Airport and place codes

Whether or not you use a scanner or are more interested in perusing airline schedules or using FlightAware or Planefinder, you will inevitably want to know how places are coded or abbreviated. When I say "places" I am including airports, radio aids (that by necessity have a transmitter location) and as well reporting points that are geographical coordinates without any physical presence.

The ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) assigns or coordinates location codes around the world. This United Nations specialty agency based in Montreal sets the standards within the official side of air transportation and air traffic control. It sets the format and in the case of airports sets the prefixes for various regions and countries. ICAO codes are not something used by the usual member of the travelling public. IATA (International Air Transportation Association), also based in Montreal for ease of liaison with ICAO, is an industry organization made up of the major airlines of the world. This organizations sets the abbreviations or codes used by the general population for airports and airlines. In addition to these organizations, the national governments do provide airport designators in cases where an airport is not considered important enough for international standard coding.

Airports are identified in two main ways, with a third variation as well.

ICAO 4-letter Airport Codes

Region of the World*	First Letter	Example: E = Northern Europe
Country*	Second Letter	Example: P = Poland
Individual Airport	Third and Fourth Letters	Example: WA = Warsaw
Total	All 4 letters	Example: EPWA
*Note that three countries (USA, Canada and Australia) are considered to be regions and therefore the second, third an fourth letters are used to denote the individual airport.

In the official world of air traffic control and administration, airports are identified by ICAO codes of four letters. These codes are the ones that are used on air tracking websites such as FlightAware and planefinder. Many of the small airports in some countries such as the USA and Canada do not have one of these codes.

As a necessary aside, you should know that there are many small airports that do not have one of these international codes. This is certainly true in Canada and the United States in which small airports have alternate official identifications. In Canada these are made up of three letters beginning with the letter C followed by a single digit. In the USA these designations are made up of various combinations of state 2-letter abbreviations plus a number of one or two digits. The letters or the digits can come first. The US system of LID's (local identifications) is somewhat complicated and is beyond the scope of this page. These designators are assigned by the respective federal governments. There should not be any duplication of these within the Canada/United States jurisdictions.

Local examples are CCQ3 Debert, NS and CCW4 Stanley, NS

The ICAO has divided the world into regions, each with its own first letter, and within each region the individual countries or territories have the second letter. For example first letter E is for northern Europe, and within that region, P is for Poland, so that any EPxx four letter code is a Polish one, and the best example is EPWA for Warsaw Frederick Chopin Airport.

In examining the list there will be seen some blending together geographically of the regions such as M and T that do seem to mix together. There is no duplication anywhere in the world. In the region and country list that follows you will note that Canada, the USA and Australia have first letters all to themselves: C, K and Y respectively. This means that while other countries must designate individual airports with the remaining two letters of the four, these three countries have the use of the last three.

You will also note that China, Russia, Brazil and Indonesia have more than one second letter to choose from in a situation that is not quite as good as Canada's but certainly better than countries in general. I am not aware of how these inequities came about. One can only wonder how France and the United Kingdom received the normal restrictive assignment and Canada with fewer people received that single letter to itself, but it is obvious that geographic extent played a role. You might further note that Germany has both ED and ET but in this case the ET is reserved for military airports, and possibly only for those under foreign control such as the well known Ramstein Air Base.

In designating individual airports within countries there does seem to be a predominant trend to relate to the airport or town name. The Polish example above is a good example. Another is MUHG for Holguin, Cuba (MU denotes Cuba). Less obvious are EGLL for London Heathrow and EGKK for London Gatwick. In fact only the American four letter codes are in general very descriptive or relevant, for reasons explained later.

ICAO AIRPORT CODE SYSTEM
REGION	COUNTRY CODE AND COUNTRY		COMMENT
PACIFIC SW	AG	SOLOMON ISLANDS
PACIFIC SW	AN	NAURU
PACIFIC SW	AY	PAPUA NEW GUINEA
N ATLANTIC	BG	GREENLAND	Not an independent country
N ATLANTIC	BI	ICELAND
N ATLANTIC	BK	KOSOVO	Not universally recognized as a country. This code assigned due to European codes having run out.
CANADA	C	CANADA	With rare exceptions only uses CY
AFRICA N	DA	ALGERIA
AFRICA N	DB	BENIN
AFRICA N	DF	BURKINA FASO
AFRICA N	DG	GHANA
AFRICA N	DI	COTE D'IVOIRE
AFRICA N	DN	NIGERIA
AFRICA N	DR	NIGER
AFRICA N	DT	TUNISIA
AFRICA N	DX	TOGO
EUROPE N	EB	BELGIUM
EUROPE N	ED	GERMANY
EUROPE N	EE	ESTONIA
EUROPE N	EF	FINLAND
EUROPE N	EG	UK
EUROPE N	EH	NETHERLANDS
EUROPE N	EI	IRELAND
EUROPE N	EK	DENMARK
EUROPE N	EL	LUXEMBOURG
EUROPE N	EN	NORWAY
EUROPE N	EP	POLAND
EUROPE N	ES	SWEDEN
EUROPE N	ET	GERMANY MILITARY
EUROPE N	EV	LATVIA
EUROPE N	EY	LITHUANIA
AFRICA CS	FA	SOUTH AFRICA
AFRICA CS	FB	BOTSWANA
AFRICA CS	FC	CONGO (br)
AFRICA CS	FD	SWAZILAND
AFRICA CS	FE	CENTRAL AFRICAN REP
AFRICA CS	FG	EQUATORIAL GUINEA
AFRICA CS	FH	ASCENSION	Not an independent country
AFRICA CS	FI	MAURITIUS
AFRICA CS	FJ	BR INDIAN OCEAN TERR	Not an independent country
AFRICA CS	FK	CAMEROON
AFRICA CS	FL	ZAMBIA
AFRICA CS	FM	COMOROS AND MADAGASCAR ETC
AFRICA CS	FN	ANGOLA
AFRICA CS	FO	GABON
AFRICA CS	FP	SAO TOME ET PRINCIPE
AFRICA CS	FQ	MOZAMBIQUE
AFRICA CS	FS	SEYCHELLES
AFRICA CS	FT	CHAD
AFRICA CS	FV	ZIMBABWE
AFRICA CS	FW	MALAWI
AFRICA CS	FX	LESOTHO
AFRICA CS	FY	NAMIBIA
AFRICA CS	FZ	CONGO dr
AFRICA W	GA	MALI
AFRICA W	GB	GAMBIA
AFRICA W	GC	CANARY ISLANDS	Not an independent country
AFRICA W	GE	CEUTA AND MELILLA	Not an independent country
AFRICA W	GF	SIERRA LEONE
AFRICA W	GG	GUINEA-BISSAU
AFRICA W	GL	LIBERIA
AFRICA W	GM	MOROCCO
AFRICA W	GO	SENEGAL
AFRICA W	GQ	MAURITANIA
AFRICA W	GS	WESTERN SAHARA
AFRICA W	GU	GUINEA
AFRICA W	GV	CAPE VERDE
AFRICA E	HA	ETHIOPIA
AFRICA E	HB	BURUNDI
AFRICA E	HC	SOMALIA
AFRICA E	HE	EGYPT
AFRICA E	HF	DJIBOUTI
AFRICA E	HH	ERITREA
AFRICA E	HK	KENYA
AFRICA E	HL	LIBYA
AFRICA E	HR	RWANDA
AFRICA E	HS	SUDAN
AFRICA E	HT	TANZANIA
AFRICA E	HU	UGANDA
USA	K	USA
EUROPE S	LA	ALBANIA
EUROPE S	LB	BULGARIA
EUROPE S	LC	CYPRUS
EUROPE S	LD	CROATIA
EUROPE S	LE	SPAIN
EUROPE S	LF	FRANCE
EUROPE S	LG	GREECE
EUROPE S	LH	HUNGARY
EUROPE S	LI	ITALY
EUROPE S	LJ	SLOVENIA
EUROPE S	LK	CZECH REP
EUROPE S	LL	ISRAEL
EUROPE S	LM	MALTA
EUROPE S	LN	MONACO
EUROPE S	LO	AUSTRIA
EUROPE S	LP	PORTUGAL INC MADEIRA & AZORES
EUROPE S	LQ	BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA
EUROPE S	LR	ROMANIA
EUROPE S	LS	SWITZERLAND
EUROPE S	LT	TURKEY
EUROPE S	LU	MOLDOVA
EUROPE S	LV	PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY	Not universally recognized as a country
EUROPE S	LW	MACEDONIA
EUROPE S	LX	GIBRALTAR	Not an independent country
EUROPE S	LY	SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO
EUROPE S	LZ	SLOVAKIA
CA WI	MB	TURKS AND CAICOS	Not an independent country
CA WI	MD	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
CA WI	MG	GUATEMALA
CA WI	MH	HONDURAS
CA WI	MK	JAMAICA
CA WI	MM	MEXICO
CA WI	MN	NICARAGUA
CA WI	MP	PANAMA
CA WI	MR	COSTA RICA
CA WI	MS	EL SALVADOR
CA WI	MT	HAITI
CA WI	MU	CUBA
CA WI	MW	CAYMAN ISLANDS	Not an independent country
CA WI	MY	BAHAMAS
CA WI	MZ	BELIZE
PACIFIC S	NC	COOK ISLANDS	Not an independent country
PACIFIC S	NF	FIJI AND TONGA
PACIFIC S	NG	KIRIBATI AND TUVALU
PACIFIC S	NI	NIUE	Not an independent country
PACIFIC S	NL	WALLIS AND FUTUNA	Not an independent country
PACIFIC S	NS	AMERICAN SAMOA	Not an independent country
PACIFIC S	NT	FRENCH POLYNESIA	Not an independent country
PACIFIC S	NV	VANUATU
PACIFIC S	NW	NEW CALEDONIA	Not an independent country
PACIFIC S	NZ	NEW ZEALAND
SW ASIA	OA	AFGHANISTAN
SW ASIA	OB	BAHRAIN
SW ASIA	OE	SAUDI ARABIA
SW ASIA	OI	IRAN
SW ASIA	OJ	JORDAN
SW ASIA	OK	KUWAIT
SW ASIA	OL	LEBANON
SW ASIA	OM	UAE
SW ASIA	OO	OMAN
SW ASIA	OP	PAKISTAN
SW ASIA	OR	IRAQ
SW ASIA	OS	SYRIA
SW ASIA	OT	QATAR
SW ASIA	OY	YEMEN
PACIFIC N	PA	ALASKA	Not an independent country
PACIFIC N	PB	BAKER ISLAND	Not an independent country
PACIFIC N	PC	PART OF KIRIBATI CANTON
PACIFIC N	PG	GUAM AND N MARIANAS	Not an independent country
PACIFIC N	PH	HAWAII	Not an independent country
PACIFIC N	PK	MARSHALL ISLANDS
PACIFIC N	PL	LINE ISLANDS (KIRIBATI)
PACIFIC N	PM	MIDWAY	Not an independent country
PACIFIC N	PT	MICRONESIA AND PALAU
PACIFIC N	PW	WAKE ISLAND	Not an independent country
ORIENT	RC	TAIWAN	Not universally recognized as a country
ORIENT	RJ	JAPAN (MOST)
ORIENT	RK	SOUTH KOREA
ORIENT	RO	OKINAWA	Not an independent country
ORIENT	RP	PHILIPPINES
S AMERICA	S*	BRAZIL	Most second letters but not all.
S AMERICA	SA	ARGENTINA
S AMERICA	SC	CHILE
S AMERICA	SE	ECUADOR
S AMERICA	SF	FALKLAND ISLANDS	Not an independent country
S AMERICA	SG	PARAGUAY
S AMERICA	SK	COLOMBIA
S AMERICA	SM	SURINAME
S AMERICA	SO	FRENCH GUIANA	Not an independent country
S AMERICA	SP	PERU
S AMERICA	SU	URUGUAY
S AMERICA	SV	VENEZUELA
S AMERICA	SY	GUYANA
WEST INDIES	TA	ANTIGUA
WEST INDIES	TB	BARBADOS
WEST INDIES	TD	DOMINICA
WEST INDIES	TF	FRENCH WEST INDIES	Not an independent country
WEST INDIES	TG	GRENADA
WEST INDIES	TI	US VIRGIN ISLANDS	Not an independent country
WEST INDIES	TJ	PUERTO RICO	Not an independent country
WEST INDIES	TK	ST KITTS
WEST INDIES	TL	ST LUCIA
WEST INDIES	TN	NETHERLANDS CARIBBEAN	Not an independent country
WEST INDIES	TQ	ANGUILLA	Not an independent country
WEST INDIES	TR	MONTSERRAT	Not an independent country
WEST INDIES	TT	TRINIDAD
WEST INDIES	TU	BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS	Not an independent country
WEST INDIES	TV	ST VINCENT
WEST INDIES	TX	BERMUDA	Not an independent country
RUSSIA ETC	U*	RUSSIA	UU UN UW UL, possibly others
RUSSIA ETC	UA	KAZAKHSTAN AND KYRGYSTAN
RUSSIA ETC	UB	AZERBAIJAN
RUSSIA ETC	UD	ARMENIA
RUSSIA ETC	UG	GEORGIA
RUSSIA ETC	UK	UKRAINE
RUSSIA ETC	UM	BELARUS
RUSSIA ETC	UT	TAJIKISTAN TURKMENISTAN UZBEKISTAN
RUSSIA ETC	UW	UKRAINE
SE ASIA	VA	INDIA WEST ZONE
SE ASIA	VC	SRI LANKA
SE ASIA	VD	CAMBODIA
SE ASIA	VE	INDIA EAST ZONE
SE ASIA	VG	BANGLADESH
SE ASIA	VH	HONG KONG	Not an independent country
SE ASIA	VI	INDIA NORTH ZONE
SE ASIA	VL	LAOS
SE ASIA	VM	MACAU	Not an independent country
SE ASIA	VN	NEPAL
SE ASIA	VO	INDIA SOUTH ZONE
SE ASIA	VQ	BHUTAN
SE ASIA	VR	MALDIVES
SE ASIA	VT	THAILAND
SE ASIA	VV	VIETNAM
SE ASIA	VY	MYANMAR
SE ASIA 2	W	INDONESIA	SEVERAL 2ND CHARACTERS
SE ASIA 2	WB	BRUNEI
SE ASIA 2	WM	MALAYSIA
SE ASIA 2	WS	SINGAPORE
AUSTRALIA	Y	AUSTRALIA
ASIA E	Z*	CHINA	*Most second letters but not all.
ASIA E	ZK	NORTH KOREA
ASIA E	ZM	MONGOLIA

IATA 3-letter Airport Codes

Used for baggage routing and schedules. Arbitrary set of letters but very often are relevant to the location, airport name or history. Any first letter can be from any country except that Canada is notable in that all of its IATA codes commence with a Y or X. and have little or none of the relevance seen in other countries.
Examples:
LHR London Heathrow
MCO Orlando (formerly McCoy AFB)
LGA New York LaGuardia
YUL Montreal Trudeau

In the public world of airline schedules and airline baggage, airports are identified by IATA codes of three letters. Any airport receiving regular commercial air service of some kind must have one of these 3-letter codes. Well known examples are JFK (New York Kennedy), LHR (London Heathrow) and MCO (Orlando). These airport codes have no system of assignment by country. In other words the letters used in these has no relationship to the particular countries, except as is pointed out shortly, so there is no table for regions and countries similar to the ICAO one.

While I am not actually aware of the process involved for assignment, the simple answer is that an airport authority or user can ask for whatever three letter combination is available. In most cases the request would be for something that relates to the airport's name or the town's name but this is not mandatory. For example a new airport at Centreville with a special name, in this case John Smith Memorial Airport, might have an application submitted for such combinations as CVL, CEN, JSC, CJS, JSM or whatever else seems to match. Since there are a tremendous number of three-letter codes already assigned it would today be very fortuitous for a new airport to actually obtain something so close as the above examples. They might have to settle for SMM or XCS, that seem to have little relationship. Throughout the world many of the largest airports have codes that do relate closely to the city or airport name, or to a former name if there has been a change. For example DEN certainly relates perfectly to Denver and LHR relates well to both the city name London and the airport name Heathrow, whereas MCO relates well to McCoy Air Force Base, the former name for Orlando International Airport, and PEK was perfect for Peking, the former name for Beijing, China. There should not be any duplicates of these codes as they are used extensively for baggage routing and appear prominently on tags. There are a number of web pages devoted to worldwide lists of these IATA codes, but due to sheer numbers they are somewhat difficult to go through in their entirety.

Relationship between the systems

In most of the world there really is no relationship between the ICAO and IATA codes. For example, for Heathrow, EGLL (ICAO) bears no resemblance to LHR (IATA).

It is completely different in Canada and the United States. Because these two countries each have an ICAO region code to themselves, they can use three letters to designate individual airports, which conveniently is the same number of letters used by the IATA.

The result is that every Canadian airport that has an ICAO 4 letter code has the same last three letters as the complete IATA 3-letter code. So for example, CYYZ is ICAO code for Toronto Pearson, and YYZ is the IATA code.

Similarly in the USA, KMIA is ICAO for Miami and MIA is IATA for the same airport. It must be pointed out however that there are a few American airports where this is not true. Generally this can be attributed to the US authorities assigning a four letter code first but the corresponding three letter IATA one is already used somewhere else in the world. For example if KCVL was assigned years ago to Centreville and then commercial flights began later, the IATA code cannot be CVL if that had already been assigned by the IATA to Convallee, Nigeria. So in this case Centreville USA will have ICAO KCVL and IATA CTR. (This example was fictional).

WHY DO CANADIAN AIRPORTS HAVE SUCH STRANGE CODES? Big airports in other countries seem to have codes that easily give a clue as to where they are... why don't we have that? We "know" that MIA is Miami and JFK is New York Kennedy and SYD is Sydney, Australia, so why is Toronto YYZ instead of TOR?

The oddity in all of this is that Canada chose many years ago to code practically all airports with codes beginning with CY so that today all principal Canadian airports have ICAO codes of the CYxx variety and therefore IATA codes that are Yxx. Canadian airports have not had the opportunity therefore to have IATA codes that are easy to relate or catchy in any way. YYZ for Canada's biggest airport instead of TOR or TRN or PRS is not a good thing, nor on the local scene is YHZ for Halifax instead of HAL, HFX, etc. but that is what Canada lives with, which is so ironic seeing as this country is one of only a few with the chance for congruence between ICAO and IATA codes.

As alluded to earlier, there are airports that do not have an ICAO code but yet have scheduled airline service and therefore have an IATA code. A good example is Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island. This airport has only a Transport Canada identifier (LID) of CAT4, but because it has regular passenger service there must be an IATA code for baggage handling and timetables so therefore IATA has assigned XQU to this airport.

AIRPORT CODES COMMONLY ENCOUNTERED WHILE MONITORING AIR TRAFFIC OVER AND INTO THE MARITIMES OF CANADA

Common Examples of specific airport codes associated with aircraft flying over the Maritimes or into Halifax Stanfield International Airport. While this list is exhaustive, there are many other airports less commonly associated with such flights. This list has been arranged by ICAO code so that you can easily look up codes you see on Flight Aware. Also indicated are the 3-letter IATA codes that usually have an obvious similarity or connection to the city or airport name (except in Canada where they only rarely have a connection). Some of the airports listed are common for air traffic because they are major cargo hubs rather than important for passengers.

ICAO CODE	AIRPORT	IATA CODE	COUNTRY
BIKF	KEFLAVIK	KEF	ICELAND
CYDF	DEER LAKE, NF	YDF	CANADA
CYEG	EDMONTON, AB	YEG	CANADA
CYFC	FREDERICTON, NB	YFC	CANADA
CYHM	HAMILTON, ON	YHM	CANADA
CYHZ	HALIFAX	YHZ	CANADA
CYOW	OTTAWA	YOW	CANADA
CYUL	MONTREAL	YUL	CANADA
CYQM	MONCTON, NB	YQM	CANADA
CYQX	GANDER, NF	YQX	CANADA
CYQY	SYDNEY, NS	YQY	CANADA
CYSJ	SAINT JOHN, NB	YSJ	CANADA
CYYC	CALGARY, AB	YYC	CANADA
CYYG	CHARLOTTETOWN, PE	YYG	CANADA
CYYR	GOOSE BAY, NF	YYR	CANADA
CYYT	ST. JOHN'S (TORBAY)	YYT	CANADA
CYYZ	TORONTO PEARSON	YYZ	CANADA
EBBR	BRUSSELS	BRU	BELGIUM
EBLG	LIEGE	LGG	BELGIUM
EBOS	OSTEND	OST	BELGIUM
EDDC	DRESDEN	DRS	GERMANY
EDDF	FRANKFURT	FRA	GERMANY
EDDH	HAMBURG	HAM	GERMANY
EDDK	COLOGNE-BONN	CGN	GERMANY
EDDL	DUSSELDORF	DUS	GERMANY
EDDM	MUNICH	MUC	GERMANY
EDDN	NUREMBURG	NUE	GERMANY
EDDP	LEIPZIG	LEJ	GERMANY
EDDT	BERLIN TEIGEL	TXL	GERMANY
EDFH	FRANKFURT-HAHN	HHN	GERMANY
EFHK	HELSINKI	HEL	FINLAND
EGBB	BIRMINGHAM	BHX	UK
EGCC	MANCHESTER	MAN	UK
EGGW	LONDON LUTON	LTN	UK
EGKK	LONDON GATWICK	LGW	UK
EGLL	LONDON HEATHROW	LHR	UK
EGNX	DERBY EAST MIDLANDS	EMA	UK
EGPF	GLASGOW (ABBOTSINCH)	GLA	UK
EGPH	EDINBURGH	EDI	UK
EGSS	LONDON STANSTEAD	STD	UK
EGTE	EXETER	EXT	UK
EHAM	AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL	AMS	NETHERLANDS
EIDW	DUBLIN	DUB	IRELAND
EINN	SHANNON	SNN	IRELAND
EKCH	COPENHAGEN	CPH	DENMARK
EKOD	ODENSE	ODE	DENMARK
ELLX	LUXEMBOURG	LUX	LUXEMBOURG
ENGM	OSLO GARDERMOEN	OSL	NORWAY
EPWA	WARSAW F.CHOPIN (OKECIE)	WAW	POLAND
ESSA	STOCKHOLM ARLANDA	ARN	SWEDEN
ETAR	RAMSTEIN AIR BASE (USAF)	RMS	GERMANY
HAAB	ADDIS ABABA	ADD	ETHIOPIA
HECA	CAIRO	CAI	EGYPT
KATL	ATLANTA	ATL	USA
KBOS	BOSTON	BOS	USA
KBWI	BALTIMORE-WASHINGTON	BWI	USA
KCLT	CHARLOTTE	CLT	USA
KCVG	CINCINNATI (COVINGTON)	CVG	USA
KDCA	WASHINGTON REAGAN NAT.	DCA	USA
KDFW	DALLAS FORT WORTH	DFW	USA
KDTW	DETROIT WAYNE COUNTY	DTW	USA
KEWR	NEWARK	EWR	USA
KIAD	WASHINGTON DULLES	IAD	USA
KIAH	HOUSTON GEO BUSH	IAH	USA
KJFK	NEW YORK KENNEDY	JFK	USA
KLGA	NEW YORK LA GUARDIA	LGA	USA
KMCO	ORLANDO (EX-MCCOY FIELD)	MCO	USA
KMEM	MEMPHIS	MEM	USA
KMIA	MIAMI	MIA	USA
KORD	CHICAGO O'HARE	ORD	USA
KPHL	PHILADELPHIA	PHL	USA
KSDF	LOUISVILLE (STANDIFORD)	SDF	USA
LEBL	BARCELONA	BCL	SPAIN
LEMD	MADRID	MAD	SPAIN
LEMG	MALAGA (Costa del Sol)	AGP	SPAIN
LEVC	VALENCIA	VLC	SPAIN
LFMN	NICE COTE D`ÀZUR	NCE	FRANCE
LFPG	PARIS DE GAULLE/ROISSY	CDG	FRANCE
LFPO	PARIS ORLY	ORY	FRANCE
LFVP	ST PIERRE	FSP	FRANCE
LGAV	ATHENS VENIZELOS	ATH	GREECE
LICA	LAMEZIA TERME (SAN EUFIMIA)	SUF	ITALY
LICJ	PALERMO	PMO	ITALY
LIMC	MILAN MALPENSA	MXP	ITALY
LIPZ	VENICE MARCO POLO	VCE	ITALY
LIRF	ROME LEONARDO DA VINCI	FCO	ITALY
LKPR	PRAGUE RUZNYE	PRG	CZECH REP
LLBG	TEL AVIV BEN GURION	TLV	ISRAEL
LPLA	LAJES, AZORES (TERCEIRA I)	TER	PORTUGAL
LPPR	PORTO (OPORTO)	OPO	PORTUGAL
LPPT	LISBON PORTELA	LIS	PORTUGAL
LSGA	GENEVA	GVA	SWITZERLAND
LSZH	ZURICH	ZRH	SWITZERLAND
LTBA	ISTANBUL ATATURK	IST	TURKEY
LOWW	VIENNA	VIE	AUSTRIA
MDAB	SAMANA ARROYO BARIL	EPS	DOMINICAN REP
MDLR	LA ROMANA	LRM	DOMINICAN REP
MDPC	PUNTA CANA	PUJ	DOMINICAN REP
MDPP	PUERTO PLATA	POP	DOMINICAN REP
MMCZ	COZUMEL	CZM	MEXICO
MMMX	MEXICO CITY BENITO JUAREZ	MEX	MEXICO
MMUN	CANCUN	CUN	MEXICO
MUCA	CAYO COCO JARDINES DEL REY	CCC	CUBA
MUHA	HAVANA JOSE MARTI	HAV	CUBA
MUHG	HOLGUIN FRANK PAIS	HOG	CUBA
MUSC	SANTA CLARA	SNU	CUBA
MUVR	VARADERO J G GOMEZ	VRA	CUBA
OBBI	BAHRAIN (AL MANAMA)	BAH	BAHRAIN
OERK	RIYADH KING KHALID	RUH	SAUDI ARABIA
OJAI	AMMAN QUEEN ALIA	AMM	JORDAN
OKBK	KUWAIT CITY	KWI	KUWAIT
OMDB	DUBAI	DXB	UAE
OTBD	DOHA	DOH	QATAR
SAEZ	BUENOS AIRES EZEIZA	EZE	ARGENTINA
SMJP	PARAMARIBO (J. PENGEL)	PBM	SURINAME
UKBB	KIEV BORYSPIL	KBP	UKRAINE
ULLI	ST PETERSBURG	LED	RUSSIA
UUDD	MOSCOW DOMODEDOVO	DME	RUSSIA
UUEE	MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO	SVO	RUSSIA
VABB	MUMBAI (BOMBAY)	BOM	INDIA

RADIO NAVIGATION AIDS and REPORTING POINTS
CODES AND NAMES

Radio navigation facilities and reporting points are also geographic locations, just as are airports described just above.

RADIO NAVIGATION FACILITIES.

In today's civil aviation system there really are just two kinds of land-based radio aids other than those used for actual landing procedures. These are radio beacons (low and medium frequency) which today are NDB's (non-directional beacons) and VOR's (very high frequency). Having said that, it is also relevant to mention that both types are much less important than in the past, as commercial aircraft have moved on to other methods of navigation to a great extent. NDB's are now of most value to small aircraft or to aircraft in general in isolated areas of northern Canada. There remain many many beacons and VOR's throughout North America and the world in general. Military aircraft can in addition use another system called TACAN, also of declining importance.

But these types of aids are indirectly used by even the most sophisticated of aircraft due to the fact that they are not only actual radio transmitters but rather that they are all defined by location. Therefore an aircraft that is actually navigating by GPS will still require defined places to navigate to along the airways and therefore can use these radio aids that are already there and defined by coordinates. Aircraft will have for example the locations of the Halifax VOR and the radio beacons on the approaches to the Halifax airport already defined in their navigational databases. If a controller clears an aircraft to the Halifax VOR it will likely have the capability of actually using the VOR to home in on, but more likely the pilot will key in the ID for the Halifax VOR (YHZ), and the aircraft will then use its more sophisticated system to head to the coordinates of the Halifax VOR, but not actually using the VOR.

Radio beacons, usually called NDB's (non-directional beacons), are traditionally identified by the letters or letters and numbers transmitted on them by "Morse Code". So for example the beacon on the approaches to runway 05 at Halifax was referred to as the Golf Beacon as it transmitted the letter G. Some beacons, especially those that are isolated from other types of aids might transmit a Yxx three letter ID as is normally assigned to a VOR (see below). For example the NDB at Greenwood is the YZX NDB; however it can also be called the "Greenwood NDB". While there are many that are referred to that way, beacons associated with landing at airports are often named using real words that may or may not have relevance to the nearby towns or features. In the case of the Golf Beacon at Halifax, the new name for it was Split Crow, which is the name of a tavern in the Halifax area. Similarly, the Juliett Beacon on the approach to runway 23 is now called the Bluenose Beacon, named after another tavern in Halifax. For a short time the Bluenose was called the Midtown but that was changed, presumably due to some other beacon in the world having already been assigned that name. On the whole, for the aircraft you will hear overflying the Maritimes or enroute to and from airports will not commonly be using NDB's and the most common mention of them will be for aircraft lining up on the runways for final approach and even then it will usually be for smaller aircraft.

Note also that in some areas of Canada there are NDB's provided and operated privately instead of by Nav Canada. These private NDB's usually transmit a number and letter such as 5Y in Trenton, NS and 8F in Debert. While these are open to use by anyone they have been provided to meet the needs of the local users or perhaps a private entity.

VOR's (VHF Omnirange beacons) and the somewhat similar Localizer beacons operate on frequencies between 108 and 118 MHz. Localizer's are located at airports and are associated with landing systems, whereas VOR's are for longer range navigation, depending on the transmitter power and the location. Basically VOR's allow users to determine direction from the VOR, but commonly are collocated with distance measuring equipment (DME) or a TACAN, so that in many cases the distance and direction are both indicated on a readout in the cockpit. It is beyond the scope of this page to describe more than this.

In terms of identification, VOR's in North America are designated by three letters. Typically these are the same as the three-letter IATA airport codes (Which in Canada and USA = last three letters of the ICAO code) if there is an airport nearby but not necessarily, and in any event, many VOR's are not in the immediate vicinity of any airport and therefore have a three-letter ID that is not used by any airport. For example the Aylmer, Ontario VOR is YQO but there is not any airport at Aylmer and therefore there is no CYQO/YQO airport. Most Canadian VOR's use the normal for Canada Yxx structure, whereas US VOR's, like the airports, use whatever three letters that are desired and otherwise unused.

On the radio, controllers and pilots may refer to VOR's by the location name or by the three letter identification. For example it is extremely common to hear aircraft enroute from Halifax to New York being cleared to Kennebunk which means the Kennebunk VOR, but sometimes the controller will use the designator ENE instead of the name. When being more formal or where there is a language barrier it is most common to use the three letter ID. Other common examples in our area include YQI (Yarmouth), PQI (Presque Ile) and MLT (Millinocket). Note again however that in most cases the aircraft is merely using the defined location of the VOR and not actually using the beacon itself.

There are in fact a few VOR's in Canada that do not have Yxx identifiers, and the reasons for this are unknown to me. Examples in eastern Canada are VLV Beauce, Quebec and VBS Saguenay, Quebec. This might suggest that Canadian VOR's can have Yxx or Vxx identifiers but at the moment this is unclear.

TACAN's operate on 960-1215 MHz and scanner users generally are not able to listen to them. They provide the same kind of service as a VOR and DME but are more accurate and the directional aspect is only available to military aircraft. Civilians can use the DME part of this in locations where there is a joint TACAN and VOR, called a VORTAC such as at Bangor, Maine. TACAN's that operate independently, i.e. not as part of a VORTAC are identified in Canada with a Uxx identification, where the xx is the same as the xx in the CYxx airport code. Often there will be an NDB located nearby and it will have the Yxx identity. You will never hear a civilian aircraft cleared to a TACAN but you will hear on occasion military aircraft so directed, such as "cleared to the Greenwood TACAN" however you will not hear the three letter Uxx ID mentioned.

REPORTING POINTS.

Reporting Points and Intersection Points are abstract notions. They are points in airspace below which there is no radio navigation device. In other words there is nothing there other than any physical feature, if any, that happens to lie on the earth's surface just below. In the case of points over water there definitely will be nothing there to base any identification on. Most likely there will be a reporting point whenever two designated airways meet and in such cases they can be referred to as intersection points. Otherwise they are called reporting points. There are many of these reporting points in the airspace around airports that have instrument landing procedures as every defined turning point must be defined. There are also many of them along the coasts where the land-based air traffic control system meets its oceanic counterparts.

Reporting points are identified by five-letter codes or names. They must be pronounceable as a "word" but the combination does not have to be a real word in any language. For example near Halifax is ODKAS and LEROS. Offshore from Atlantic Canada are JEBBY and SUPRY. In some cases there will be an attempted relationship to the local area or to a theme. Many of the offshore points are variations on fish names such as OYSTR or CODD.

In monitoring local air traffic it will be very very common to hear inbound aircraft approaching an airport to be cleared to a particular reporting point, in order to set them up for landing. Aircraft leaving the airport area will often be directed by the controller to a reporting point that is many kilometres away, perhaps more than 100 km distant. Such is the case when aircraft leaving Halifax are cleared "direct ALEXX" on the US/Canadian border.

When monitoring high flying aircraft heading east over the Atlantic it will be very common to hear clearances to particular ocean entry points, which are the points where they commence their oceanic passages.

If a reporting point or navaid is mentioned on air or on site such as Flightaware, but you do not know where it is, try checking at www.airnav.com . For example I saw that AC1218 from Halifax and heading to Orlando was going by way of HTO. I looked it up and saw that HTO was Hampton, Long Island, NY.