Most airports are named for generals, presidents, or the cities they serve. A handful carry the names of monarchs. Only three in the world are named for a pope — and all three for the same one.
Karol Wojtyła, who became Pope John Paul II in 1978, was the most-travelled pontiff in history, logging over 1.1 million kilometres across 129 countries during his 26-year papacy. It is perhaps fitting, then, that airports remember him. What makes the story remarkable is which airports — a Polish city that shaped him, an Italian port city at the crossroads of East and West, and a volcanic archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic. Three places. Three languages. One man.
KRK — Kraków, Poland: Where It All Began
Kraków's John Paul II International Airport carries his name most naturally. Karol Wojtyła was born in the nearby town of Wadowice in 1920, studied in Kraków during the Nazi occupation, was ordained there, and served as Archbishop of the city from 1964 until his election to the papacy in 1978. When the conclave in Rome chose him — the first non-Italian pope in 455 years — it was Kraków that the world looked to first.
The airport was renamed in his honour in 1995, a rare distinction: most airports wait until their namesake is gone. John Paul II was still very much alive, still travelling, still filling stadiums. Kraków simply couldn't wait. He returned to the city multiple times as pope, drawing some of the largest crowds in Polish history. The airport that bears his name today connects millions of travellers to a city that remains inseparable from his legacy — from Wawel Cathedral to the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy, the landmarks of his life are Kraków's landmarks too.
BRI — Bari, Italy: The Pope at the Edge of Two Worlds
Bari's connection to John Paul II is less biographical and more theological — which, for this particular pope, amounts to the same thing. He visited the Puglian capital in 1984 for Italy's National Eucharistic Congress, but the significance of Bari runs deeper than a single pastoral visit.
Bari is the city of Saint Nicholas — the real one, the fourth-century bishop whose relics were brought here from Myra in 1087 and have drawn pilgrims ever since. For John Paul II, whose papacy was defined by a relentless push toward Christian unity, Bari held a particular resonance. Saint Nicholas is venerated equally by Catholics and Orthodox Christians, making the Basilica di San Nicola one of the rare sacred spaces where the two traditions genuinely meet. The pope who would later host the historic 1986 World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi understood exactly what Bari represented: a city at the hinge between East and West, between Rome and Constantinople, between the Latin Church and the Orthodox world.
The airport was renamed Karol Wojtyla Airport — using his Polish birth name — in 2006, the year after his death. It is a quietly striking choice: an Italian airport, in a city that looks toward Greece and the Levant, named in Polish.
PDL — Ponta Delgada, Azores: Faith at the Edge of the Atlantic
The most unexpected airport on this list sits on São Miguel, the largest island of the Azores, an autonomous Portuguese archipelago roughly 1,500 kilometres west of Lisbon and about as far into the Atlantic as Europe gets. João Paulo II Airport — the Portuguese rendering of his name — commemorates his visit to the islands in 1991.
To understand why the Azores matter in this story, you need to understand Fátima. In 1917, in a field in central Portugal, three shepherd children reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary — apparitions that became one of the most significant Marian events in modern Catholic history. John Paul II had a lifelong, deeply personal devotion to Our Lady of Fátima. When he survived an assassination attempt in St. Peter's Square on 13 May 1981 — the feast day of Our Lady of Fátima — he credited her intercession with saving his life. He later donated the bullet removed from his body to the Fátima shrine, where it was set into the crown of the statue of Mary.
The Portuguese-speaking world, with its deep Marian tradition, held a special place in his papacy. His visit to the Azores was a natural extension of that bond — a stop at the far western edge of the Lusophone world, on islands that have sent emigrants to every corner of the globe and kept their faith through centuries of isolation and hardship. Ponta Delgada named its airport for him, and the name has held ever since.
Three Airports, One Thread
What connects Kraków, Bari, and Ponta Delgada is not geography — they are spread across nearly 4,000 kilometres of Europe and the Atlantic. What connects them is a papacy that refused to stay in Rome. John Paul II believed that the Church had to go to the people, not wait for the people to come to the Church. He flew more miles than any pope before him, and the airports that carry his name are, in their way, a monument to that conviction.
Travellers passing through KRK, BRI, or PDL today may not know the story behind the name on the departures board. Now you do.
Travelling through Kraków, Bari, or Ponta Delgada? Explore our airport code gifts for all three cities — from mugs and pillows to apparel that wears the code with pride.
Shop KRK – Kraków · Shop BRI – Bari · Shop PDL – Ponta Delgada
