What do 3 letter airport codes mean?

IATA airport codes are often based on the first three letters of the airport's city. For example, ATL is the location identifier for the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and MEX is used for Mexico City. The airport codes can also refer to the city's initials–HKG for Hong Kong or SLC for Salt Lake City.



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The International Air Transport Association's (IATA) Location Identifier is a unique 3-letter code (also commonly known as IATA code) used in aviation and also in logistics to identify an airport.

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ICAO codes have 4 letters because there are so many airports in the world. Usually, the last 3 letters identify the airport domestically, but when searching worldwide you have to use all 4.

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Different kinds of codes have different number of letters. IATA codes for airports have 3 letters, while IATA codes for airlines have two. IATA codes for meals have 4 letters.

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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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the letter ''K'' was simply assigned to the contiguous US by ICAO, in order to have a system with unique identifiers for world-wide use, instead of trying to adapt local system to match. The IATA codes had been in use already and possible duplicates could not be excluded.

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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.

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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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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 airport was originally named Moisant Field after daredevil aviator John Moisant, who died in 1910 in an airplane crash on agricultural land where the airport is now located. Its IATA code MSY was derived from Moisant Stock Yards, as Lakefront Airport retained the code NEW.

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Every airport has its code and EWR is the code of Newark Liberty International Airport. Three-letter codes are assigned by the International Airport Association as each airport's ID. In this case, EWR comprises the three letters from Newark since all codes that start with N are used by the Navy.

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Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) is one of the world's largest airports, ranking second globally in passenger numbers and third in aircraft movements. DFW was built between 1967 and 1973 and became operational on January 13, 1974, with American Airlines' first commercial flight.

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Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport remains the busiest airport in the world with 5.2 million seats in September 2023. The composition of the Global Top 10 Busiest Airports is also the same as last month but there are a few changes to the rankings.

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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 states of Hawaii and Alaska append the letter “P” to indicate that they are in the ICAO pacific region. Anchorage is PANC in the ICAO system and Honolulu is PHNL.

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