ICAO airport code

The ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-letter code designating aerodromes around the world. These codes, as defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization and published quarterly in ICAO Document 7910: Location Indicators, are used by air traffic control and airline operations such as flight planning. ICAO codes are also used to identify other aviation facilities such as weather stations, international flight service stations or area control centers, whether or not they are located at airports. Flight information regions are also identified by a unique ICAO-code.

Flag of the ICAO

History

The International Civil Aviation Organization was formed in 1947 under the auspices of the United Nations, and it established flight information regions (FIRs) for controlling air traffic and making airport identification simple and clear.

ICAO codes versus IATA codes

ICAO codes are separate and different from IATA codes, which have three letters and are generally used for airline timetables, reservations, and baggage tags. For example, the IATA code for London's Heathrow Airport is LHR and its ICAO code is EGLL. IATA codes are commonly seen by passengers and the general public on flight-tracking services such as FlightAware.

In general IATA codes are usually derived from the name of the airport or the city it serves, while ICAO codes are distributed by region and country. Far more aerodromes (in the broad sense) have ICAO codes than IATA codes, which are sometimes assigned to railway stations as well. The selection of ICAO codes is partly delegated to authorities in each country, while IATA codes which have no geographic structure must be decided centrally by IATA.

Structure

Map of world regions classified according to the first letter of the ICAO airport code
Map of countries classified according to the ICAO airport code prefix. Any correspondence between subnational regions and second letter is also indicated.

Typically, the first one or two letters of the ICAO code indicate the country and the remaining letters identify the airport, as indicated by the adjoining figures. ICAO codes provide geographical context. For example, if one knows that the ICAO code for Heathrow is EGLL, then one can deduce that the airport EGGP is somewhere in the UK (it is Liverpool John Lennon Airport). On the other hand, knowing that the IATA code for Heathrow is LHR does not enable one to deduce the location of the airport LHV with any greater certainty (it is William T. Piper Memorial Airport in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania in the United States).

There are a few exceptions to the regional structure of the ICAO code made for political or administrative reasons. For example, the RAF Mount Pleasant air base in the Falkland Islands is assigned the ICAO code EGYP as though it were in the United Kingdom, but nearby civilian Port Stanley Airport is assigned SFAL, consistent with South America. Similarly Saint Pierre and Miquelon is controlled by France, and airports there are assigned LFxx as though they were in Europe. Kosovo is assigned the code BKxx grouping it with Greenland and Iceland rather than its geographical neighbors which have Lxxx (described below). Jerusalem International Airport was assigned both LLJR (its Israeli persona) as well as OJJR (its Jordanian persona), but the airport itself fell into disuse.

In the contiguous United States and Canada, many airports have ICAO codes that are simply copies of their three-letter IATA codes, with the geographical prefix added on (e.g., YEG and CYEG both refer to Edmonton International Airport, while IAD and KIAD both refer to Washington Dulles International Airport). This similarity does not extend to Alaska (PAxx), Hawaii (PHxx), or US territories. As an example, Kahului Airport on Maui has an IATA code of OGG and an ICAO code of PHOG.

ICAO airport codes do not begin with I or J or X or Q, though the Jezero Crater on Mars is assigned the special ICAO code JZRO.[1] Codes beginning with I (Ixx and Ixxx) are often used for navigational aids such as radio beacons, while Q is reserved for international radiocommunications and non-geographical special uses (see Q code). In Russia and the CIS, Latin letter X (or its Morse/Baudot Cyrillic equivalent Ь) is used to designate government, military and experimental aviation airfields in internal airfield codes similar in structure and purpose to ICAO codes but not used internationally.[2] ZZZZ is a pseudo-code, used in flight plans for aerodromes with no ICAO code assigned.

Sometimes an airport's ICAO code is updated. For example, Johannesburg Airport was formerly known as Jan Smuts International Airport, with code FAJS. It was renamed O. R. Tambo International Airport, and the code was updated to FAOR.

Some airports have two ICAO codes, when an airport is shared by civilian and military users. For example, Frankfurt Airport has ICAO code EDDF, while Rhein-Main Air Base had code EDAF until its closure. Sion Airport in Switzerland has code LSGS, while its military facilities have code LSMS. Brussels Airport has code EBBR for its civilian facilities, while Melsbroek Air Base has code EBMB, but the two airports share runways and ground and air control facilities.

Pseudo ICAO-codes

In small countries like Belgium or the Netherlands, almost all aerodromes have an ICAO code. For larger countries like the UK or Germany this is not feasible, given the limited number of letter codes. Some countries have addressed this issue by introducing a scheme of sub-ICAO aerodrome codes; France, for example, assigns pseudo-ICAO codes in the style LFddnn, where dd indicates the department while nn is a sequential counter. In the case of France, an amateur organisation, the FFPLUM (Fédération Française des Planeurs Ultra Légers, the "French Federation of Ultralight Motorized Gliders"), was formally named the keeper of these codes. For example, the Aerodrome de Torreilles has code LF6651.[3] In Antarctica many aerodromes have pseudo ICAO-codes with AT and two digits, while others have proper codes from base owner countries such as NZ for New Zealand.

Prefixes

Prefix codeCountry
A – Western South Pacific
AGSolomon Islands
ANNauru
AYPapua New Guinea
B – Greenland, Iceland, and Kosovo (European Alternate)
BGGreenland
BIIceland
BKKosovo
C – Canada
CCanada
D – Eastern parts of West Africa and Maghreb
DAAlgeria
DBBenin
DFBurkina Faso
DGGhana
DICôte d'Ivoire
DNNigeria
DRNiger
DTTunisia
DXTogo
E – Northern Europe
EBBelgium
EDGermany (civil)
EEEstonia
EFFinland
EGUnited Kingdom (and Crown Dependencies)
EHNetherlands
EIIreland
EKDenmark and the Faroe Islands
ELLuxembourg
ENNorway
EPPoland
ESSweden
ETGermany (military)
EVLatvia
EYLithuania
F – Most of Central Africa, Southern Africa, and the Indian Ocean
FASouth Africa
FBBotswana
FCRepublic of the Congo
FDEswatini
FECentral African Republic
FGEquatorial Guinea
FHSaint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
FIMauritius
FJBritish Indian Ocean Territory
FKCameroon
FLZambia
FMComoros, France (Mayotte and Réunion), and Madagascar
FNAngola
FOGabon
FPSão Tomé and Príncipe
FQMozambique
FSSeychelles
FTChad
FVZimbabwe
FWMalawi
FXLesotho
FYNamibia
FZDemocratic Republic of the Congo
G – Western parts of West Africa and Maghreb
GAMali
GBThe Gambia
GCSpain (Canary Islands)
GESpain (Ceuta and Melilla)
GFSierra Leone
GGGuinea-Bissau
GLLiberia
GMMorocco
GOSenegal
GQMauritania
GSWestern Sahara
GUGuinea
GVCape Verde
H – East Africa and Northeast Africa
HAEthiopia
HBBurundi
HCSomalia (including Somaliland)
HDDjibouti
HEEgypt
HHEritrea
HJ South Sudan
HKKenya
HLLibya
HRRwanda
HSSudan
HTTanzania
HUUganda
K – Contiguous United States
KContiguous United States
L – Southern Europe, Israel, Palestine and Turkey
LAAlbania
LBBulgaria
LCCyprus
LDCroatia
LESpain (mainland section and Balearic Islands)
LFFrance (Metropolitan France; including Saint-Pierre and Miquelon)
LGGreece
LHHungary
LIItaly (and San Marino)
LJSlovenia
LKCzech Republic
LLIsrael
LMMalta
LNMonaco
LOAustria
LPPortugal (including the Azores and Madeira)
LQBosnia and Herzegovina
LRRomania
LSSwitzerland and Liechtenstein
LTTurkey
LUMoldova
LVPalestine/Palestinian territories
LWNorth Macedonia
LXGibraltar
LYSerbia and Montenegro
LZSlovakia
M – Central America, Mexico and northern/western parts of the Caribbean
MBTurks and Caicos Islands
MDDominican Republic
MGGuatemala
MHHonduras
MKJamaica
MMMexico
MNNicaragua
MPPanama
MRCosta Rica
MSEl Salvador
MTHaiti
MUCuba
MWCayman Islands
MYBahamas
MZBelize
N – Most of the South Pacific and New Zealand
NCCook Islands
NFFiji, Tonga
NGKiribati (Gilbert Islands), Tuvalu
NINiue
NLFrance (Wallis and Futuna)
NSSamoa, United States (American Samoa)
NTFrance (French Polynesia)
NVVanuatu
NWFrance (New Caledonia)
NZNew Zealand, parts of Antarctica
O – Southwest Asia, including Gulf States, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan
OAAfghanistan
OBBahrain
OESaudi Arabia
OIIran
OJJordan and the West Bank
OKKuwait
OLLebanon
OMUnited Arab Emirates
OOOman
OPPakistan
ORIraq
OSSyria
OTQatar
OYYemen
P – most of the North Pacific, and Kiribati
PAUS (Alaska) (also PF, PO and PP)
PBUS (Baker Island)
PCKiribati (Canton Airfield, Phoenix Islands)
PFUS (Alaska) (also PA, PO and PP)
PGUS (Guam, Northern Mariana Islands)
PHUS (Hawaii)
PJUS (Johnston Atoll)
PKMarshall Islands
PLKiribati (Line Islands)
PMUS (Midway Island)
POUS (Alaska) (also PA, PF and PP)
PPUS (Alaska) (also PA, PF and PO)
PTFederated States of Micronesia, Palau
PWUS (Wake Island)
R – Japan, S. Korea, Philippines
RCRepublic of China (Taiwan)
RJJapan (Mainland)
RKSouth Korea (Republic of Korea)
ROJapan (Okinawa)
RPPhilippines
S – South America
SAArgentina (including parts of Antarctica)
SBBrazil (also SD, SI, SJ, SN, SS and SW)
SCChile (including Easter Island and parts of Antarctica) (also SH)
SDBrazil (also SB, SI, SJ, SN, SS and SW)
SEEcuador
SFFalkland Islands
SGParaguay
SHChile (also SC)
SIBrazil (also SB, SD, SJ, SN, SS and SW)
SJBrazil (also SB, SD, SI, SN, SS and SW)
SKColombia
SLBolivia
SMSuriname
SNBrazil (also SB, SD, SI, SJ, SS and SW)
SOFrance (French Guiana)
SPPeru
SSBrazil (also SB, SD, SI, SJ, SN and SW)
SUUruguay
SVVenezuela
SWBrazil (also SB, SD, SI, SJ, SN and SS)
SYGuyana
T – Eastern and southern parts of the Caribbean
TAAntigua and Barbuda
TBBarbados
TDDominica
TFFrance (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin)
TGGrenada
TIUS (U.S. Virgin Islands)
TJUS (Puerto Rico)
TKSaint Kitts and Nevis
TLSaint Lucia
TNCaribbean Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten
TQAnguilla
TRMontserrat
TTTrinidad and Tobago
TUBritish Virgin Islands
TVSaint Vincent and the Grenadines
TXBermuda
U – Most former Soviet countries
URussia (except as below)
UAKazakhstan
UBAzerbaijan
UCKyrgyzstan
UDArmenia
UGGeorgia
UKUkraine
UMBelarus and Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast)
UTTajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
V – Many South Asian countries,
mainland Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Macau
VAIndia (West India)
VCSri Lanka
VDCambodia
VEIndia (East India)
VGBangladesh
VHHong Kong
VIIndia (North India)
VLLaos
VMMacau
VNNepal
VOIndia (South India)
VQBhutan
VRMaldives
VTThailand
VVVietnam
VYMyanmar
W – Most of Maritime Southeast Asia
WAIndonesia (also WI, WQ and WR)
WBBrunei, Malaysia (East Malaysia)
WIIndonesia (also WA, WQ and WR)
WMMalaysia (Peninsular Malaysia)
WPTimor-Leste
WQIndonesia (also WA, WI and WR)
WRIndonesia (also WA, WI and WQ)
WSSingapore
Y – Australia
YAustralia (including Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Australian Antarctic Territory)
Z – China, North Korea and Mongolia
ZMainland China (except ZK and ZM)
ZKNorth Korea
ZMMongolia

See also

References

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