How do you read airport codes?

In most ICAO codes, the first letter represents the continent or group of nations housing an airport. The second letter zeros in closer to a specific nation, then the third and fourth are specific to the airport. Radio station letter groupings were often used in North America when assigning ICAO codes.



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Try using a play on words, like New Orleans has the Most Saints Yawning (MSY). Orlando's main airport is MCO. Orlando is home to Disney World, so Mickey's Climbing Onboard (MCO). The sillier the better when it comes to remembering these tough identifiers.

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An IATA airport code, also known as an IATA location identifier, IATA station code, or simply a location identifier, is a three-letter geocode designating many airports and metropolitan areas around the world, defined by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

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ICAO code consists of 4 letters. Certain classifications among countries and regions are used in creating these codes. The first letter stands for the region in which the airport is located, the second is for the country. The other two letters are generally given in order.

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The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) requires the UK to put in place a State Safety Programme (SSP) to regulate and oversee the UK aviation system. For the UK, this covers the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK 'Main'), the UK's Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies.

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According to Airfarewatchdog, in the 1930s, it was important to know whether or not an airport had a weather/radio station located on its premises, for safety and landing reasons. If it did, the letter Y for yes was added in front of the existing radio call sign.

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K – United States The prefix K is generally reserved for the contiguous United States. The ICAO codes for these airports are usually the FAA location identifier prefixed with a K. IATA codes are listed where applicable.

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One of the first tests you'll be given in new-hire training is the airport codes test. You'll be required to know every airport code for every one of your airline's destination cities. And there's not much room for error; most airlines require you to score at least 90% to pass!

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During training, one of the first things a flight attendant is asked to do is memorize their airlines airport codes. For some airlines, this could be hundreds of codes! Airlines will test on these codes as well as other crucial vocabulary during the first week in training.

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Codes in the range QAA–QNZ are reserved for aeronautical use; QOA–QQZ for maritime use and QRA–QUZ for all services. Q has no official meaning, but it is sometimes assigned a word with mnemonic value, such as Queen for example in QFE: Queen's field elevation, or Query, Question, reQuest.

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The X in LAX
With the rapid growth in the aviation industry, in 1947, the identifiers expanded to three letters and LA received an extra letter to become LAX. The letter X does not otherwise have any specific meaning in this identifier.

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Saudi Arabia's King Fahr International Airport covered by far the largest land area, more than ten times the size of the third biggest airport in the ranking, Dallas/Fort Worth International in the United States.

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In many cultures, the number 13 is associated with bad luck, which is why many airlines prefer to avoid igniting the superstitions of their customers and have opted to remove the number from there seating plans.

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The name Heathrow is named after the ancient hamlet Heath Row, upon where the airport is now built. The settlement, which was largely an agricultural area, was demolished fully in 1944 to make way for the development of the airfield.

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There might be a main international airport and a smaller, domestic/regional-only airport. London is so big that it actually has six official airports. They are located in very different parts of the city, serve different purposes and largely offer flights to differing destinations.

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ORD – Chicago O'Hare “ORD” is a nod to the airfield's history, which started its life as Orchard Field Airport (OrchaRD) in 1945, at the site where Douglas Corporation had a wartime aircraft assembly plant. That name was short-lived. In 1949 the airport was renamed for Lt. Cmdr.

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