International Air Transport Association airport code

An IATA airport code, also known as an IATA location identifier, IATA station code or simply a location identifier,[1] is a three-letter code designating many airports around the world, defined by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The characters prominently displayed on baggage tags attached at airport check-in desks are an example of a way these codes are used.

The assignment of these codes is governed by IATA Resolution 763, and it is administered by IATA headquarters in Montreal. The codes are published biannually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory.[2]

IATA also provides codes for railway stations and for airport handling entities. A list of airports sorted by IATA code is available. A list of railway station codes, shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak, SNCF French Rail, and Deutsche Bahn, is available. There is also a separate List of Amtrak station codes, three-character codes used by Amtrak for its railway stations in the United States and Canada.

List

List of airports by IATA code: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

See also: List of airports by ICAO code

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History and conventions

Airport codes arose out of the convenience that it brought pilots for location identification in the 1930s. Initially, pilots in the United States used the two-letter code from the National Weather Service (NWS) for identifying cities. This system became unmanageable for cities and towns without an NWS identifier, thus a three-letter system of airport codes was implemented. This system allowed for 17,576 permutations, assuming all letters can be used in conjunction with each other.[3]

Generally speaking, airport codes are named after the first three letters of the city in which it is located – ATL for Atlanta, SIN for Singapore, MEX for Mexico City, IST for Istanbul; or a combination of the letters in its name, EWR for Newark, GDL for Guadalajara, JNB for Johannesburg, HKG for Hong Kong, SLC for Salt Lake City and WAW for Warsaw. Some airports in the United States retained their NWS codes and simply appended an X at the end, such as LAX for Los Angeles, PDX for Portland, and PHX for Phoenix.[3]

For many reasons, some airport codes do not fit the normal scheme described above. Some airports, for example, cross several municipalities or regions, and mix the letters around, giving rise to DFW for Dallas–Fort Worth, DTW for Detroit–Wayne County, HNL for Honolulu, LBA for Leeds Bradford (Airport), MSP for Minneapolis–Saint Paul, and RDU for Raleigh–Durham.

Canada originally used two letters for identification of a weather reporting station in the 1930s. Additionally, preceding the two-letter code, was placed a Y (meaning "yes") where the reporting station was co-located with an airport, a W (meaning "without") where the reporting station was not co-located with an airport, and a U where the reporting station was co-located with an NDB. An X was used if the last two letters of the code had already been taken by another Canadian ident, and a Z was used if the locator could be confused with a U.S. three letter ident.

Large metropolitan areas with more than one airport often resort to codes named after the airport itself instead of the city it serves. Often, another code is reserved which refers to the city itself. For instance:

When different cities with the same name each have an airport, the airports need to be assigned different codes. For example, Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC), is in San Jose, California, United States and Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) is in San José, Costa Rica.

Sometimes, a new airport is built, replacing the old one, leaving the city's new "major" airport code to no longer correspond with the city's name. This is in conjunction to rules aimed to avoid confusion that seem to apply in the United States, which state that "the first and second letters or second and third letters of an identifier may not be duplicated with less than 200 nautical miles separation."[3] Thus, Washington D.C.-area's three airports all have radically different codes: IAD for Washington-Dulles, DCA for Reagan National (District of Columbia Airport), and BWI for Baltimore (Baltimore–Washington International, formerly BAL).[3] Since HOU is used for William P. Hobby Airport, the new Houston-Intercontinental became IAH.[3] The code BKK was originally assigned to Bangkok-Don Mueang and was later transferred to Suvarnabhumi Airport, while the former adopted DMK. Shanghai-Hongqiao retained the code SHA, while the newer Pudong Airport adopted PVG. The opposite is true for Berlin, the airport Berlin-Tegel uses the code TXL, while its smaller counterpart Berlin-Schönefeld uses SXF; the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport is going to have the code BER. Hamburg (HAM) and Hannover (HAJ) are less than 100 NM apart and still use the same first and middle letter, indicating that this rule might followed only locally.

Since the US Navy reserved "N" codes and the Federal Communications Commission has reserved rights for "W" and "K", certain U.S. cities which begin with these letters had to adopt "irregular" airport codes: EWR for Newark, ORF for Norfolk, Virginia, EYW for Key West, Florida, and APC for Napa, California.[3] This "rule" does not apply outside of the United States: Karachi is KHI, Warsaw is WAW, Nagoya is NGO. In addition, since "Q" was used for international communications, cities with "Q" beginning their name also had to find alternate codes, as in the case of Qiqihar (NDG), Quetta (UET) and Quito (UIO).

IATA codes should not be confused with the FAA identifiers of US airports. Most FAA identifiers agree with the corresponding IATA codes, but some do not, such as Saipan whose FAA identifier is GSN and its IATA code SPN, and some coincide with IATA codes of non-US airports.

Many cities retain historical names in their airport codes despite the fact that their official name is now different. This is especially prominent in India: BOM for Mumbai (formerly Bombay), CCU for Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), and MAA for Chennai (formerly Madras); in China: CAN for Guangzhou (formerly Canton), PEK for Beijing (formerly Peking), and TAO for Qingdao (formerly Tsingtao); in Indonesia: BTJ for Banda Aceh (formerly Banda Atjeh), TKG for Bandar Lampung (formerly Tanjung Karang), UPG for Makassar (formerly Ujung Pandang), and DJJ for Jayapura (formerly Djajapoera). Similarly, this is the case with FRU for Bishkek (formerly Frunze), LED for St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad), GOJ for Nizhny Novgorod (formerly Gorky), SGN for Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), and TGD for Podgorica (formerly Titograd).

Some airport codes are based on previous names associated with a present airport, such as Chicago's O'Hare, which is assigned ORD, based on its old name of Orchard Field, before it was expanded and renamed O'Hare in the mid-1950s. Similarly, Orlando International Airport uses MCO, based on the old McCoy Air Force Base, which was converted to joint civilian/military use and renamed Orlando Jetport at McCoy in the early 1960s and finally Orlando International in the early 1980s. Other airport codes are similarly not immediately obvious in origin, and each have their own peculiarities. Nashville uses BNA, Knoxville uses TYS, and Kahului (the main gateway into Maui) uses OGG, while Spokane International Airport goes by GEG. Most of these are named after individuals.[3] In Asia, codes that do not correspond with their city's names include Niigata's KIJ, Nanchang's KHN, Pyongyang's FNJ, and Kobe's UKB.

Some airports are identified even in colloquial speech by their airport code. The most notable example is LAX.

The majority of airports in Canada use airport codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick). Some Canadian airports simply append a combination of letters in the city's name to the "Y": YOW for Ottawa, YYC for Calgary, and YVR for Vancouver, whereas other Canadian airports append the two letter code of the radio beacons that were the closest to the actual airport, such as YQX in Gander and YXS in Prince George. While certain codes themselves make it more difficult to identify an airport, some codes have become popular in usage due to the airports, particularly two of Canada's largest airports, YYZ for Toronto-Pearson (YZ is the original radio transmitter code for a village called Malton, which is where Toronto Pearson International Airport is now located) and YUL for Montreal-Trudeau (UL was the ID code for beacon in the city of Kirkland, now the location of Montreal-Trudeau). Canada's third busiest airport, Calgary International Airport,[4] has begun using its airport code YYC as a marketing brand and name for the airport authority web site (yyc.com).[5] YVR is also used in marketing in Vancouver, and is sometimes used by city residents to refer to the airport.

Numerous New Zealand airports use codes which contain a letter Z, to distinguish them from similar airport names in other countries. Examples include HLZ for Hamilton, ZQN for Queenstown, and WSZ for Westport.

It is also noteworthy that there are several airports with scheduled service that have not been assigned ICAO codes that do have IATA codes. For example, several airports in Alaska that have scheduled commercial service, such as Stebbins Airport or Nanwalek Airport. There are also airports with scheduled service for which there are ICAO codes but not IATA codes, such as Nkhotakota/Tangole/Dwanga Airport in Malawi. Thus, neither system completely includes all airports with scheduled service.

See also

References

  1. ↑ IATA Coding Systems
  2. ↑ IATA Airline Coding Directory
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Airport ABCs: An Explanation of Airport Identifier Codes". Air Line Pilot. Air Line Pilots Association. 1994. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  4. ↑ Stephenson, Amanda (11 February 2013). "Calgary International surpasses Montreal to become third busiest airport in Canada". Calgary Herald. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  5. ↑ "YYC: Calgary Airport Authority". Retrieved 22 March 2015.

External links

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Metropolitan area airport codes.
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