As many of us on Boardingarea might concede, I find reading about new airline routes to be quite fun. Coming from the U.S., I get particularly intrigued by forthcoming Mexico routes. And with this news about Queretaro getting new service, it will be even easier to complete the airport alphabet.
First, a scoche of background.
Ever since Mexico was upgraded back to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s Category I, a couple of things have been able to change. For starters, airline codeshare agreements are back in place. Simply put, that means Delta can sell tickets on some Aeromexico flights, and vice-versa. That’s why there’s sometimes head-scratching about your boarding pass or itinerary saying “operated by.”
Moreover, Mexican airlines can once again establish new routes. Thus, a Mexican city, in this case Queretaro, is able to see new service. This December, Viva Aerobus, one of Mexico’s two big LCCs (low-cost carriers), will be starting flights from there to San Antonio and Houston Intercontinental.
At this point, those of you who are familiar with No Work All Travel might be thinking, where are the customary three-letter airport codes?
Good question, and good on you for spoiling the surprise.
Long before I knew of Boardingarea, I was a lurker over at airliners.net. To be fair, it also has a lot of armchair experts posting on its forums. Nevertheless, it was still fun to read about the minutiae of all things-aviation, commercial air photography, and trip reports.
I tend to think that the quality of that website has diluted in the past few years, for a couple of reasons. One, there are more hypothetical questions asked (e.g. if Sabena were still around, in which airline alliance would they be?). And two, admins got rid of the ability to hover over airport codes, to see what those three letters meant. Many of us, but certainly not all might recognize LHR or JFK without the hover, but how about FNJ (it’s Pyongyang), SAT (San Antonio), or say,
QRO?
In 2021, one airliners.net user posited a question about landing at the alphabet.
I figure that for Boardingarea, I’d expand it to have you completed the airport alphabet? Landing or taking-off.
IAMNAP (I am not a pilot), but I’ve still used more than 400 airports. Yet, it took until 2021 for me to be able to say yes to the above question.
The sole reason was QRO.
You might better know QRO as Queretaro.
How about you? Have you made it to all 26 letters of the airport alphabet?
I wrote about this a few years ago – interviewing a guy who had been to all 26 airport letters
https://www.pointswithacrew.com/meet-the-man-whos-been-to-airports-starting-with-all-26-letters/
At that time I had been to 15 out of 26 but I think I might have hit a few more since then
I dig it!
Dan, had you been to a Q-airport before?
Yeah, as mentioned, I am a relatively recent follower of Boardingarea news. Since around 2000/2001, however, it all started with airliners.net and FlyerTalk. Lurking, always lurking.