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Comment by Jeaye | Hacker News Reader

Parent is right. I've been in and around the SF Bay Area for about a decade and SFO is _only_ ever, unambiguously, the airport.

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It probably depends on your circle of friends and acquaintances but for at least a decade in text messages and social networks I have seen people use airport designations in place of the city they represent. For example,

“Spending next weekend in SEA then staying with friends in MPS before returning home to SFO.”

So no, SFO is not only ever unambiguously the airport.

I believe the combination of more frequent flying, booking tickets ourselves online (rather than by telephone) and increased communication on devices have combined to result in this quirk of language.

That and I think there's a certain (not so) subtle "I'm such an in the know traveler that I know even the obscure airport codes like EWR" vibe associated with using them. (And, yes, I'm guilty.)

Also, SFO, the airport, is not even in the city of San Francisco. It's about ten miles south, in San Bruno. Not close to GDC, which is in downtown SF.

Most people outside of San Francisco would know that you mean 'San Francisco' when you say SFO, though. Same as I think of Seattle when I see SEA, Dallas when I see DFW, St. Louis for STL, etc.

Inside the city that's not always the case, but even when you're abbreviating sports teams and the like, it's common to use the airport code to refer to the city name if they match up so well.

Are you sure about that? These acronyms don’t have the same meaning when I read them.

It’s pretty American to think like that.

I have no clue about any of the acronyms yet I recognize all the names.

Geographically, but it actually is under the jurisdiction of the city and the Mayor of San Francisco who appoints the Airport Commission [1].

[1] https://www.flysfo.com/about-sfo/airport-commission/city-cha...

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