Nashville International Airport to Be Renamed for Dolly Parton

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Dolly Parton Is Getting Her Own Airport

Nashville International Airport is being renamed in honor of the late country icon By Walden Green September 11, 2026 Save this story Save this story

Nashville International Airport is being renamed in honor of the late Dolly Parton , the city’s News Channel 5 reports . Tennessee Governor Bill Lee made the official announcement late last month, and now the city’s Airport Authority board has voted unanimously in favor the name change. It’s the culmination of a campaign that was already underway prior to Parton’s recent passing at the age of 80. The official new name hasn’t been announced yet.

To push through the name change, the Nashville Airport Authority apparently had to update an actual policy that said someone must be dead for two years before having an airport named after them. (Who knew!) Nashville International will retain its three-letter code, BNA, which comes from one of the airport’s original builders, Col. Harry S. Berry. Next week, Parton will also receive a posthumous honor from the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.

Read Lily Goldberg’s Saturday Track review of Dolly Parton’s “ I Will Always Love You .”

Walden Green is a music writer and cultural critic who joined Pitchfork in 2024. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, his work has appeared in Dirt, The Fader , and Philadelphia . He lives in New York. ... Read More Staff Writer - -

_Originally reported by [Pitchfork](https://pitchfork.com/story/dolly-parton-is-getting-her-own-airport/)._