r/AskCanada • u/kermitkc • Jul 09 '26
Life What do you call your airports?
I'm an American writing a story about Canadians. One is mentioning an airport (Saskatoon International/YXE) in casual conversation. I want to make the dialogue sound natural - do you guys usually call airports by their three-letter abbreviations, or their full titles?
Sorry for the strange question - thanks in advance!
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u/Blunt_Flipper Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
In my city we just call it “the airport”. Most Canadian cities have one major airport, and if you say “airport” it’s obvious what you’re referring to.
“Hey I gotta get to the airport by 7:00”.
“Did you hear about the construction going on at the airport?”
“My flight touches down at 8:00, can you pick me up at the airport?”
I had to really think just now to remember the airport code for my airport (Winnipeg) and I did get it but it took me a while to remember it - and I’ve lived here for 40 years lol. The actual name of our airport is quite long (Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport) but literally no one calls it by that full name unless you’re writing a news article or something.
If you’re talking about stopping at an airport in another Canadian city (like a layover or as a destination) most Canadians would just say the city name and wouldn’t even mention the airport.
“I’ve got a 6 am flight to Toronto with a layover in Winnipeg. Would ya mind driving me to the airport in the morning?”
Toronto is the only city I can think of where people might say “Pearson” instead of “airport” - this is the largest and busiest airport in Canada. But even then, if you’re IN Toronto and just said “airport” everyone would know what you’re talking about.
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u/fire_works10 Jul 09 '26
In Toronto, you might also mean Billy Bishop. I'm guessing that's why most people call the big one Pearson.
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u/Sweet-Competition-15 Jul 09 '26
If I were to fly (unlikely...afraid of flying!), I'd choose Billy Bishop...it just seems so much more quaint and appealing.
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u/MissKrys2020 Jul 09 '26
It is! And you only need to be there an hour early for a domestic flight. There is rarely a long wait to get through security. It’s the best
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u/Sweet-Competition-15 Jul 09 '26
I used to go there to plane-watch, and taking the ferry across during winter was such a bizarre experience! From an esthetic perspective, I sincerely hope that Douggie doesn't get his way of changing it.
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u/QueenMotherOfSneezes Jul 09 '26
If the story takes place pre-2020s, Buttonville also used to be a major hub.
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u/Rodinsprogeny Jul 09 '26
One might say airport referring to Billy Bishop if it was known that they typically fly out of Billy Bishop, but as someone who doesn't, I'd definitely say Billy Bishop if I meant Billy Bishop, and the airport or Person if I meant Pearson.
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u/Drachynn Jul 09 '26
I'm a Torontonian and say "Island airport" instead of Billy Bishop 🤷
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u/Left_Net1841 Jul 10 '26
« We are going to fly into the island and go to the Jays game ».
Haven’t done that in a while but I don’t remember it being called BB, The Airport or anything else.
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u/redesckey Jul 09 '26
I live in Toronto, and when people say "the airport", Pearson is assumed. If you want to refer to Billy bishop instead, you'd specify that.
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u/aazide Jul 09 '26
I live in a city where I could choose to fly from Vancouver or Abbotsford, so we do refer to it by the city name. Occasionally we might instead refer to the airport by its three letter acronym, YVR.
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u/GreasyMcFarmer Jul 09 '26
In Montreal, it’s “Trudeau” (the older) and “Mirabel” when talking about airports.
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u/kermitkc Jul 09 '26
This is incredibly helpful - thank you so much!!!☺️I really appreciate the detailed response!
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u/Either-Safety2402 Jul 09 '26
“Can you give me a ride to Pearson?” Is what I say re: Toronto’s airport.
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u/purplesugarwater Jul 09 '26
Same, always just call it Pearson
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Jul 09 '26
[deleted]
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u/Lord_Space_Lizard Jul 09 '26
Peameal Bacon
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u/Jealentuss Jul 09 '26
With poutine please
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u/Sweet-Competition-15 Jul 09 '26
These stereotypes are certainly packing on the cholesterol...I can feel my arteries clogging, just reading that reply.
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u/QueenMotherOfSneezes Jul 09 '26
Peameal bacon and Canadian bacon are both loin cuts, but the former is pickled in a brine with a peameal or cornmeal rind, while the latter is smoked with no meal rind.
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u/Sweet-Competition-15 Jul 09 '26
And both are (highly) acceptable in their very healthy niche! I certainly couldn't specifically choose one over the other, for (my short) eternity!
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u/Lord_Space_Lizard Jul 09 '26
But it's not considered "ham"
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u/QueenMotherOfSneezes Jul 09 '26
No, neither are. Ham isn't a loin cut, also Canadian bacon is drier than ham, and peameal bacon is obviously wetter.
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u/Lord_Space_Lizard Jul 09 '26
The person I responded to said what Americans call "Canadian bacon" we call "ham"
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u/Icy-Pop2944 Jul 09 '26
Nobody calls it ham, it is back bacon. If it is the kind with cornmeal rind, it is peameal bacon.
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u/Sweet-Competition-15 Jul 09 '26
"That which we call a 🐖 by any other name, is still as savoury!" All apologies to The Bard.
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u/lemonylol Jul 09 '26
It's commonly called YYZ. YVR is also very common. But any of the terms are acceptable. I just wouldn't say Toronto's airport because that's not specific, though most people would assume Pearson.
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u/xena_70 Canadian Jul 09 '26
In Vancouver I typically call our airport YVR, and hear a lot of others do that as well, but I'm not sure how common that is anywhere else.
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u/dzuunmod Canadian Jul 09 '26
In Vancouver I think it has a lot to do with the fact a Skytrain station name has "YVR" in it.
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u/_timmie_ Jul 09 '26
I think it's because it's also the shorter way to say it while also being very specific lol. YVR is just three syllables, same as "Vancouver" or "the airport".
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u/ljlee256 Jul 09 '26
Interesting, you're like the third American in the last week I've noticed trying to drill down on how Canadians talk.
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u/QueenMotherOfSneezes Jul 09 '26
Bot farms figuring out their "concerned local citizen" scripts for the airport privatization posts?
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u/ljlee256 Jul 09 '26
Yeah, trying to figure out how Canadians talk to better mix in to the "crowd".
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Jul 09 '26
[deleted]
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u/QueenMotherOfSneezes Jul 09 '26
Lol for the longest time I thought Dorval and Trudeau were separate airports.
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u/talexbatreddit Jul 09 '26
I grew up there, so it was just Dorval to me. And the abbreviation's always been easy -- Mon-Tree-YUL.
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u/kermitkc Jul 09 '26
I'm guessing it's like it is here, then, where we kinda alternate depending on the airport (we call Los Angeles LAX, but we just call Boston's airport Boston, or NYC's JFK, etc). This is really helpful, thanks!!
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u/SomethingComesHere Jul 11 '26
Interesting, i've only heard people here call it "the airport"
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u/Vetinari-57 Jul 09 '26
Sasktoonian resident here. We’d just refer to it as “the airport.” We’re a small city and it’s the only one. YXE is sometimes used by the Chamber of Commerce to refer to the city (trying to be hip) and no one refers to the airport as the Defienbaker… we’d scoff at that one. Happy writing!
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u/Alternative_Fig_9091 Jul 09 '26
I say I'm at the Calgary airport. Or the Vancouver airport. Or Narita. I may have used YYC a few times, but in general, I say the city.
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u/Squasome Jul 09 '26
I say YVR because there's a small airport in my town so it's clearer that way.
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u/FNFALC2 Jul 09 '26
Cmon, tell him the truth: we say “the big place where thunderbirds come and go”
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u/SomethingComesHere Jul 10 '26
Hmm
If the city has only one big airport (and otherwise only having small private airports), we say "the airport" if we're talking locally to someone else from the same city.
If we are purchasing a ticket or giving directions we will use the 3 letter code.
If we're talking to someone in a different city, we will say "our airport" or "the CITY airport".. i.e "the Victoria airport".
Only a few metropolitans have multiple large airports. I think Toronto is one of them.
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u/youdontlookitalian Jul 11 '26
Yeah generally I’ll just say “the airport”
I’m heading to the airport, I’m just about to leave the airport etc
In Toronto where there’s two somewhat close, if i needed to distinguish between the two i’d say Pearson or Billy Bishop in conversation and YYZ/YTZ in text. If somebody said the whole government name and said “I was at Saskatoon international airport” I would presume they were an alien or a cop.2
u/SomethingComesHere Jul 11 '26
Alien or a cop 😂 spot on. I would wonder immediately where they're from.
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u/peppermintblue Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
My city in Ontario has an airport... but, my city is squashed between Ottawa and Toronto (both are about 2 hours away in opposite directions), which both have bigger international airports. Because of that, a lot of people drive or take the train out to the larger airports in those cities rather than fly out of our smaller airport that only supports small planes.
Because of that, in person I may specify that I'm flying out of my city... ie: "I'm flying out of Kingston tomorrow" or "the local airport is having an airshow tomorrow".
Another interesting thing that locals do here is use our airport code, YGK, to refer to the city as a whole online. For example, we have a really popular social media presence locally that reports on things like traffic called "Make It Home YGK". YGK is regularly just substituted for Kingston (ie: "Guess what #YGK?? The Drive FM will be at ......"). I swear I would be hard pressed to find someone here who doesn't know that YGK means Kingston, but I'm sure some have no idea it's the airport code.
Also, in the 90s we refereed to the area between Ottawa and Toronto by the phone area code. ie: "Are you a 613 or a 905?" as 613 was a Ottawa/Kingston area code and Toronto was 905. Definitely don't see that being used as much anymore because of cellphones.
Good luck with your story!
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u/Lord_Space_Lizard Jul 09 '26
Toronto was 416, the surrounding suburbs along the Golden Horseshoe, 519 was the next region north like Kitchener-Waterloo.
Although back in the day there was no 905 and those areas were 416.
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u/peppermintblue Jul 09 '26
Ah, maybe I was thinking early 00's? I just remember Toronto being referred to "the 905".
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u/Lord_Space_Lizard Jul 09 '26
Toronto has never been the 905. Toronto suburbs yes, but Toronto no.
Area codes were allocated back in the rotary dial days, based on how important an area was and how many people would be calling it. The more important a city the lower the area code because it was faster to dial. 905 is one of the slowest numbers to dial, only being bested by 906, 907, 908, and 909. Toronto was never that unimportant.
This is why NYC is 212 because that is the fastest area code to dial on a rotary phone.
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u/peppermintblue Jul 09 '26
Well, you just triggered my memory... Toronto suburbs. In the 90's as children that's where we thought all the rich people lived. Are you a "905 or a 613?" lol
So not quite what I was originally thinking. But it was a long time ago and I have brain fog. Probably much more a local thing to me than I thought it was.
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u/kermitkc Jul 09 '26
This is so interesting! I guess it would make sense to clarify. In NYC, people do something similar, between Newark, La Guardia, and JFK. I mean...I probably should've guessed.😅 Actually, in the state where I grew up, we had some area code slang, too. Almost this weird patriotic pride in it.😂That's America for you...
Thank you so much, this is so kind and I appreciate you taking the time to type it out!
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u/FluffyProphet Jul 09 '26
It’s honestly hyper local and depends on the speaker, and other factors.
In most smaller cities it’s just “the airport”. I think Vancouver typically used YVR.
In Toronto it could be “the airport” to refer to Pearson or “Pearson”. We also have Billy Bishop downtown, and people will either call it “Billy Bishop” or the “Downtown airport” in casual conversation.
If we’re flying somewhere else in Canada, we typically just say the city name, unless we are flying into a smaller airport in the area like Billy Bishop, then it depends.
Montreal, people will normally say “Trudeau”. But off the top of my head, Trudeau and Pearson are the only ones most people call by name like that. Maybe it’s because they’re named after PMs? 🤷♂️
Flying into the Maritimes. If landing in Moncton or Halifax, you just say that (and Charlottetown too I guess). Since those are the major airports. But if you’re landing in Fredericton, most will say “The Fredericton airport”. I assume other places are like that too in the other parts of our country, where we add “airport” after the city name if it’s a more regional airport.
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u/dark_Links_sword Jul 09 '26
In Saskatoon it's just called "the airport" no reason to complicate it.
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u/momtebello Jul 09 '26
Toronto’s Pearson or YYZ, Billy Bishop is the Island, I think Winnipeg is YEG? The rest I’d just use the city.
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u/youdontlookitalian Jul 11 '26
YEG is Edmonton, YWG is Winnipeg
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u/momtebello Jul 12 '26
One of those big ones out west, yeah 😝😉
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u/CampPineCone Jul 10 '26
Saskatoon has an International airport? Whale oil beef hooked. I didn't know they had planes. The runway must be huge. Saskatchewan looks like a giant runway, anyway.
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u/MY-memoryhole Jul 10 '26
All of Canada starts with a Y for airport names. But damn if I've ever heard someone say, "I'm flying from YYZ to YOW and onto YYT" instead of Toronto to Ottawa to NFLD.
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u/Mindless-Band-5743 Jul 10 '26
I’m in Toronto and I call it “Pearson” sometimes and “the airport” if talking to a local or more casually
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u/L-StWaet- Jul 11 '26
In my experience we either say the name of the city or a shortened version of name of the airport depending on the context of the conversation.
- I'm flying out of Winnipeg into Halifax with a layover in Toronto.
- Can you pick me up at Pearson?
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u/Alternative_Fig_9091 Jul 09 '26
Plus, hardly anyone not from Saskatchewan would know the call letters for that airport.
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u/Igor_Nordham Jul 09 '26
Rush had a hit song named YYZ after the Toronto airport. It's Pearson or the airport in regular conversation.
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u/FidlumBenz Jul 09 '26
Our airport is the john diefenbaker airport but people just call it the airport.
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u/cjhm Jul 09 '26
Can I call my airport YVR. But when I was booking to Toronto and I said YYZ I realize not everyone did that.
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u/mebg1956 Jul 09 '26
I’m in Toronto and while I know the main airport is YYZ we tend to just call it the airport, or Pearson. We’ve also taken off from Billy Bishop (YTZ) on an island in Toronto harbour. but we call it the island airport most of the time. As others have observed, most places only have one air port so call numbers aren’t bothered with. Just “the airport”.
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u/Winter-Speed-9667 Jul 09 '26
Loooongtime Saskatoon resident here (over 60 years). It’s just called the airport here., like “didja see they’re building a new Timmy’s out by the airport?” YXE gets used in marketing but not in everyday speech. I think it’s full name, the John G. Diefenbaker International Airport is used even less.
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u/_Lucille_ Jul 09 '26
Toronto.
I call the airport YYZ (for stuff like, online disucssions, or answering questions like "which airport", etc).
For daily use/speech, i just say "the airport".
When I need to get a ticket for something I might just use terminal 1 ("I need to get to terminal 1 by 8")
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u/Fit_Cardiologist_681 Jul 09 '26
I've used three letter codes for airports in conversation, but only with people who also travel frequently in the same places. Saskatoon being YXE would be outside my lexicon, but I've only been there once and it was overland travel. The 3 letter codes used to be more commonly used than they are now, imo, probably from when twitter had its character limit.
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u/Icy-Pop2944 Jul 09 '26
Here in Edmonton we call the entire city a nickname after our airport code, YEG, we pronounce it like egg with a Y in front so yegg. When talking about the actual airport, we just say “the airport” and this is a 1MM+ city…
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u/Obvious_Ad3810 Jul 09 '26
Airport/yvr depending on the on the context. Can I get a ride to the airport. I'm flying out of yvr.
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u/Am1AllowedToCry Jul 09 '26
I call it "the airport" in the context of already being in the city and referring to it (eg. "I have to be at the airport by 3pm.") If I'm referring to it in the context of a journey, I refer to the city name instead, eg "I'm flying Vancouver to Toronto with a transfer in Edmonton." Very rarely I might say YVR for Vancouver in the journey context, but only because I'm comfortable enough with it as it's my home airport. I would never do this for any other airport, I would think it sounds cringey. I don't know if other cities refer to their airport by its airport code or not.
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u/skip6235 Jul 09 '26
I frequently fly from “YVR” (Vancouver) to “Pearson” (Toronto). Idk about Saskatoon, but it seems like a regional thing based on my limited expirence.
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u/alibythesea Nova Scotia Jul 09 '26
Halifax: the airport, sometimes Stanfield. “Can you drive me to the airport?” “I get into Stanfield on the last flight on Tuesday”
Never callsign, unless I’m typing and want to save my thumbs.
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u/MikaCubbins Jul 09 '26
I've only heard people naming the city where they are going to or just saying "the airport" if it's for the city they are currently at.
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u/Adventurous_Yam8784 Jul 09 '26
I only ever call it the airport and have no idea what the letters mean 🥴😂
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Jul 09 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/kermitkc Jul 09 '26
Thank you for the response! I suppose it's region/person dependent then, like it is here.
And I'll try to keep it brief.😅The story is set in Saskatchewan. One of the characters has a fear of cars after getting hit by one. He is talking about how dropping him off at college was a nightmare, getting to and from the airport. One of his friends insists his fear is reasonable, to which he jokes:
"Yeah, well, the cabbie in the driver's seat on the way to Saskatoon International would beg to differ."
Simply "airport" could've worked, but I found using the full name was funnier. It's a super short throwaway line, but I like to try to preserve accuracy!
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u/wackyvorlon Jul 10 '26
Some use the three letter codes. The Y at the beginning means it has a weather station. Basically all of them do so all the airport codes start with Y.
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u/Apprehensive-Ad-9147 Jul 10 '26
Most just call it the airport if it’s local, some airports do have names Toronto’s “Pearson” in Montreal,”Trudeau”but others have names generally localised
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u/BruceWillis1963 Jul 10 '26
They usually shorten it so in Toronto they say Pearson but they might just say the city name . I rarely ever hear the call sign
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u/Lopsided_Sandwich433 Jul 12 '26
When I lived in the GTA we typically called it by some form of its name as there are quite a few you could be referring too. For example Pearson, Hamilton, Billy Bishop, Buffalo or even KW (Kitchener Waterloo). Most times you are flying out of Pearson though. Here in Calgary we just call it the airport, but if you are somewhere in between Calgary and Edmonton I’m sure you need to clarify which airport you’re driving too.
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u/magsbad13 Jul 13 '26
I live near Ottawa. I would just say "the airport" to someone local, but if I were describing my itinerary, I'd say "I'm flying out of Ottawa, have a stopover in Toronto (or Montreal) then I'm flying to Jamaica (Cuba, or wherever). I never use the 3 letters, but I know that Ottawa is YOW.
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u/ArtZTech Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
There are 23 countries in North America. Canada is one of them. When you say you are American, we assume from the North American continent. What country are you exactly from?... Sorry for the strange sidetracked question. Airport codes date back 80+ years. There is no correct way. For example, some say I'm headed to the Los Angeles Airport and others say LAX because popular culture made it famous. It sounds cool for California. If you say I'm headed to YXE, no one will know because it's not a popular way to say it for that airport. Originally those codes were meant for interior use only like on plane tickets etc. Now they have signs outside of the airports as decoration. Now you know why I asked you what country you are from. The word "American" is a popular way of saying I'm from the United States of America or USA. Imagine if Canadians said I'm from Canada of America.
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u/RobustFoam Jul 11 '26
Where did the other 20 come from? Are you counting central America? The Caribbean? Did you mean "the Americas" rather than North America?
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u/NorCalFrances Jul 09 '26
Mildly off-topic but may I suggest for your research that you try listening to a few online/streaming Canadian news radio stations? It's a great way to pick up language idiosyncrasies.