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IATA airport code
An IATA airport code, also known as an IATA location identifier, IATA station code, or simply a location identifier, is a unique three-letter geocode designating many airports, cities (with one or more airports) and metropolitan areas (cities with more than one airport) 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 the IATA's headquarters in Montreal, Canada. The codes are published semi-annually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory.
IATA also provides codes for airport handling entities, and for certain railway stations.
Alphabetical lists of airports sorted by IATA code are available. A list of railway station codes, shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak, SNCF, and Deutsche Bahn, is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as Amtrak station codes.
Airport codes arose out of the convenience that the practice 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, and the use of two letters allowed only a few hundred combinations; 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.
In the early days of aviation, airport codes frequently adopted (or were required to comply with) the naming conventions previously established by weather stations, railway stations, and other commercial or governmental outposts that communicated by radio or telegraph. The code names for those stations, which usually predated the use of two-way radio and even radiotelephony itself, reflected the need for terse, standardized signaling patterns that could be easily transmitted and correctly received via radiotelegraphy and Morse code.
Canada's unusual codes, which bear little to no similarity with any conventional abbreviation to the city's name (such as YUL in Montréal and YYZ in Toronto), originated from the two-letter codes used to identify weather reporting stations in the 1930s. The letters preceding the two-letter code follow the following format:
Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y",[unreliable source?] although not all "Y" codes are Canadian (for example, YUM for Yuma, Arizona, and YNT for Yantai, China), and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example, ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick). Many Canadian airports have a code that starts with W, X or Z, but none of these are major airports. When the Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code:
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IATA airport code
An IATA airport code, also known as an IATA location identifier, IATA station code, or simply a location identifier, is a unique three-letter geocode designating many airports, cities (with one or more airports) and metropolitan areas (cities with more than one airport) 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 the IATA's headquarters in Montreal, Canada. The codes are published semi-annually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory.
IATA also provides codes for airport handling entities, and for certain railway stations.
Alphabetical lists of airports sorted by IATA code are available. A list of railway station codes, shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak, SNCF, and Deutsche Bahn, is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as Amtrak station codes.
Airport codes arose out of the convenience that the practice 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, and the use of two letters allowed only a few hundred combinations; 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.
In the early days of aviation, airport codes frequently adopted (or were required to comply with) the naming conventions previously established by weather stations, railway stations, and other commercial or governmental outposts that communicated by radio or telegraph. The code names for those stations, which usually predated the use of two-way radio and even radiotelephony itself, reflected the need for terse, standardized signaling patterns that could be easily transmitted and correctly received via radiotelegraphy and Morse code.
Canada's unusual codes, which bear little to no similarity with any conventional abbreviation to the city's name (such as YUL in Montréal and YYZ in Toronto), originated from the two-letter codes used to identify weather reporting stations in the 1930s. The letters preceding the two-letter code follow the following format:
Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y",[unreliable source?] although not all "Y" codes are Canadian (for example, YUM for Yuma, Arizona, and YNT for Yantai, China), and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example, ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick). Many Canadian airports have a code that starts with W, X or Z, but none of these are major airports. When the Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code: