Buffalo Niagara International Airport

About Buffalo Niagara International Airport

Buffalo Niagara International Airport (IATA: BUF, ICAO: KBUF, FAA LID: BUF) is an airport located in the town of Cheektowaga in Erie County, New York. The airport is named after the Buffalo Niagara Falls Metro Region. The airport serves Buffalo, New York as well as Southwest Ontario Canada (Private land shuttle services make connections between Buffalo with Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario and John C. Munro International Airport in Hamilton, Ontario). It is the busiest airport in Upstate New York, and the third busiest in New York State by number of boardings.

There is currently a movement to rename Buffalo Niagara International to "Buffalo Tim Russert International Airport" after popular news commentator and Buffalo native Tim Russert, who died in 2008.

The Buffalo Municipal Airport (as it was then called) was built in 1926. However, the airport, which officially opened on May 11, 1939, was quickly outgrown, due to larger planes coming on the scene. A 1955 expansion helped remedy this problem. In 1959, after being acquired by the Niagara Frontier Port Authority, the name was changed to the Greater Buffalo International Airport. Another renovation in 1961 extensively remodeled the main terminal building and built a new control tower, as well as adding another concourse for American Airlines. Despite all this, the terminal again became outgrown. To address this problem, a second terminal (called the "West Terminal") was constructed in 1971, which was built to last only ten years. The original terminal, now called the "East Terminal", was heavily expanded between 1975 and 1977. However, no matter how many renovations or expansions the buildings went through, the buildings hadn't aged well. The West terminal, designed as a temporary structure, was nearly 20 years old.