What do the airport letters mean?

Most IATA codes are derived from the first three letters of an airport's city, like MIA for Miami International or DEN for Denver International. Other codes reference the name of the airport itself, like MDW for Chicago Midway International or JFK for John F. Kennedy International in New York City.



People Also Ask

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).

MORE DETAILS

As air travel became common, Canadian airports began to use 3 and now 4-letter codes, typically begin with the letter “C”. It is also thought that the reason the letter Y is used for all (or most) Canadian airports, is that the letter “Y” indicated there was a weather reporting station at the airport or close by.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

The airport code is BNA, which stands for Berry Field Nashville in honor of Col. Harry S. Berry, administrator of the original airport project in the 1930s. The Nashville International Airport is located at One Terminal Drive, Nashville, TN 37214 - 8 miles east of downtown Nashville.

MORE DETAILS

Alpha, Bravo, Charli, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, PaPa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu. Pilots pronounce numbers similar to regular English, with a few exceptions: The number three (3) is pronounced “tree.”

MORE DETAILS

The Department for Transport (DfT) is the governing authority for airport security in the United Kingdom, with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) also responsible for certain security regulatory functions.

MORE DETAILS

Previously part of the Department of Transportation, the TSA became part of DHS in March 2003.

MORE DETAILS

The TSA PreCheck® Application Program is only open to U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals and lawful permanent residents. Applicants may be ineligible due to incomplete or false application information, certain violations of federal security regulations, or disqualifying criminal offenses and factors.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS