Nine years ago, I set a goal to fly though one hundred airports. This week, I finally achieved my goal by visiting Hartford (BDL).
My one hundred airports
Airport Locations

Of my first 100 airports, 82 are in the United States, and the remaining 18 are in other countries. (For more details, see the Complete List of My First 100 Airports section below.)
History
We moved around the country and world more than a few times when I was growing up, so I had a reasonable amount of air travel when I was young. However, I can only find flight data back to age 16, so my flight history (and airport count) starts then.
My flying was fairly minimal until 2009, when I moved into a position at work that required a decent amount of business travel. As I started to fly more, I began keeping track of where I flew; I started with spreadsheets, and eventually developed and switched to my flight log website by 2013.
Having the flight log meant that it was much easier for me to get statistics for my travel. In particular, by mid-2013 I noticed that I’d visited quite a few distinct airports. It was then that I set my goal to visit a hundred airports, and I created a blog at onehundredairports.com
to create a post for every airport I visited. (I’ve since moved my collection of airports to the site you’re reading now.)
Each bar shows the number of airports I visited for the first time each year, and the number of airports I’d already visited in prior years. Together, their height shows the total number of airports I’d visited by the end of each given year. (2022 data only includes airports visited through 21 July 2022.)
Visiting new airports was easy at first. With Dayton (DAY) as my home airport, nearly everywhere I fly requires a layover, so I could pick up new airports just by choosing different cities to transfer through. Eventually, I picked up all of the major U.S. domestic hubs. For a lot of trips, I was also able to fly into alternate airports that were a further drive from my destination, but cheaper, than the closest airport to where I was going.
I continued to pick up a few new airports each year, ending 2019 with 96 airports, and fully expecting that at the rate I was going I’d get my 100th airport in 2020. Well, that didn’t quite happen as planned. In 2020 and 2021, my work travel was vastly reduced (though not entirely eliminated), so I didn’t visit any new airports in 2020 and only one in 2021.
This year, work travel has picked back up again. I also switched to a program at work which has travel to some different cities. Those new cities meant new airports, which is how I picked up my final three airports of Jacksonville (JAX), Albuquerque (ABQ), and Hartford (BDL).
The Century Terminal
One of my hobbies has been drawing silhouettes of airport terminals—specifically, the terminals for all airports I’ve visited.
To celebrate my 100th airport visit, I created a silhouette that imagined if all of my first 100 airports were combined into one gigantic terminal. The result:
Complete List of My First 100 Airports
# | Code | Airport | First Visit |
---|---|---|---|
1 | DAY |
Dayton
Ohio, United States |
22 Mar 2001 |
2 | CVG |
Cincinnati
Ohio/ |
22 Mar 2001 |
3 | SFO |
San Francisco
California, United States |
22 Mar 2001 |
4 | SJC |
San Jose
California, United States |
27 Mar 2001 |
5 | ATL |
Atlanta
Georgia, United States |
27 Mar 2001 |
6 | IND |
Indianapolis
Indiana, United States |
15 Jul 2007 |
7 | SEA |
Seattle/ Washington, United States |
15 Jul 2007 |
8 | ORD |
Chicago–O’Hare
Illinois, United States |
27 Dec 2008 |
9 | CLE |
Cleveland
Ohio, United States |
27 Dec 2008 |
10 | JFK |
New York–JFK
New York, United States |
27 Dec 2008 |
11 | LGA |
New York–LaGuardia
New York, United States |
2 Jan 2009 |
12 | MKE |
Milwaukee
Wisconsin, United States |
2 Jan 2009 |
13 | STL |
St. Louis
Missouri, United States |
9 Feb 2009 |
14 | DFW |
Dallas/ Texas, United States |
9 Feb 2009 |
15 | CLT |
Charlotte
North Carolina, United States |
22 Mar 2009 |
16 | PHF |
Newport News/ Virginia, United States |
27 May 2009 |
17 | CMH |
Columbus
Ohio, United States |
15 Jun 2009 |
18 | FRA |
Frankfurt
Germany |
9 Aug 2009 |
19 | SAV |
Savannah
Georgia, United States |
16 Oct 2009 |
20 | MCO |
Orlando
Florida, United States |
30 Nov 2009 |
21 | SLC |
Salt Lake City
Utah, United States |
11 Jan 2010 |
22 | LAS |
Las Vegas
Nevada, United States |
1 Mar 2010 |
23 | PHX |
Phoenix
Arizona, United States |
12 Jul 2010 |
24 | IAD |
Washington–Dulles
D.C./ |
4 Oct 2010 |
25 | BWI |
Baltimore
Maryland, United States |
3 Dec 2010 |
26 | ABI |
Abilene
Texas, United States |
7 Dec 2010 |
27 | AVP |
Wilkes-Barre/ Pennsylvania, United States |
16 Jan 2011 |
28 | TOL |
Toledo
Ohio, United States |
27 Jun 2011 |
29 | DCA |
Washington–Reagan National
D.C./ |
27 Jun 2011 |
30 | LAX |
Los Angeles
California, United States |
1 Feb 2012 |
31 | HNL |
Honolulu
Hawaii, United States |
1 Feb 2012 |
32 | CHS |
Charleston
South Carolina, United States |
20 Feb 2012 |
33 | OKC |
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma, United States |
28 Feb 2012 |
34 | PHL |
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania, United States |
12 Mar 2012 |
35 | EWR |
Newark
New Jersey, United States |
4 May 2012 |
36 | MSP |
Minneapolis/ Minnesota, United States |
16 Aug 2012 |
37 | RAP |
Rapid City
South Dakota, United States |
16 Aug 2012 |
38 | AUS |
Austin
Texas, United States |
11 Feb 2013 |
39 | BOS |
Boston
Massachusetts, United States |
21 Mar 2013 |
40 | DTW |
Detroit
Michigan, United States |
29 Apr 2013 |
41 | DEN |
Denver
Colorado, United States |
3 May 2013 |
42 | GRK |
Killeen/ Texas, United States |
29 Jul 2013 |
43 | ITO |
Hilo
Hawaii, United States |
23 Aug 2013 |
44 | PDX |
Portland
Oregon, United States |
2 Sep 2013 |
45 | TUL |
Tulsa
Oklahoma, United States |
23 Sep 2013 |
46 | IAH |
Houston–Bush
Texas, United States |
28 Sep 2013 |
47 | MHT |
Manchester
New Hampshire, United States |
4 Nov 2013 |
48 | MDW |
Chicago–Midway
Illinois, United States |
6 Dec 2013 |
49 | ICT |
Wichita
Kansas, United States |
28 May 2014 |
50 | TUS |
Tucson
Arizona, United States |
21 Jun 2014 |
51 | FLG |
Flagstaff
Arizona, United States |
28 Jun 2014 |
52 | LAW |
Lawton
Oklahoma, United States |
6 Oct 2014 |
53 | SAN |
San Diego
California, United States |
1 Nov 2014 |
54 | SJU |
San Juan
Puerto Rico, United States |
26 Nov 2014 |
55 | LIT |
Little Rock
Arkansas, United States |
21 Jun 2015 |
56 | YVR |
Vancouver
British Columbia, Canada |
21 Jul 2015 |
57 | YYZ |
Toronto–Pearson
Ontario, Canada |
24 Jul 2015 |
58 | SPS |
Wichita Falls
Texas, United States |
19 Oct 2015 |
59 | COS |
Colorado Springs
Colorado, United States |
2 Nov 2015 |
60 | BNA |
Nashville
Tennessee, United States |
21 Dec 2015 |
61 | AMA |
Amarillo
Texas, United States |
24 Jan 2016 |
62 | SAT |
San Antonio
Texas, United States |
7 Mar 2016 |
63 | MUC |
Munich
Germany |
20 Mar 2016 |
64 | NUE |
Nuremberg
Germany |
26 Mar 2016 |
65 | TXL |
Berlin–Tegel
Germany |
26 Mar 2016 |
66 | LHR |
London–Heathrow
United Kingdom |
26 Mar 2016 |
67 | CDG |
Paris–Charles de Gaulle
France |
2 Apr 2016 |
68 | KEF |
Reykjavík–Keflavík
Iceland |
2 Apr 2016 |
69 | ONT |
Ontario
California, United States |
2 May 2016 |
70 | PWM |
Portland
Maine, United States |
11 Jul 2016 |
71 | DSM |
Des Moines
Iowa, United States |
7 Aug 2016 |
72 | BUR |
Burbank
California, United States |
11 Sep 2016 |
73 | RDU |
Raleigh/ North Carolina, United States |
31 Oct 2016 |
74 | OAJ |
Jacksonville
North Carolina, United States |
9 Jan 2017 |
75 | VPS |
Destin/ Florida, United States |
21 Mar 2017 |
76 | BFL |
Bakersfield
California, United States |
24 Apr 2017 |
77 | TPA |
Tampa
Florida, United States |
6 Jun 2017 |
78 | PIA |
Peoria
Illinois, United States |
3 Aug 2017 |
79 | SYD |
Sydney
New South Wales, Australia |
12 Feb 2018 |
80 | PER |
Perth
Western Australia, Australia |
12 Feb 2018 |
81 | MEL |
Melbourne
Victoria, Australia |
21 Feb 2018 |
82 | CHC |
Christchurch
New Zealand |
23 Feb 2018 |
83 | DUD |
Dunedin
New Zealand |
23 Feb 2018 |
84 | AKL |
Auckland
New Zealand |
28 Feb 2018 |
85 | LBB |
Lubbock
Texas, United States |
8 Aug 2018 |
86 | PVD |
Providence
Rhode Island, United States |
17 Dec 2018 |
87 | NRT |
Tokyo–Narita
Japan |
10 Feb 2019 |
88 | FLL |
Fort Lauderdale
Florida, United States |
16 Mar 2019 |
89 | FAY |
Fayetteville
North Carolina, United States |
11 Jun 2019 |
90 | PIT |
Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania, United States |
24 Jun 2019 |
91 | BHM |
Birmingham
Alabama, United States |
18 Jul 2019 |
92 | MCI |
Kansas City
Missouri, United States |
29 Jul 2019 |
93 | HEL |
Helsinki
Finland |
19 Aug 2019 |
94 | ARN |
Stockholm–Arlanda
Sweden |
19 Aug 2019 |
95 | MIA |
Miami
Florida, United States |
18 Oct 2019 |
96 | ILM |
Wilmington
North Carolina, United States |
30 Dec 2019 |
97 | MYR |
Myrtle Beach
South Carolina, United States |
8 Jul 2021 |
98 | JAX |
Jacksonville
Florida, United States |
22 Mar 2022 |
99 | ABQ |
Albuquerque
New Mexico, United States |
28 Mar 2022 |
100 | BDL |
Hartford
Connecticut, United States |
18 Jul 2022 |