What do those three-letter airport codes actually stand for?
By Chris C., January 5 2018
This article is part of our ongoing Business Travel 101 series for newcomers to the world of business travel.
Three-letter airport codes are part of the alphabet soup of travel, and while some are glaringly obvious others are completely cryptic.
So what's really in an airport code? Let's start with some homegrown examples.
The airport codes for Sydney, Melbourne and Perth – SYD, MEL and PER – make perfect sense, being drawn from the first three letters of each city's name. But this simple convention can't always be followed.
For example, Brisbane is BNE instead of BRI because that code had already been allocated to an airport at the Italian city of Bari.
(Bari missed out on the more sensible BAR because that moniker was assigned to the now-abandoned Baker Army Airfield on a tiny uninhabited atoll in the Pacific Ocean).
Even when a few letters are skipped, airport codes like BNE, Adelaide's ADL, Auckland's AKL and Hong Kong's HKG are still a close fit to their locale.
Other airport codes, however, step further away from making immediate sense.
The X factor
Almost every traveller knows that Los Angeles and LAX are one and the same – but where did that superfluous X come from?
That's a remnant from the early days of air travel when airports were referred to by a two-letter 'weather station' code, which in this case was simply LA.
When the growth of air travel created the need for three-letter codes, the airport’s original designation had an ‘X’ amended to ease the transition, as did Portland (PDX).
Dubai followed suit due to DUB already belonging to Dublin, Ireland – so the airport code of DXB was chosen with the ‘X’ having no meaning other than to fill out the three characters.
Closer to home, the proposed Sydney West Airport at Badgery's Creek has already been christened as SWZ for similar reasons.
One city, many airports
In the case of London, the city's three major airports take the first letter of the city's name and append a two-letter code for the airport itself. That's how we ended up with LHR for London Heathrow, LGW for London Gatwick and LCY for London City.
But even then things aren't always consistent, with London Stansted Airport – home to many low-cost airlines – tagged as STN instead of L-something.
And while TOK is sometimes used as an abbreviation for the city of Tokyo, the Japanese capital's two airports retain quiet unique codes, with Narita being NRT and Haneda branded as HND.
WTF?
No, there isn't an airport burdened with WTF – but those three letters could well represent the reaction of first-time travellers to airport codes which bear no resemblance to their location.
Beijing is a well-known example, with the code of PEK.
PEK represents the old anglicised name of Peking, which was changed to Beijing after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
Both Latin spellings are approximations of the city's Chinese pronunciation, which sounds a little like "pay-cheeng". Although the city name changed in the west, the airport code never did.
Another is Chicago's ORD. While officially known as O'Hare International Airport, the original O'Hare Field strip was adjacent to a small farming community named Orchard Place. The airport soon took the name Orchard Field Airport, which became ORD.
Oh, Canada...
Canada throws another curveball. All of the nation's airport codes begin with the letter Y, regardless of the city's name.
That's another holdover from Ye Olde Days of Aviation, but this time to do with radio transmitters instead of weather stations.
In the early days of broadcast radio the North American market was divided into three geographic zones, each carrying a regional-specific letter to be used in front of a station's callsign.
US stations were assigned W if they were located east of the Mississippi River and K if they were west of the mighty Miss. All radio stations in Canada were to begin with – you guessed it – Y.
That at least explains Vancouver being YVR and Ottawa being YOW. Toronto's appellation of YYZ is more of a puzzler, and came about because YTO was already assigned as Toronto’s generic region code (rather than being assigned to a specific airport).
YYZ happened to be the radio transmitter at a village called Malton, which is where Toronto Pearson International Airport is located today, so the oddball callsign stuck.
So there you have it: airport codes are a little more than three randomly-assigned letters stuck onto luggage, and sometimes there's a bit of a story behind each one.
Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 Aug 2012
Total posts 2199
This is a nice nugget of backstory, especially for those of us who think in these codes!
30 Aug 2013
Total posts 437
Excellent article - I've always wondered why some airports have completely obvious codes while some have such random ones!
I would also love a follow-up article on why airlines have the same issue - VA and BA are very obvious but 3K and D7?!
12 Jun 2013
Total posts 732
There's only so many different two-letter airline codes you can have. Virgin Australia got lucky to get the VA code when it became vacant (I forget who had it before) while Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America are stuck with VS and VX.
In the case of Jetstar Asia, just about everything starting with J is already taken (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airline_codes) including J0 to J9. Not sure why they went with 3K in particular though.
Lufthansa - Miles & More
16 Jun 2015
Total posts 2
VA used to be Volare (Italian Airline)
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
30 May 2013
Total posts 380
The 'Avgeek' in me loves this article. My favourite airport codes in Australia would have to be Proserpine - PPP and Gold Coast - OOL.
11 Apr 2014
Total posts 2
Gold Coast is OOL because it used to be called Coolangatta Airport which is the main subrub.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 Aug 2012
Total posts 2199
It's also why Sunshine Coast is MCY - Maroochydore.
Air New Zealand - Airpoints
03 Apr 2013
Total posts 37
Adding to the list of airport codes that are stuck with their old city names:
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 Aug 2012
Total posts 2199
Chennai - formerly Madras (MAA)
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
30 May 2013
Total posts 380
Beijing - PEK
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
07 Mar 2014
Total posts 73
Ahhh, you beat me to it - MAA. Also Fukuoka, JP below. I heard if you remove the Y from Canada codes it will be the same code used for the domestic rail stations? YVR = Vancouver
One that I always forget is ZQN and if you're going to the USA for a flutter make sure you book LAS, NV and not LVS, NM.
You can check out where your initials will take you (3 letters) and from just you christian and surname will also give you an airline code.
CMC - Camocim CE, BRAZIL
CC - ??Different information??
01 Feb 2012
Total posts 371
Yeah, I thought CAN and PEK was pretty sensible. I spelt Beijing as Peking growing up, maybe it makes more sense for people who speak Cantonese, which is where I think these anglicised names come from. Beijing is basically what the mandarin pronounciation sounds like, while in Cantonese it sounds more like Peking.
Old school diplomats like Chris Patten still refuse to use the new spelling because it makes no sense. Where do people speak Cantonese? In Canton, not Guangzhou! What the heck is Myanmar or Mumbai?! If this trend continues Hong Kong will soon be Xianggang (the mandarin spelling) which would be horrifying!
Last year I flew into KWL (Guilin), which apparently use to be spelt Kweilin
01 Feb 2012
Total posts 371
Cant find the exact quote but this was from a news article:
We used to have a simple, if unofficial, rule about the spelling and pronunciation of foreign cities and indeed countries. Essentially, if the place was well-known and we might speak of it frequently, we employed an anglicised version of the name. So, for instance, we talk about Paris, not Paree, and when it comes to the better-known and more often visited Italian cities, we speak of Rome, Florence, Naples, Venice and Milan. Likewise with countries, we go to Germany, not Deutschland, and Spain, not Espana. This has been our practice for centuries, and it is the common practice of other Europeans too. So, just as Munchen becomes Munich in English, Italians speak of it as Monaco. From the Gare du Nord, you take the Eurostar to Londres, rather than London, and it is very unlikely that this offends even the most fanatical of anti-Europeans here.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
30 Dec 2012
Total posts 66
LYP is Faisalabad (Pakistan). It has LYP which is after its former name of Lyallpur (Named after Former British General Lyall).
MUX - Multan (assumes the 'X' similar to LAX and DXB - just to fill the void).
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
19 Nov 2011
Total posts 243
Yea - the odd ones are well, just odd. Few that I can think of the top of my head
BKI - Kota Kinabalu which doesn't make sense.
KIX - nice Osaka-Kansai airport name for kicks
FUK - well, need I say more.
MSY - bears no resemblance to the name of New Orleans airport
YUL - Montreal airport - The Y prefixes can really throw one off when you have so many Canadian domestic flights and you want to speak in code.
SXF / TXL - Berlin airports with X incorporated
12 Jun 2013
Total posts 732
MSY is for Moisant Stock Yards, after the stock yards that used to be on the site and John Moisant who crashed his plane into them in 1910.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
08 Nov 2011
Total posts 121
I assume KIX stands for Kansai International with the X being a filler.
As for BKi. Perhaps Borneo Kinabalu?
20 Feb 2014
Total posts 7
SGN (Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat airport) is derived from the former name of Saigon.
Thai Airways International - Royal Orchid Plus
15 Jan 2013
Total posts 455
Not Unusual though but it in some cases makes one thing of something they do by not going to church on Sundays is SIN which ironically is the code for Singapore.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
29 May 2013
Total posts 68
Chris, thanks for this. I wondered how some of the codes were chosen. A very interesting article.
12 Dec 2012
Total posts 1029
Would using the ICAO codes instead of the IATA codes make more sense?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 Aug 2012
Total posts 2199
YSSY instead of SYD? I don't think so...
11 Apr 2014
Total posts 13
One day I would like to try this routing: EAT-PEE-POO-NAP.
(from One Mile At A Time)
07 Aug 2012
Total posts 192
How about FUK-SIN-HEL? It's actually possible (SQ FUK-SIN / AY SIN-HEL)
29 Aug 2013
Total posts 3
Or if we want to get onto waypoints, there's an approach path in the NW USA which takes you over ITAWT - ITAWA -PUDYE - TTATT...
Codes can change; when Salisbury, Rhodesia became Harare, Zimbabwe the code went from SAY to HRE.
Remember, your aircraft flies to (ICAO code) but your bags go to (IATA code). That is, the pilots will take you to YSSY and the groundies will send your bags to SYD.
Air China - Phoenix Miles
20 Dec 2012
Total posts 105
SHA - Shanghai Hongqiao
PVG - Shanghai Pudong
01 Feb 2012
Total posts 371
yeah.. whats with the V?!
Air China - Phoenix Miles
20 Dec 2012
Total posts 105
Both PUG and PUD were used, so the airport selected "V" as it looks like "U".
Air New Zealand - Airpoints
03 Apr 2013
Total posts 37
I read somewhere that you can go to HEL via SIN.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
08 Sep 2012
Total posts 236
YES you CAN via Yasouj and Canton (Guangzhou).
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
30 May 2013
Total posts 380
I've oftern wondered why there is a 'Q' in Ayers Rock airport code (AYQ)
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 Oct 2011
Total posts 467
The Q has a hard "K" sound, as in "rock"??
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
30 Aug 2013
Total posts 8
I had to learn 400 airport codes in travel college...ps pug is pt Augusta
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
29 May 2013
Total posts 45
When living in the US, I always used to wonder about EWR (nEWaRk), but soon figured that out.
More interesting in my travels there were AVP (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) -as it the airport is based in AVoca, PA), and Harrisburg PA (MDT) - never figured that one out though... any takers?
22 May 2015
Total posts 11
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
20 Mar 2014
Total posts 31
Going to TSA? Don't worry, you shouldn't expect to be summarily groped due to security regulation. You're actually just going to the less known airport in Taipei, Songshan (cf. TPE, which is the more well-known Taipei Taoyuan).
Interestingly, Nadi Airport, Fiji, is symbolised as NAN... which happens to be more along the lines of how the name of the town is pronounced, viz. "Nan-dee".
To add to the London "oddity", little known London Southend airport (familiar to those who may fly Easyjet) is SEN.
For those of you who think Sioux City, Iowa, USA sucks...you might be right. The code for the city's airport is SUX. The mayor once petitioned the FAA to have the controversial IATA code changed, but after the FAA offered some rather dull alternatives (including GAY), they decided to keep SUX... and embraced the idea instead.
Key West airport in Florida has the IATA code EYW, but all ICAO codes in the US is just the IATA code affixed with a K... so the ICAO is, comically, KEYW.
You can impress many flight attendants by demonstrating your IATA code prowess. You'll surprise them further when you answer in the negative to their follow-up question if you work for an airline or in the travel industry.
12 Dec 2012
Total posts 1029
You can impress many flight attendants by demonstrating your IATA code prowess. You'll surprise them further when you answer in the negative to their follow-up question if you work for an airline or in the travel industry.
I've done that to heaps of travel agents.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 Jul 2016
Total posts 106
Every time I do that, they look at me, oh you smart ass
12 Mar 2014
Total posts 128
There may be others out there, but Port Moresby's the only city I can think of whose residents (and everyone else in PNG) predominantly refer to it by its airline code - POM - in casual (non-air travel related) conversation...
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
05 Nov 2013
Total posts 15
we call Sydney "Syd" and Melbourne "Mel"
12 Mar 2014
Total posts 128
I've never said "SYD" or "MEL" in conversation that doesn't surround air travel/airports. In PNG they occasionally even refer to Port Moresby as POM on the news during non-air travel related stories...
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
30 Dec 2012
Total posts 66
The locals in Pakistan refer to Lahore (in-text) as LHR, which is London Heathrow...
Also, with E next to R on the Keyboard, there has been instances of baggage being checked through to LHR, rather than LHE!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer - Chairmans Lounge
01 Sep 2011
Total posts 416
Well done and fascinating. Now how about a story on how airlines assign numbers to the eg: QF002, how are the digits determined and also how are the 2 letter (in 99% of cases) assigned to an airline? Its not always logical.
CX - Marco Polo
13 Apr 2014
Total posts 3
Not sure about Qantas but Cathay has a system (sort of) for assigning flight numbers: 2 digits flights are cargo flights; CX 1xx is Australia/New Zealand; 2xx is European; 4xx is Northeast Asia (Tokyo, Seoul....); 8xx is North American....and so on. But different airlines have their own ways to assign flight numbers and sometimes it is just random.
15 Feb 2013
Total posts 163
The airlines determine the digits. For Qantas, international is QF1-399 and domestic QF400 and above. Anything QF4xx is between Melbourne and Sydney, with even numbers MEL-SYD and odd numbers SYD-MEL. In fact I think odd numbered qantas flights are generally north to south / east to west, and even numbered flights are the opposite, but correct me if I’m wrong.
21 Apr 2012
Total posts 3006
Chris,
Who regulates these codes and what is the process of changing them if at all possible?
If or when the new Sydney airport gets built, can it adopt the SYD code, the way Kuala Lumpur airport at Sepang took on KUL and left the old Subang airport with SZB?
Stansted, much to Ryan Air's consternation is in Essex not London. One might argue Croydon (LGW) is part of London but definitely not Stansted. LTN airport starts with an L not because it's north of London but because Luton, Bedfordshire starts with an L.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
20 Mar 2014
Total posts 31
According to Wikipedia (yes, references!), IATA three-letter airport codes are administered by IATA in Montreal according to IATA Resolution 763.
Indirectly, just because they can and what not, I believe codes in the USA must also pass by the US FAA (although I believe FAA and IATA codes need not be the same).
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
30 Dec 2012
Total posts 66
When Bangkok International Airport was transfered to their New Airport in 2006 in Suvarnabhumi, BKK was transferred accross. Meanwhile with the old airport assumed the code of DMK (Don Muang).
12 Nov 2013
Total posts 8
Whether or not the new airport takes on SYD would also depend on whether it replaces the old airport (like HKG) or whether it is a supplementary airport (like AVV).
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 May 2014
Total posts 12
LGW is in Horley or Crawley, not Croydon, and these are most certainly not considered London.
LGW is 45km from London, compared to 59km for STN
22 Aug 2015
Total posts 18
I think its going to take up the SWZ, in which its orignally allocated.
15 Feb 2013
Total posts 163
I doubt the new Sydney Airport would take the code - it’s not replacing the old airport and will be significantly smaller, with probably mostly low cost carriers. Would be a large expense, causing lots of confusion, and probably no real benefit.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
01 May 2012
Total posts 120
Facinating topic prompting some excellent factual posts, thanks Chris and fellow posters enjoyed and learnt a little more today......
20 Oct 2011
Total posts 77
A big bonus point for anyone who can explain Boolgeeda, WA, a Virgin Aus destination.... OCM!
20 Jul 2011
Total posts 17
Possibly: "O C'Mon, who'd wanna go there?" ;)
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
19 Aug 2011
Total posts 165
Full marks for whoever figures out FNJ - Pyongyang.
12 Mar 2014
Total posts 128
Freaky Northern Junta?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer - Chairmans Lounge
01 Sep 2011
Total posts 416
oh what fun we could have with that one centered around their crazy leader.:)
15 Feb 2013
Total posts 163
Freaking Nut Job?
VA
17 Apr 2014
Total posts 10
One of the more accurate codes is DUD, used by Dunedin, NZ. It always have a little chuckle to myself when booking flights or checking bags to there.
12 Nov 2013
Total posts 8
Something not touched upon on the article are whole-of-city codes - I don't know if these are used by IATA or just reserved, but in many flight search websites if you try to book from NYC to LON it will offer all options between the various New York City airports and the various London airports.
12 Dec 2012
Total posts 1029
They are IATA city codes. There are others like TYO and OSA for Tokyo and Osaka.
09 Sep 2012
Total posts 139
Someone mentioned that the "Gold Coast" airport's code is OOL as it is basically in Coolangatta.
It still is Coolangatta Airport, i.e. YBCG in the more informative ICAO designation, usually abbreviated in aviation circles - as against airline circles - to CG.
It used to be the even more sensible ABCG: Australia, Brisbane FIR (Flight Information Region) followed by CG for Coolangatta, until ICAO, for no particularly good reason changed Australia's continental prefix to Y.
As a professional aviation type rather than someone with an airline background, I've long wondered what prompted IATA's efforts. The correlation, or lack of it, between ICAO codes and those dreamt up by the airline types of IATA is something Chris might like to explore in a future article.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
26 Feb 2013
Total posts 13
on the topic of Saigon (SGN) for Ho Chi Minh - lets not forget St Petersburg (LED) for Leningrad
29 Aug 2014
Total posts 4
and chris... the airport code also used as port of discharge in shipping code as well.
10 Sep 2012
Total posts 149
I always found CUN mildly amusing, then I went there and found the place to be overrun with drunken redneck cuns, and never went back.
26 Jul 2013
Total posts 15
what happens when there are more than 17576 air ports around the world (which I am surprised there isn't that many already)
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 May 2014
Total posts 12
jesse,
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 May 2014
Total posts 12
Well I had better put a quick reply as I can't edit my post. The figure for Australia is totally wrong as it seems I was only searching for codes that started with A. So Australia certainly has far more than 26 airport codes
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 May 2014
Total posts 12
Seems like the answer for Australia is 613 IATA coded airports.
26 Jul 2013
Total posts 15
thank you for the info
12 Dec 2012
Total posts 1029
Not all airfields have IATA codes, while almost every air strip, airport, helipad, etc will have an ICAO code.
30 Jun 2011
Total posts 49
JFK. How many others are named precisely for a real person?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
11 Oct 2014
Total posts 691
A couple that I can think of, off the top of my head that are named after famous people and are IATA codes:
LGA in New York is named after Fiorello La Guardia.
CDG in Paris is named after Charles de Gaulle.
Quite a few airports are named after famous people, but few of these actually become IATA designators. To whit, our own SYD is named Kingsford Smith Airport (commonly known as 'KSA' - which is neither an IATA city/airport nor an ICAO code). Other - non IATA - names include:
John Lennon International - Liverpool, UK. Lennon actually worked at the airport as a young man, for a short time!
George Bush - Houston TX, USA
Lester Pearson - Toronto ON Canada (YYZ)
Leonardo da Vinci - Rome, Italy (FCO)
Arturo Benitez Merino - Santiago, Chile (SCL)
Louis Armstrong - New Orleans USA (MSY)
Franz Liszt - Budapest, Hungary (BUD)
Quite a few others as well. Think about John Wayne, Tom Bradley, Frederic Chopin (Warsaw, Poland WAW), Indira Ghandi etc.
15 Feb 2013
Total posts 163
Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport
15 Nov 2019
Total posts 2
21 Dec 2016
Total posts 6
George Best Belfast City (BHD)
QFF
19 Sep 2013
Total posts 205
For those folks that worked at Australian airports, other codes were used - e.g. PER was PAP.
28 Aug 2015
Total posts 21
KBL (Kabul) is commonly known locally as HKIA - its official name Hamid Karzai Int'l Airport.
15 Nov 2019
Total posts 2
The entirely unnecessary, and highly unpopular 24/7 airport currently undergoing preliminary groundwork in western Sydney, and the building of an inane "Experience Centre", or some such rubbish, will be SWZ.
But it is going to be called Nancy Bird-Walton. So, why not NBW, I hear you ask??? Because NBW is Leeward Point Field (ICAO: MUGM), aka Leeward Airfield, a U.S. military airfield located at the Naval Station in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
I suppose the result will be similar: Torture by sleep deprivation for the residents!
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