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47-593: Buchanan Field Airport ( IATA : CCR , ICAO : KCCR , FAA LID : CCR ) is a medium-sized general and business public airport in Contra Costa County , California , United States, one mile west of the center of Concord and just east of Pacheco in the San Francisco Bay Area . The airport's street address is 181   John Glenn Drive Ste. 100, Concord. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–15 categorized it as

94-616: A reliever airport , and it has an FAA certified airport traffic control tower . In 1942 Contra Costa County, California , purchased land for an airport in Central County for US$ 88,000 . The airport was being developed by the county until the United States Army Air Forces Fourth Air Force expropriated the site. The Army added land and built airport facilities and a training base for pilots , Concord Army Air Base . In 1946

141-484: A 12-year-old girl. Officials determined the crash was the fault of an aircraft maintenance technician who had worked on the plane. On December 21, 2006, at about 11:05 a.m., a 1989 Piper Malibu (PA46), registered as N1AM, crashed while flying the LDA ( localizer type directional aid ) approach into CCR. The aircraft was too low and hit obstructions on the ground. The plane hit the median of Highway 4 , crashing between

188-494: A concern and in 1988 the county BOS instituted a county noise restriction ordinance restricting certain aircraft from operating at Buchanan Field. Beginning in the 1990s the county BOS updated the Buchanan Field Airport Master Plan . Commercial development of adjacent properties such as Sam's Club , Taco Bell , Sports Authority , and Jiffy Lube was allowed in 1992. The county has developed

235-746: A day. SFO Helicopter had left the airport by 1975. In 1978 Stol Air had up to six flights a day to SFO; they ended in 1979. Airline service returned to the airport in mid-1984: for less than a year, WestAir Commuter Airlines , successor to Stol Air, had eight weekday de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters to SFO. WestAir, then independent, left Concord before becoming a United Express airline. Jet service arrived when Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) began nonstop BAe 146-200s to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on May 1, 1986. In 1988, after being acquired by USAir , PSA had four weekday BAe 146s to LAX with one continuing to San Diego. In 1991 USAir replaced

282-641: A fare of $ 4.50 for adults and $ 3.50 for children. In 1965, the airline tried operating a 15-seat Bell SK-5 hovercraft between San Francisco International Airport ( SFO ), Oakland International Airport ( OAK ), and San Francisco. In 1969, it carried 320,000 passengers on more than 100 flights a day. According to the April 27, 1969 SFO Helicopter Airlines timetable, each arriving and departing flight at SFO served not one but two gates: American Airlines gate 45 and TWA gate 53 with staggered arrival and departure times for each flight at each gate being reflected in

329-492: A new airport in Byron in the eastern part of the county. On August 14, 2018, the county BOS passed a resolution declaring the economic importance of these airports by recognizing that they are essential economic engines that aid Contra Costa County to meet the current and future transportation and economic needs of the community. The BOS further directed staff to proactively pursue innovation and sustainable opportunities to enhance

376-567: A new airport is built, replacing the old one, leaving the city's new "major" airport (or the only remaining airport) code to no longer correspond with the city's name. The original airport in Nashville, Tennessee, was built in 1936 as part of the Works Progress Administration and called Berry Field with the designation, BNA. A new facility known as Nashville International Airport was built in 1987 but still uses BNA. This

423-488: Is 5,001 by 150 feet (1,524 by 46 meters), 1R/19L is 2,770 by 75 feet (844 m × 23 m), 14L/32R is 4,602 by 150 feet (1,403 m × 46 m), and 14R/32L is 2,798 by 75 feet (853 m × 23 m). In the year ending April 30, 2022, the airport had 119,598 aircraft operations, an average of 327 per day: 95 percent general aviation , 5 percent air taxi , and less than 1 percent military and less than 1 percent commercial. 340 aircraft were then based at

470-509: Is GSN and its IATA code is SPN, and some coincide with IATA codes of non-U.S. airports. 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

517-617: Is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as the list of 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

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564-523: Is different from the name in English, yet the airport code represents only the English name. Examples include: Due to scarcity of codes, some airports are given codes with letters not found in their names: The use of 'X' as a filler letter is a practice to create three-letter identifiers when more straightforward options were unavailable: Some airports in the United States retained their NWS ( National Weather Service ) codes and simply appended an X at

611-671: 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 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 ,

658-513: Is in conjunction to rules aimed to avoid confusion that seem to apply in the United States, which state that "the first and second letters or second and third letters of an identifier may not be duplicated with less than 200 nautical miles separation." Thus, Washington, D.C. area's three airports all have radically different codes: IAD for Washington–Dulles , DCA for Washington–Reagan (District of Columbia Airport), and BWI for Baltimore (Baltimore–Washington International, formerly BAL). Since HOU

705-543: Is not followed outside the United States: In addition, since three letter codes starting with Q are widely used in radio communication, cities whose name begins with "Q" also had to find alternate codes, as in the case of: IATA codes should not be confused with the FAA identifiers of U.S. airports. Most FAA identifiers agree with the corresponding IATA codes, but some do not, such as Saipan , whose FAA identifier

752-416: Is used for William P. Hobby Airport , the new Houston–Intercontinental became IAH. The code BKK was originally assigned to Bangkok–Don Mueang and was later transferred to Suvarnabhumi Airport , while the former adopted DMK. The code ISK was originally assigned to Gandhinagar Airport (Nashik's old airport) and later on transferred to Ozar Airport (Nashik's current airport). Shanghai–Hongqiao retained

799-571: The Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code : When the Canadian government established airports, it used the existing railway codes for them as well. If the airport had a weather station, authorities added a "Y" to the front of the code, meaning "Yes" to indicate it had a weather station or some other letter to indicate it did not. When international codes were created in cooperation with

846-662: The War Assets Administration (WAA) returned the airport to the county. In 1947 the transfer was formalized and the airport was named for County Supervisor William   J. Buchanan, who served on the county Board of Supervisors (BOS) for more than forty years. The airport continued to be used on occasion by the United States Army to transport troops, especially during the Korean War . In 1972 George Lucas used Buchanan Field Airport for one of

893-536: The BAe 146s to LAX with USAir Express Dash 8s, then Beechcraft 1900Cs ; these ended around the end of 1991. In 1991 American Eagle Airlines ( Wings West Airlines ) had four daily Fairchild Swearingen Metroliners to American Airlines ' hub at San Jose. American later shut down its San Jose hub and American Eagle dropped Concord in 1992. Buchanan Field covers 495 acres (200 hectares) at an elevation of 26 feet (7.9 meters). It has four asphalt and concrete runways: 1L/19R

940-569: The U.S. For example, several airports in Alaska have scheduled commercial service, such as Stebbins and Nanwalek , which use FAA codes instead of ICAO codes. Thus, neither system completely includes all airports with scheduled service. Some airports are identified in colloquial speech by their IATA code. Examples include LAX and JFK . San Francisco and Oakland Helicopter Airlines San Francisco and Oakland Helicopter Airlines (also known as SFO Helicopter Airlines and SFO Helicopter )

987-481: The United States, because "Y" was seldom used in the United States, Canada simply used the weather station codes for its airports, changing the "Y" to a "Z" if it conflicted with an airport code already in use. The result is that most major Canadian airport codes start with "Y" followed by two letters in the city's name (for example, YOW for O tta w a , YWG for W innipe g , YYC for C algar y , or YVR for V ancouve r ), whereas other Canadian airports append

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1034-569: The airline and they disappeared from the Official Airline Guide that year. SFO Helicopter Airlines resumed scheduled passenger service by 1983. According to the July 1, 1983 Pocket OAG , 22 round trip flights were being operated every weekday with Bell 206 helicopters between San Francisco International Airport and Oakland International Airport. This same referenced OAG also lists competition from another helicopter airline on

1081-429: The airline claiming that its helicopters made less noise than neighborhood trucks. In 1962, the U.S. Post Office Department granted San Francisco and Oakland Helicopter Airlines airmail contract number AM-103, allowing it to transport U.S. Mail until 1976. Also in 1962, SFO Helicopter was operating sight seeing aerial tours on weekends and holidays during the summer months from Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco with

1128-440: The airport itself instead of the city it serves, while another code is reserved which refers to the city itself which can be used to search for flights to any of its airports. For instance: Or using a code for the city in one of the major airports and then assigning another code to another airport: When different cities with the same name each have an airport, they need to be assigned different codes. Examples include: Sometimes,

1175-418: The airport's former name, such as Orlando International Airport 's MCO (for Mc C o y Air Force Base), or Chicago's O'Hare International Airport , which is coded ORD for its original name: Or char d Field. In rare cases, the code comes from the airport's unofficial name, such as Kahului Airport 's OGG (for local aviation pioneer Jimmy H ogg ). In large metropolitan areas, airport codes are often named after

1222-461: The airport: 284 single-engine, 30 multi-engine, 17 jet, and 9 helicopter . On the evening of December 23, 1985, a Beechcraft Baron N1494G, executing a missed approach from an instrument approach (IAP) to runway 19R, lost control and crashed into the roof of the Macy's department store at the nearby Sunvalley Shopping Center , killing the pilot and two passengers and seriously injuring 84 people in

1269-423: The cause of the accident, although issues with a recent avionics upgrade were suspected. On January 30, 2024, a Van’s Aircraft RV-6 , a single-engine plane, crashed at around 10:30 a.m. at the intersection of Concord Ave. and Diamond Boulevard, near the southern end of the airport. The pilot, who was the only occupant of the plane, was killed in the crash. IATA airport code The assignment of these codes

1316-502: The code SHA, while the newer Shanghai–Pudong adopted PVG. The opposite was true for Berlin : the airport Berlin–Tegel used the code TXL, while its smaller counterpart Berlin–Schönefeld used SXF; the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has the airport code BER, which is also part of its branding. The airports of Hamburg (HAM) and Hannover (HAJ) are less than 100 nautical miles (190 km) apart and therefore share

1363-577: The crowded mall, spraying them with burning aviation fuel . Four of the victims on the ground later died. The accident brought increased opposition to the airport and caused Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) to delay its flights that had been planned to start in January 1986. Another plane crashed on April 13, 2004, shortly after leaving Buchanan Field. The plane landed on a minivan traveling down nearby Interstate 680 in Pleasant Hill and injured

1410-699: The economic development potential of the airports, as they are capital assets to the county and an integrated transportation asset to the Bay Area region. JSX started commercial airline service on April 19, 2016, with Embraer 135 aircraft. Buchanan Field had commuter airline flights to San Francisco International Airport from 1969 to 1979 on Stol Air Commuter Britten-Norman BN-2 Islanders and Britten-Norman BN-2A Trislanders . In 1969 San Francisco and Oakland Helicopter Airlines (also known as SFO Helicopter) scheduled Sikorsky S-61s nonstop to Oakland International Airport continuing to SFO , up to five flights

1457-934: The end. Examples include: A lot of minor airfields without scheduled passenger traffic have ICAO codes but not IATA codes, since the four letter codes allow more number of codes, and IATA codes are mainly used for passenger services such as tickets, and ICAO codes by pilots. In the US, such airfields use FAA codes instead of ICAO. There are airports with scheduled service for which there are ICAO codes but not IATA codes, such as Nkhotakota Airport/Tangole Airport in Malawi or Chōfu Airport in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several minor airports in Russia (e.g., Omsukchan Airport ) which lack IATA codes and instead use internal Russian codes for booking. Flights to these airports cannot be booked through

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1504-557: The first three letters of the city in which it is located, for instance: The code may also be a combination of the letters in its name, such as: Sometimes the airport code reflects pronunciation, rather than spelling, namely: For many reasons, some airport codes do not fit the normal scheme described above. Some airports, for example, cross several municipalities or regions, and therefore, use codes derived from some of their letters, resulting in: Other airports—particularly those serving cities with multiple airports—have codes derived from

1551-478: The following format: Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y", 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

1598-597: The form of " YYZ ", a song by the rock band Rush , which utilizes the Morse code signal as a musical motif. Some airports have started using their IATA codes as brand names , such as Calgary International Airport (YYC) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Numerous New Zealand airports use codes that contain the letter Z, to distinguish them from similar airport names in other countries. Examples include HLZ for Hamilton , ZQN for Queenstown , and WSZ for Westport . Predominantly, airport codes are named after

1645-475: The highway and Marsh Drive just north of the runway. Three passengers were killed instantly, and another died after surgery. On October 25, 2016, shortly after departing Buchanan Field, a Beechcraft Bonanza registered as N364RM crashed into a hill near Kirker Pass Road in Concord. The two occupants, both pilots, were killed in the crash. No one on the ground was injured. The investigation was unable to determine

1692-487: The international air booking systems or have international luggage transferred there, and thus, they are booked instead through the airline or a domestic booking system. Several heliports in Greenland have 3-letter codes used internally which might be IATA codes for airports in faraway countries. There are several airports with scheduled service that have not been assigned ICAO codes that do have IATA codes, especially in

1739-612: The last exterior scenes in the movie American Graffiti . In the scene, Steven Bolander ( Ron Howard ) says goodbye to friend Curt Henderson ( Richard Dreyfuss ) before Curt leaves for college on the Douglas DC-7C in the background. In 1977 Buchanan Field reached its peak of activity with 357,000 total operations; by that criterion, Buchanan Field was the 16th busiest airport in the nation, ahead of San Francisco International Airport , John F. Kennedy International Airport , and LaGuardia Airport . During this time noise became

1786-612: The name of the airport itself, for instance: This is also true with some cities with a single airport (even if there is more than one airport in the metropolitan area of said city), such as BDL for Hartford, Connecticut 's B ra dl ey International Airport or Baltimore's BWI, for B altimore/ W ashington I nternational Airport ; however, the latter also serves Washington, D.C. , alongside Dulles International Airport (IAD, for I nternational A irport D ulles) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA, for D istrict of C olumbia A irport). The code also sometimes comes from

1833-416: The one they are located in: Other airport codes are of obscure origin, and each has its own peculiarities: In Asia, codes that do not correspond with their city's names include Niigata 's KIJ , Nanchang 's KHN and Pyongyang 's FNJ . EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg , which serves three countries, has three airport codes: BSL, MLH, EAP. Some cities have a name in their respective language which

1880-506: The same first and middle letters, indicating that this rule might be followed only in Germany. Many cities retain historical names in their airport codes, even after having undergone an official name/spelling/transliteration change: Some airport codes are based on previous names associated with a present airport, often with a military heritage. These include: Some airports are named for an administrative division or nearby city, rather than

1927-500: The station code of Malton, Mississauga , where it is located). YUL is used for Montréal–Trudeau (UL was the ID code for the beacon in the city of Kirkland , now the location of Montréal–Trudeau). While these codes make it difficult for the public to associate them with a particular Canadian city, some codes have become popular in usage despite their cryptic nature, particularly at the largest airports. Toronto's code has entered pop culture in

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1974-744: The timetable. In May 1968, after continuous growth, the company's schedule reached 14 weekday departures from the San Francisco Ferry Building , 11 from Marin , 13 from Berkeley , three from a parking garage in Oakland (known as AlcoPark), and 9 from Lafayette . For interline passengers connecting at SFO and then heading east beyond Colorado, the ticket to SFO cost $ 4.75 from Marin or Lafayette and only $ 4.50 from Berkeley. The San Francisco and Oakland Helicopter Airlines' fleet as of 1965 consisted of one Sikorsky S-62 helicopter and three Sikorsky S-61N helicopters. The airline

2021-515: The two-letter code of the radio beacons that were the closest to the actual airport, such as YQX in Gander or YXS in Prince George . Four of the ten provincial capital airports in Canada have ended up with codes beginning with YY, including: Canada's largest airport is YYZ for Toronto Pearson (as YTZ was already allocated to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport , the airport was given

2068-529: 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. Since the U.S. Navy reserved "N" codes, and to prevent confusion with Federal Communications Commission broadcast call signs , which begin with "W" or "K", the airports of certain U.S. cities whose name begins with one of these letters had to adopt "irregular" airport codes: This practice

2115-407: Was a helicopter airline service offering scheduled passenger flights between San Francisco , Oakland , and other Bay Area cities. It was founded in 1961 but disappeared from the Official Airline Guide 15 years later before finally going out of business in 1986. San Francisco and Oakland Helicopter Airlines was one of the first helicopter airlines to operate without a federal subsidy and it

2162-476: Was also the first to operate with only turbine engine helicopters. Since helicopter landing sites were scarce at that time, the port of Oakland's board committee supported the service. Passenger flights started with two leased 10-passenger Sikorsky S-62 turbine helicopters. In late summer of 1961, the SFO Helicopter Airlines system timetable stated that 68 flights a day were operated, with

2209-698: Was declared bankrupt in July 1970 and by the end of the year, destinations had been reduced to Marin, Berkeley, SFO, and OAK. In 1973-1974, Emeryville replaced Berkeley as one of their reduced destinations. According to the October 26, 1975 SFO Helicopter Airlines timetable, 53 flights were being operated on a daily basis with an additional 26 flights being operated every day except on Saturdays with service being flown from San Francisco International Airport, Oakland International Airport, Marin County and Emeryville. A mechanics strike in 1976 exacerbated difficulties for

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