Forget Baseball Cards, Now You Can Collect Airport Trading Cards

Airport trading cards were released this month. Serious collectors will need to visit seventeen North American airports to complete the inaugural set.

Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) unveiled the first seventeen collectible trading cards at their 2014 conference held in Atlanta this September. The North American Airport Collectors Series trading cards are modeled after baseball cards and feature iconic airport images on the front of the card and the airports pertinent stats on the back. Rather than ERAs and RBIs, airport stats include information like passengers per year, Wi-Fi coverage and even the total length of baggage conveyer belts (eight miles at PIT).

In a statement accompanying the release of the new collectible cards, Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Director, Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge said the idea was borne out of passenger demand, “We are inundated by requests from airport and aviation fans all over the world for anything that carries our S-T-L airport code.”

ACI-NA President Kevin M. Burke described the effort as both fun and practical, “The North American Airport Collectors Series not only offers our member airports a fantastic way to showcase themselves to the traveling public, the cards also appeal to the kid in all of us.”

Collectors will have to travel a little farther for the airport trading cards than they would for a New York Yankees team baseball card. The North American Airport Collectors Series cards will not be sold in stores but will instead be distributed free of charge at participating airport information desks.

The first seventeen airports to participate include major airports like Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (STL) and Cincinnati International Airport (CVG) and smaller regional airports such as Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport (SAV) and Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (BTR).

[Photo: ACI-NA]