Why is nashville airport listed as BNA instead of NA?

Question

I have wonder where the B comes from forever and hope some of you out there know why..thanks.

Answer 1

According to international regualtions by the IATA (International Air Transport Association) every airport on this world needs to have a unique 3 letter code so it can be identified in international travel.
For some airports this is pretty straight forward (e.g. Frankfurt in Germany is FRA), for others it is a bit more complicated (e.g. London has 4 airports, each code starts with the letter L, and the next two are in relation to the name of the airport: London Heathrow is LHR, London Gatwick is LGW, etc), for some the code is just plain strange (e.g. Toronto's airport is called Lester B. Pearson International, but the code is YYZ?!?!).
For Nashville the code could have theoretically been NAS, but NAS is already Nassau on the Bahamas, so they had to come up with something else. Why they decided to stick a B in front we may never know... ;-)

Answer 2

The Airport used to be called Berry. Took this from Wikipedia, " The airport was dedicated on November 1, 1936, as Berry Field, named after Col. Harry S. Berry, the Tennessee administrator for the Works Progress Administration. It officially opened in June 1937 with much fanfare, including parades, an air show, and an aerial bombardment display by the 105th Aero Squadron, which was based at the field.[6] Passenger service began in mid-July through American Airlines and Eastern Airlines, both of which operated Douglas DC-3 aircraft. The new airport had three asphalt runways, a three-story passenger terminal, a control tower, two hangars and a beacon, and was constructed at a cost of 1.2 million dollars. In its first year, Berry Field served 189,000 passengers.[5][7][8]"

Answer 3

they need to have three letters, i don't know y its a b tho