I’ve Flown Through One Hundred Airports

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

A ten by ten grid of airport thumbnail photos, showing the first 100 airports I've visited.

My one hundred airports

Airport Locations

A world map showing the location of all 100 airports. The map is animated and adds one airport at a time, in the order I visited them.

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.)

A bar chart of the number of airports I visited for the first time each year, stacked on top of the cumulative number of airports I've visited in prior years, from 2001 through 2022. 2001: 5 new airports; 2002-2006: 0 new airports; 2007: 2 new airports; 2008: 3 new airports; 2009: 10 new airports; 2010: 6 new airports; 2011: 3 new airports; 2012: 8 new airports; 2013: 11 new airports; 2014: 6 new airports; 2015: 6 new airports; 2016: 13 new airports; 2017: 5 new airports; 2018: 8 new airports; 2019: 10 new airports; 2020: 0 new airports; 2021: 1 new airport; 2022: 3 new airports.

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:

Terminal silhouettes of my first 100 airports, combined into one gigantic terminal

Complete List of My First 100 Airports

# Code Airport First Visit
1 DAY Dayton
Ohio, United States
22 Mar 2001
2 CVG Cincinnati
Ohio/Kentucky, United States
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/Tacoma
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/Fort Worth
Texas, United States
9 Feb 2009
15 CLT Charlotte
North Carolina, United States
22 Mar 2009
16 PHF Newport News/Williamsburg
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./Virginia, United States
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/Scranton
Pennsylvania, United States
16 Jan 2011
28 TOL Toledo
Ohio, United States
27 Jun 2011
29 DCA Washington–Reagan National
D.C./Virginia, United States
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/St. Paul
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/Fort Hood
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/Durham
North Carolina, United States
31 Oct 2016
74 OAJ Jacksonville
North Carolina, United States
9 Jan 2017
75 VPS Destin/Fort Walton Beach
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
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