How did the airport three character code come from?
Some people may have noticed the three letter acronym on the ticket. Some people even use the three letter code to refer to some airports, such as JFK in New York and LAX in Los Angeles. After all, every official airport in the world, whether the largest Atlanta Hatsfield Jackson International Airport or the smallest Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport on Saba Island in the Caribbean, has been assigned a three character code. But what do these three character codes mean and how are they allocated?
Two formal agencies are responsible for assigning unique codes to each airport. The codes assigned by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) under the United Nations are generally used by air traffic controllers and airlines to make their flight plans. These codes actually have four letters: the first letter represents the country, and the other three letters represent the specific airport. For example, the four character code of Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport in Florida is KFLL; K stands for the United States, and FLL stands for specific airport code.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) assigns the airport code that we are most familiar with, that is, the three character code we see when we book a flight or on the ticket. Take Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport as an example, its three character code is FLL, and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport's three character code is AMS. The three character code of IATA is sometimes the same as the last three digits of the airport code assigned by ICAO, but this is not always the case.
Coding airports began in the 1930s, and airlines usually chose their own two character code. In the 1940s, there were too many airports, and the system began to shift to the three character code that we are familiar with today. Take Los Angeles International Airport as an example. Its original code was LA, but it became LAX in 1947. When airlines decided that they needed a standardized process to avoid confusion, IATA began to intervene in airport code naming in the 1960s.
Perry Flint, head of corporate communication affairs in IATA Americas, said: "IATA codes are an integral part of the travel industry. They are indispensable for determining the identity of airlines, their destinations and the identification of traffic documents. They are also crucial for the smooth operation of hundreds of electronic applications built around these code preparation systems for passenger and cargo transport purposes."
When determining the three character code, first ensure that it is unique and has not been used by any other entity. The code can be assigned according to the airport name and city name. If these letters have been used by entities, they can also be assigned according to some other meaningful and relevant identifiers. The IATA codes of any two airports are different, but officials said that if the number of airports in the future exceeds the number of three character code combinations that can be allocated, we may need to rethink the airport code naming process (this will not happen in the short term).
Some airport codes are easy to decompose, such as Miami International Airport (MIA) and Athens International Airport (ATH). Some airport codes are hard to decompose. For example, the code MSY of New Orleans Armstrong International Airport is named after John Moisant, the first American pilot to carry passengers across the English Channel. The code of Chicago O'Hare Airport is ORD, which is named after the predecessor of the airport, Orchard Field.
Some airports have interesting three character codes. The code of St. Peter Clearwater International Airport is PIE (meaning pie. The airport marketing team also created a website named fly2pie.com with this funny code to attract tourists.), LOL (Nairobi Derby Field Airport, and the meaning of laughing loudly); OMG (Omega Airport, Namibia); EEK (a small town in Alaska). The code of Perm Airport in Russia is PEE (meaning urination), and the code of Poco De Caldas Airport in Brazil is POO (meaning defecation). The code for Bucksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana is BAD (bad, bad). The code of Sioux Gateway Airport in Iowa is SUX.