An IATA airport code , also known as an IATA location identifier , IATA station code , or simply a location identifier , is a three-letter geocode designating many airports and metropolitan areas around the world, defined by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The characters prominently displayed on baggage tags attached at airport check-in desks are an example of a way these codes are used.
43-519: Rock Sound International Airport ( IATA : RSD , ICAO : MYER ) is an airport in the South Eleuthera district of The Bahamas . Its name comes from the former district of Rock Sound . Historically, Rock Sound was served by Pan Am beginning the mid-1960s with Boeing 707 and Boeing 727 jetliner service to Miami and New York JFK Airport via an intermediate stop in Nassau. The airport
86-532: A different set of patterns for its own call signs. Call signs are allocated to ham radio stations in Barbados , Canada , Mexico and the United States . Many countries have specific conventions for classifying call signs by transmitter characteristics and location. The call sign format for radio and television call signs follows a number of conventions. All call signs begin with a prefix assigned by
129-567: 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
172-516: A suffix according to the band in which they broadcast, these suffixes are: "-AM", "-OC" (shortwave or Onda Corta ), "-FM" and "-TDT" (Terrestrial Digital Television). The "-OL" ( longwave or Onda Larga ) and "-TV" suffixes are currently phased out as those bands are no longer used. Some FM and television stations have call signs beginning with "XE", usually reserved for AM radio stations. Most of these "XE" cases in FM and television stations were solicited by
215-535: A tourist stop for anyone vacationing in the Bahamas, despite the small size of the town of Rock Sound itself. Lauda Air Italy also flew weekly charters to Milan for a brief period in 2001. This article about a Caribbean airport is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a Bahamian building or structure related topic is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . IATA airport code The assignment of these codes
258-509: 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
301-499: Is also XEZ-TV. Digital subchannels are not assigned a distinctive call sign; they keep the call sign of the station. The technical guidelines for digital television stations stipulate the use of PSIP short names matching the parent station (e.g. XHTDMX 2, XHTDMX3). Amateur radio stations in Mexico use "XE1" for the central region, "XE2" for the northern region, and "XE3" for the southern region. "XF" prefixes indicate islands. "XF4"
344-582: Is as follows: Cuba uses the prefixes CL – CM , CO , and T4 , with district numbers from 0 to 9 for amateur operations. The Dominican Republic uses the prefixes HI – HJ . All of the French possessions share the prefix F . Further divisions that are used by amateur stations are: Haiti has been assigned the call sign prefixes HH and 4V . The Kingdom of the Netherlands use the PA – PI prefixes, while
387-617: 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
430-523: 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
473-671: 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 ,
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#1732791372157516-513: 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
559-543: 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
602-841: Is one of the very few in The Bahamas to have received such mainline jet service. In addition, in 1979, Air Florida was serving the airport with Boeing 737 jetliners with nonstop flights to and from Miami.As of February 1st, 1979, Air Florida also offered connecting flight services from Rock Sound via Miami to: Jacksonville, Key West and Marathon, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, Pensacola, Philadelphia Tallahassee, Tampa, Washington (Dulles), and West Palm Beach. During that same period, connecting flights were offered to Rock Sound via Miami from: Gainesville, Jacksonville, Key West, Marathon, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, Pensacola, Philadelphia (refer to reference #3) , Tallahassee, Tampa (refer to reference #4) , Washington (Dulles), West Palm Beach. According to
645-416: 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
688-559: Is usually used for the Revillagigedo Islands and nearby islets. Special call signs for contests or celebrations are occasionally issued, often in the 4A and 6D series, although these will follow the usual district numbering system (4A3 for the south, etc.). The earliest identification, used in the 1910s and into the early 1920s, was arbitrary. The U.S. government began requiring stations to use three-letter call signs around 1912, but they could be chosen at random. This system
731-571: 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
774-637: The International Telecommunication Union (ITU). For example, the United States has been assigned the following prefixes: AAA – ALZ , K , N , W . For a complete list, see international call sign allocations . Pertaining to their status as former or current colonies, all of the British West Indies islands shared the VS , ZB – ZJ , and ZN – ZO prefixes. The current, largely post-independence, allocation list
817-585: The Netherlands Antilles use the PJ prefix. Aruba has been assigned P4 by the ITU . The island nation of Trinidad and Tobago use the 9Y – 9Z prefixes. Canadian broadcast stations are assigned a three-, four-, or five-letter base call sign (not including the "-FM", "-TV" or "-DT" suffix) beginning with CB , CF , CH , CI , CJ , CK , VF , or VO . The "CB" series calls are assigned to Chile by
860-673: The Official Airline Guide (OAG), in 1978 Air Florida was operating direct, one stop no change of plane Douglas DC-9 jet flights into Rock Sound from both Miami and Ft. Lauderdale with both services making an intermediate stop in Nassau. This same 1978 OAG also lists British Aircraft Corporation BAC One-Eleven jet service operated by Bahamasair direct from Miami via a stop in Governor's Harbour, Bahamas as well as nonstop BAC One-Eleven service from Nassau. This wide availability, presumably, solidified Rock Sound early on as
903-455: The digital switchover . Television stations are required to identify every 30 minutes; there has been no equivalent requirement in radio since 2014. Television rebroadcasters are assigned the call signs of the station they are licensed to retransmit; for instance, XEZ-TDT , located on Cerro El Zamorano in Querétaro , has a repeater on Cerro Culiacán serving Celaya , Guanajuato , which
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#1732791372157946-600: The ITU, but Canada makes de facto use of this series anyway for stations belonging to, but not exclusively broadcasting programs from, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Several other prefixes, including CG , CY - CZ , VA - VE , VG , and the XJ - XO range, are available, but are not used in broadcasting. Conventional radio and television stations almost exclusively use "C" call signs; with
989-730: 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 . Call signs in North America Call signs are frequently still used by North American broadcast stations , in addition to amateur radio and other international radio stations that continue to identify by call signs worldwide. Each country has
1032-486: The United States begin with either K or W , with "K" usually west of the Mississippi River and "W" usually east of it. Initial letters AA through AL , as well as N , are internationally allocated to the United States but are not used for broadcast stations. In the United States, broadcast stations have call signs of three to seven characters in length, including suffixes for certain types of service, but
1075-481: 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
1118-440: 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,
1161-418: 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
1204-502: 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
1247-465: The concessionaires themselves so the stations would have the same call sign as an existing AM station (as it is the case of XEW-AM , XEW-TV and XEW-FM , all founded and owned by the Azcárraga family ), while others are for disambiguation (like XHTV-TV and XETV-TV or XEIMT-TV and XHIMT-TV ). All TV stations originally assigned with the "-TV" suffix, had been given the "-TDT" suffix as they made
1290-934: 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
1333-500: The exception of a few commercial radio stations in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador which existed prior to the admission of Newfoundland as a province in 1949, the "V" calls are restricted to specialized uses such as amateur radio . Mexican broadcast stations are assigned call signs beginning with "XE" (for mediumwave and shortwave stations) or "XH" (for FM radio and television stations ), followed by one and up to five letters and
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1376-557: 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
1419-478: 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
1462-597: 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
1505-487: 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
1548-450: The minimum length for new stations is four characters, and seven-character call signs result only from rare combinations of suffixes. The rules governing call signs for stations in the United States are set out in the FCC rules, 47 C.F.R. chapter I. Specific rules for each particular service are set out in the part of the rules dealing with that service. A general overview of call sign formats
1591-612: 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
1634-416: 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
1677-506: 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
1720-500: 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
1763-515: 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
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1806-529: 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
1849-797: Was replaced by the basic form of the current system in the early 1920s. Examples of pre-1920 stations include 8XK in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , which became KDKA in November 1920, and Charles Herrold 's series of identifiers from 1909 in San Jose, California : first "This is the Herrold Station" or "San Jose calling", then the call signs FN, SJN, 6XF, and 6XE, then, with the advent of modern call signs, KQW in December 1921, and eventually KCBS from 1949 onward. All broadcast call signs in
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