Airport codes are three-letter identifiers assigned by IATA, the International Air Transport Association, so that airlines, travel agents and baggage systems can name every airport unambiguously: LHR for London Heathrow, JFK for New York's Kennedy. Many are obvious abbreviations; others are fossils of old names, old rules and old radio stations.
IATA and ICAO codes
There are two systems. IATA codes, with three letters, are the ones on your ticket and bag tag. ICAO codes, with four letters and set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, are used by pilots and air traffic control, and the first letter or two show the region: Heathrow is EGLL, Kennedy is KJFK, Sydney is YSSY.
Why some codes look nothing like the city
| Code | Airport | Why |
|---|---|---|
| LAX | Los Angeles | Originally LA; an X was added when codes went to three letters |
| ORD | Chicago O'Hare | Orchard Field, the airport's name before it honoured Butch O'Hare |
| MCO | Orlando | McCoy Air Force Base, which the airport used to be |
| MSY | New Orleans | Moisant Stock Yards, after the aviator John Moisant |
| YYZ | Toronto Pearson | Y marks Canadian airports; YZ is usually traced to an old station code for Malton |
| EWR | Newark | N codes are reserved for the US Navy, so Newark takes letters from inside its name |
| BNA | Nashville | Berry Field, Nashville: N was taken |
| PEK / PKX | Beijing | From the old spelling Peking; Daxing, the newer airport, is PKX |
The reserved letters
In the United States, some first letters were set aside early on. Codes starting with K and W were kept for radio stations, N for the Navy, and Q for international telecommunications, which is why few American airports start with those letters, and why so many have creative codes instead.
Canada's Y
Nearly every major Canadian airport code starts with Y: YVR for Vancouver, YUL for Montréal, YYC for Calgary. The usual explanation is that Canada's early radio and weather stations used two-letter codes, and a Y was added to mark stations with an airport. The second and third letters often have nothing to do with the city's name.
Cities with many airports
Big cities often have a metropolitan code covering all their airports, handy for searching flights: LON for London's six, NYC for New York's three, PAR for Paris, TYO for Tokyo. Our nearest airport finder shows how many each city has within reach.
Find any code
The airport code lookup searches over 3,200 airports by city, name or code, with the time zone and local time there now. In Flight, every focus session flies between two of them, starting from the airport nearest you.