3/20/08

Rush AZA

Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport wants the US FAA to adopt the airport's IATA code AZA. The airport uses AZA and IWA, the latter it adopted when the airport went commercial in ’94.

When the airport pursued an IATA code, it discovered that IWA was taken by a Russian airport. So, the airport picked AZA, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway marketing manager John Barry tells me.

The airport then asked FAA to use AZA instead of IWA but was told it would be too costly and too time consuming to change, Barry says.

The airport has the support of Allegiant Air. The Boeing MD-80 operator uses the airport as one of its bases and links Mesa with Bellingham, Washington; Billings and Missoula, Montana; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Fargo, North Dakota; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Peoria and Rockford, Illinois; Rapid City and Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Santa Maria and Stockton, California.

Having two airport codes causes customer confusion, Allegiant planning VP Robert Ashcroft said at the FAA forecast conference in Washington, DC.

Now that the airport has changed its name from Williams Gateway Airport, and because FAA was already noting the name change in its system, the airport has asked FAA to reconsider the code designation, Barry says.

The airport is awaiting FAA's response.

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