Why Is OGG Hawaii’s Airport Code? The Real Story

You landed in Maui and your boarding pass says OGG. Not MUI, not MAU — OGG. Three letters that have absolutely nothing to do with the word “Maui” or “Kahului” or “Hawaii.” So where did OGG come from?

What Does OGG Stand For?

OGG is the IATA code for Kahului Airport on Maui, and it comes from Captain Bertram J. Hogg — a pioneering aviator in Hawaiian inter-island aviation. The airport was named in his honor, and when IATA assigned the three-letter code, they pulled from his last name. Hogg became HOG became… well, actually OGG. The H was already taken by other airports in the system, so OGG was the closest available derivation.

Who Was Bertram Hogg?

Captain Bertram J. Hogg was a pilot for Hawaiian Airlines (then Inter-Island Airways) in the 1930s and 1940s. He was one of the earliest commercial pilots to fly scheduled passenger service between the Hawaiian islands — routes that connected communities separated by open ocean on a daily basis. These weren’t glamorous mainland routes; they were vital inter-island links that replaced multi-hour boat rides with 30-minute flights.

Hogg died in a crash on January 18, 1936, when his Sikorsky S-43 amphibian went down near Maui during a routine inter-island flight. He and all aboard were lost. The crash was a significant event in early Hawaiian aviation — inter-island flying was still proving itself as a reliable transportation option, and the loss highlighted the risks these pioneering pilots faced over open water with the navigation tools of the era.

Why the Code Doesn’t Match the City

Most travelers expect airport codes to match city names — LAX for Los Angeles, JFK for New York’s Kennedy, ORD for… wait. Airport codes have a long history of not matching their cities, and OGG is one of many that honor a person rather than a place.

IATA codes were assigned over decades as airports joined the international system. When a city name was already taken or the airport was named after a person, the code followed the honoree. Kahului Airport was officially renamed “Kahului Airport (OGG)” with the Hogg tribute baked into the code itself. Other Hawaiian airports follow similar patterns: HNL (Honolulu), LIH (Lihue), KOA (Kona).

Kahului Airport Today

OGG handles over 10 million passengers annually and serves as the primary gateway to Maui. Despite being a mid-size airport, it processes significant mainland and international traffic — direct flights from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and several other west coast cities land here daily. The open-air terminal design (you walk outside between gates) is distinctly Hawaiian and catches most first-time visitors off guard.

Next time someone asks why Maui’s airport code is OGG, you have the answer: Captain Bertram Hogg, one of Hawaii’s first commercial airline pilots, who died flying the inter-island routes that connected the state before highways and bridges could.