expected. 

Let's add LaGuardia. 

Again, far fewer than I expected. It does add a few states that JFK missed, including Iowa, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. That brings New York to 40 between JFK and LGA. 

Can Newark get us to the 10 remaining states? At first glance, I see a lot more flights into the plains and mountain states. 

Newark has flights to Wyoming and New Hampshire, but nothing to the remaining eight states. That means New York gets a 42, putting it in fifth place behind Minneapolis. 

Let's switch coasts and head back to California. The Los Angeles area has five airports, including Los Angeles (LAX), Burbank (BUR), Long Beach (LGB), Ontario (ONT), and Orange County (SNA). I'm not sure it's fair to include all five airports as one metro area, but when I mapped them, they are all within around 50 miles of each other. On the other hand, the drive time between them is huge due to traffic. For purposes of this post, I'm going to remove Ontario (which is more Inland Empire than LA) and just look at LAX and its three closest airports, Burbank, Long Beach, and Orange County. 

First, LAX. According to their website, "Los Angeles International Airport is a major international airport, eastern gateway to the United States and one of the few airports with scheduled srvices to all the inhabited continents." 

Thought 1: eastern? 

Thought 2: srvices? 

Thought 3: Now I want to know what other airports fly to every continent. (A future post, perhaps.)

According to FlightsFrom, LAX does not fly to North Dakota, Wisconsin, Mississippi, South Carolina, West Virginia, Delaware, Vermont, New Hampshire, or Maine. Time to check the others. 

Burbank and Long Beach both have handy maps, but neither flies nonstop to any of LAX's missing states.  

Orange County doesn't have a convenient map, nor does it add any states. So I'm calling it official: LA is 41, currently in sixth place. 

While we're on the west coast, let's check Seattle. I don't expect it to be among the top few, but I'm guessing it's similar to San Francisco. 

Slightly better than SFO, actually. There are 12 states you can't reach nonstop from Seattle. 

I have four more metro areas I think are contenders. First is Orlando. 

I did not expect this! Not only can you get to more states nonstop from Orlando than from the three airports in New York, but it's the first I've found with a flight to Delaware! Orlando is tied with Minneapolis. 

Miami flies nonstop to 76 cities in the US. 

What states are missing? Alaska and Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Mississippi, West Virginia, Delaware, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. So Miami has 35. 

Let's look at Atlanta. Before I get to a destination count, I have to say that whoever is in charge of the website deserves a dishonorable mention. Not only is there no map or list of destinations, but this is what the home page looks like on my desktop: 

Not very inviting to be greeted with big red X's. Speaking of which, I have no idea what I'm supposed not be doing on the airplane or in the terminal based on these photos. Don't look at my phone? Why is that a problem? Why is the guy in the background of the terminal on the floor? Is he charging his phone? Is that a problem? The graphic is cut off by the blue bar, so I'm not sure what I'm not supposed to be doing at baggage claim, nor do I know what the single green checkmark is about.

Rant over. According to FlightsFrom, Atlanta does not have nonstop flights to North Dakota, Delaware, or New Hampshire. At 47, it ties with Dallas! 

There's one final metro area I want to explore: Washington, DC. Considering that Senators and Representatives from all 50 states work there, it seems like there might be nonstop flights to all of the states. There are three airports in the DC area (none of which are technically in DC): Reagan (DCA) and Dulles (IAD) are in Virginia and Marshall (BWI) is in Maryland. The largest of the three is Dulles, so let's start there:

There are no nonstop fights to Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Maryland, Delaware, or New Hampshire. Does Reagan fly nonstop to any of those? Yes: Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire. 

So now we're at 42. Let's see if Baltimore can help out the DC area and raise that number. 

Yes! People in the DC area can also fly nonstop to New Mexico. 43 means they're tied with Minneapolis and Orlando. 

Time to update the map!

Chicago wins! You can fly nonstop to 48 of the 50 states from O'Hare and Midway. I feel confident saying that Chicago is the most connected location in the United States for airline travel. I don't think there are any other cities that are likely to beat out the winner, but if you want me to check on any in particular, let me know in the comments. 

The Most Connected Locations in the US

In a post called The Most Difficult States to Visit, I looked at which states were the most challenging for us to reach via car, plane, or cruise ship from our home in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the process, I learned that we can fly nonstop to 33 of the 50 states from one or more of the three international airports located 45 miles from home (SFO, OAK, SMF). They've either added a route or I missed it before, as SFO now shows a nonstop flight to Wyoming, bringing our total to 34. In several of those states, we can fly nonstop to multiple cities. We're lucky that we are so well-connected where we live.

Contrast this with Fargo, North Dakota. It's an international airport, but one of the smallest I've been in. (And the only one I've ever seen where security shuts down between flights.) You can fly nonstop to only 8 states, one of which is seasonal. (Oddly, this map has California and Georgia colored in, despite not flying nonstop to either one.) 

I don't know if Fargo is the least connected international airport in the US; that's a topic for a future post. Today's question is: What airports in the US are the most connected?   

A quick Google search indicates the answer is DFW. When that article was written in 2022, Dallas had 239 nonstop destinations, seven more than Chicago O'Hare (ORD). Atlanta (ATL) and Denver (DEN) were tied at 208. In a 2023 article by Simple Flying, ORD takes the top position and DFW is second. FlightsFrom shows that Dallas has 256 destinations and ORD has 246 as of January 2024. 

I'm not surprised that Dallas and Chicago are well-connected. They are major metropolitan areas located in the middle of the country, with (relatively) easy access to less populated states that don't have major airports. There is second airport serving each of those metro areas as well - Love Field in Dallas (DAL) and Midway in Chicago (MDW). Locals have a lot of options. 

So DFW and ORD have the most nonstop flights, but that includes international destinations and multiple cities in some states. And it doesn't take into account their secondary airports. For the purposes of this post, I want to find out how many states each metro area services nonstop. 

First up: the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area. Unfortunately, DFW does not have a handy map of nonstop destinations on their website like others do. (Yea Fargo!) Instead, I looked at the interactive map from FlightsFrom for DFW. I learned that you can fly nonstop from Dallas to 46 states: all except West Virginia, Delaware, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. 

Love Field has nonstop flights to Providence, so there are only three states you can't reach nonstop from Dallas. And, of course, in each case those states are an easy drive from a location that does have nonstop service. 

Let's look at Chicagoland next. Thanks for the handy map, O'Hare!

From O'Hare, you won't be flying nonstop to Mississippi, Delaware, or New Hampshire. You won't be flying into anything between the western border of Wyoming (Jackson Hole) or the eastern border of Iowa (Sioux City) either, but technically you can fly to those states, so I'm ignoring that giant gap in the northern plains. 

Let's see if Midway gets us to one of the three missing states. They don't have a map, but there's a list of nonstop destinations. Mississippi, no. Delaware, no. New Hampshire, yes!

Chicago moves into the lead! You can fly to 48 of the 50 states from Chicagoland and 47 states from the Dallas area. Thinking that perhaps another big metro area in the center of our country would match or beat these two, I looked at nonstop flights from Denver. Impressive, coming in at 45 states (no direct flights to Delaware, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, or West Virginia), but Denver doesn't beat Chicago or Dallas. 

Let's look at another midwest powerhouse. Minneapolis-St. Paul is very well connected, but does it beat the previous three?

Nope. You can't fly to Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, or Maine from Minneapolis. That puts MSP with nonstop flights to 43 states, in fourth place so far.

Let's go back to what got this all started: San Francisco. Previously I said that 34 states are accessible from the three closest airports to our home halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento. That's true, but there are two problems since I'm trying to compare metro areas across the US. First, San Francisco and Sacramento are not the same metro area. They may each be approximately 45 miles from me, but they are just over 100 miles from each other. But as it turns out, when I remove Sacramento from the SFO / OAK statistics... nothing changes. 

The second issue is that I didn't account for the fact that the Bay Area has yet another major airport: San Jose. They have nonstop flights to a decent number of places, but San Jose does not get us to any of the states that SFO and OAK don't. So San Francisco comes in with 34 states, a distant fifth so far. 

But I'm not ready to officially call it yet. Tomorrow I'll look into how many states you can reach nonstop from several other major metropolitan areas.