Encourages Travelers To "FLY SUX"
For years, it has been a thorn in
the sides of officials with Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City,
IA. Every time a pilot entered the airport's identifier on a flight
plan... every time they'd see a sectional chart... they were
reminded as far as the FAA was concerned, Sioux City's airport was,
well, SUX.
A few years back, the airport led a charge to change the
moniker, in favor of... well, almost anything else. But that was
then, this is now -- and today, those same officials have come
around to the unique situation before them.
"Let's make the best of it," SUX board member Dave Bernstein
tells the Sioux City Journal. "I think we have the opportunity to
turn it into a positive."
Bernstein is the brainchild of a tongue-in-cheek marketing
campaign that puts Sioux City's identifier front-and-center. The
new slogan "FLY SUX" was unveiled last month, to coincide with the
launch of Frontier Airlines service to Denver. Northwest Airlines
also offers daily flights to its hub at Minneapolis/St. Paul.
"I've got buddies that I went to college with in different
cities that can't even remember their own birthdays, but they all
know the Sioux City designator -- SUX," Bernstein quips. "As long
as they're talking about you, go with it."
Already, T-shirts and caps have popped up, sporting the slogan
"FLY SUX." That's also the address for the airport's new
website.
As you might expect, the idea has taken off.
"I've had people constantly calling me asking where they can get
[a "FLY SUX" T-shirt]," Bernstein said.
"It's a very noticeable thing," added web designer Jeff Nelson,
a former Sioux Cityan who designed the new website. "Sure, people
have made fun of (SUX) for years. It's kind of a twist of embracing
it now."
Even mayor Craig Berenstein -- who described the identifier in
2002 as an "embarrassment" -- has since come around to the
idea.
"Not only do I not have a problem with it, but I have one of the
T-shirts," the mayor said of the new campaign, adding it's a "cute
little way" to poke fun at the situation.
Sioux City's past dissatisfaction with its airport identifier
stretches back to the late 1980s. In 1988, city leaders asked the
FAA to drop SUX. The agency responded with five new options -- GWU,
GYO, GYT, SGV, and GAY.
Officials weren't wild about any of them (you can probably
figure out the least-popular choice) and dropped the matter.