WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Airline flights scheduled for airports across the country have begun landing at President Donald J. Trump International Airport out of respect for its new three-letter code, according to supporters of the President reached by phone Thursday, who said the diversions started within hours of Tuesday’s change and have “not let up, because why would they.”
The airport, formerly Palm Beach International, took its new name on July 9 under a state law passed by the Florida Legislature in February and signed in March. It is the first U.S. airport named after a sitting president. On Tuesday, its three-letter code, used on boarding passes, bag tags, and departure boards worldwide, changed from PBI to DJT. The state allocated $2.75 million for the rebranding.
“The plane saw three letters on a screen and it just knew,” said Corinne Valdabeck, who chairs the Florida chapter of Americans for an Obvious Prize and has been counting arrivals from a folding chair near the cellphone lot since Tuesday morning. “That’s leadership. Planes can feel leadership.”
By Valdabeck’s count, 1,140 flights bound for other destinations have landed at DJT since the change, including a Denver-to-Denver training flight, three flights that were supposed to stay in Hawaii, and a regional jet that had already landed in Columbus, Ohio, and was parked at its gate when it pushed back, taxied to the runway, and flew to Florida “on its own initiative.” Baggage tagged for other airports has been arriving on the DJT carousels even when the passengers have not, and the carousels have begun running in only one direction, which Valdabeck described as “forward.” A suitcase tagged for Cleveland has gone around Carousel 4 more than 900 times and has declined to be claimed.
Dr. Chad Brickhouse, a senior fellow at the Institute for Common Sense, said the diversions were predictable. “PBI is just letters. DJT is initials. A plane knows the difference,” Brickhouse said by phone from a hockey rink. “If you’re a plane and you see a man’s initials on a board, you go to that man. It’s just common sense. It’s manners.”
Valdabeck said the group had prepared a map of the nation’s airspace showing all routes now passing through DJT, which she said resembles “a wheel with one hub, which is the hub.” She said the group would next ask that the code be displayed on departure boards at every other airport in the country, “so everyone knows where they’re really going.”
The Reporter was unable to independently confirm the diversions because this reporter’s own flight from Charlotte to Cleveland on Wednesday landed at DJT, as did his connecting flight to Cleveland on Wednesday night and his rebooked flight to Cleveland on Thursday morning.
Glenn Whitacre filed this report by phone from Gate B7 at President Donald J. Trump International Airport, where he said a fourth flight to Cleveland is boarding and he has “a feeling.”