Only Randy Petersen - 3 -> 4 or 5 letter airport codes

Randy -
Is it possible to put a sticky at the top of every group to get people to add the country code before the 3 letter ICAO code:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Civil_Aviation_Organization_airport_ code

That will allow people to search for airports as right now the search engine on flyertalk is pretty bad in that it doesn't allow 3 letter searches. So right now, you can't search for "JFK." If people use the full designation of "KJFK" then it will allow people to search.

I realize not everyone will do this especially the newbies but if we can convince enough people to do it, it will make flyertalk much better to find relevant material.

Thanks.

... right now the search engine on flyertalk is pretty bad in that it doesn't allow 3 letter searches.
Actually it does allow 3-letter searches now, just did one on JFK. Did come back with 174437 results, which is probably less than useful, but it can be done! Meanwhile BHX is 3007 and MSQ is 58 (which is much more manageable!).

Thanks for the assist bcmatt.

Yes, the search engine has slowly evolved and does now handle three-letter searches and indeed, JFK is a popular term that is used on FlyerTalk.

Wish we knew what the most popular airport code used on FlyerTalk is ... ORD maybe?

ORD 196436
SFO 214964
LHR 226618
LAX 279549

Are there others used more than LAX?

As for least, GBZ has just 7 (8 now).

SYD 84609
HNL 62461
(Less business travel-related *compatriots excluded* destinations, but getting up toward 150k on the search, when combined - FT is not all work, no play traveling. ;))

While we're talking about play...
SIN 98382
LAS 73537

ORD 196436
SFO 214964
LHR 226618
LAX 279549

Are there others used more than LAX?

As for least, GBZ has just 7 (8 now).

Actually it does allow 3-letter searches now, just did one on JFK. Did come back with 174437 results, which is probably less than useful, but it can be done! Meanwhile BHX is 3007 and MSQ is 58 (which is much more manageable!).thanks. I didn't know it changed. Thanks again for flyertalk.

As for least, GBZ has just 7 (8 now).
I would imagine it to be DEA, which has been mentioned exactly once (by me ;)).

I doubt many other FTers have ever been to Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan.

I would imagine it to be DEA, which has been mentioned exactly once (by me ;)).

I doubt many other FTers have ever been to Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan.

DEA has 486 matches ;)

To adress the OP I think the idea is a pretty terrible one.

The codes that tend to be used here are not ICAO ones - rather IATA ones.

To translate from one to the other isn't always as easy as 'adding a country code'. That works in the case of the USA - but that's pretty much the only one. LHR becomes EGLL and that's pretty much the only one I know - and I suspect many FTers are as clueless on ICAO codes as I am.

If you tell me that you're flying from IUE to OVD via JGN, VNO, BOJ and BHE them I'm on familiar territory. Talk in ICAO terms and I'll be lost!

There is a greasemonkey script that will display airport codes if the hovering over the code at Alex Buckley - Home Page (http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~abuckley/).

I find very it useful and it is editable so that you can add new airports.

LHR becomes EGLL and that's pretty much the only one I know....

FRA becomes EDDF.

DEA has 486 matches ;)
Good God! Dera Ghazi Khan?!

How did you find this? How can I see all the posts about it?

To comment on the OP, do you really want people trying to figure out what things like LFPB mean? Part of the reason that the IATA codes are so easy is because they're ubiquitous.

And to quickly identify those pesky IATA codes you have not memorised yet:


Using Firefox you can use a mouse-over airport code identifier
Download Greasemonkey https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748
Install the Airports Script http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/%7Eabuckley/

And to quickly identify those pesky IATA codes you have not memorised yet:


Using Firefox you can use a mouse-over airport code identifier
Download Greasemonkey https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748
Install the Airports Script http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/%7Eabuckley/


FYI - my experience has been that this script will break URLs that have city-codes in them.

As noted and displayed, search does allow for 3 letter searches like JFK and while also noted, the sheer number can be daunting, it should be noted that the number of JFK were board-wide. When actually searching for JFK, it would be assumed that you'd be searching a particular forum such as Hilton Hotels at JFK or JetBlue at JFK and in those instances the numbers are much lower since you are only searching particular forums.

It would be hard for me to consider a move to 4 and 5 letter airport codes when really the rest of the world - and likely new members coming in, would still be using 3-letter codes, the same once they are familiar with when booking on Expedia, AA.com or any number of other booking engines that require city designation for search.

Hope that makes sense ... now, how do we make sure that all members know that the search engine actually does allow 3-letter searches?

Great holidays to all of you. Cheers.

FYI - my experience has been that this script will break URLs that have city-codes in them.

I will look into fixing this. (I am the script's author.) I expect the script is confused by the new flyertalk.com URL structures too.

If anyone wants to PM me new airport codes/names, feel free and I will update the script with them.

Edit: It turns out the new flyertalk.com site structure is no problem, but hyperlinks are not so easy to avoid breaking if they contain airport codes. The script uses XPath to grab the DIV element surrounding each post, then a regular expression to find three-letter uppercase strings therein. We can't improve the regex to exclude text within an href attribute, because regexs cannot be context-sensitive. And we can't modify children of a post's DIV element without an enormous amount of work rewriting the DOM. So we're stuck breaking a very small number of hyperlinks which contain airport codes. Note, it is possible to grab and modify text nodes only, avoiding A elements (hyperlinks) entirely, but then airport names would have to be displayed inline in the text rather than in popup boxes when you hover. So overall, what we have now is as good as it gets.

Alex

To adress the OP I think the idea is a pretty terrible one.

The codes that tend to be used here are not ICAO ones - rather IATA ones.

To translate from one to the other isn't always as easy as 'adding a country code'. That works in the case of the USA - but that's pretty much the only one.

Works for Canadian codes as well - just add C in front of the three-letter IATA code and you get the ICAO code. But as you rightly say it doesn't work for most of the rest of the world.

FYI - my experience has been that this script will break URLs that have city-codes in them.

It does. But then I just disable the script. A bit of a pain but it works.

Works for Canadian codes as well - just add C in front of the three-letter IATA code and you get the ICAO code. But as you rightly say it doesn't work for most of the rest of the world.

If you understand the etymology of the ICAO codes they are actually quite simple to decode.

The first letter designates the region.

K = USA
C = Canada
L = Southern Europe
E = Northern Europe
V = Southern Asia
D = Western Africa
F = Southern Africa
etc....

In most cases (USA and Canada being exceptions), the second letter designates the country.

EG = Northern Europe, Great Britain
ED = Nothern Europe, Germany
EH = Northern Europe, Holland
LF = Southern Europe, France
LE = Southern Europe, Spain
VT = South Asia, Thailand
DN = Western Africa, Nigeria
FA = Southern Africa, South Africa
etc....

The third and fourth letters then designate the actual airport.

EGLL = Northern Europe, Great Britain, London Heathrow
EDDL = Northern Europe, Germany, Dusseldorf
EHAM = Northern Europe, Holland, Amsterdam Schiphol
LFPG = Southern Europe, France, Paris De Gaulle
LEMD = Southern Europe, Spain, Madrid
VTBD = South Asia, Thailand, Bangkok Don Muang
VTBS = South Asia, Thailand, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi
DNMM = Western Africa, Nigeria, Lagos Murtala Muhammad
FACT = Southern Africa, South Africa, Cape Town

Pretty simple once you get the hang of it. :)

As noted and displayed, search does allow for 3 letter searches

thanks. No need to change anything. That's all I was after.

now, how do we make sure that all members know that the search engine actually does allow 3-letter searches? A message on the homepage/beginning of each major list of forums (Miles and Points, etc.) or maybe a note when you click on the 'search' button?

Thanks again.

DEA has 486 matches ;)
Ah yes - but... DEA is also the abbreviation for the Drug Enforcement Administration. And all but two of the matches for DEA pertained to the gov't agency, not the airport in central Pakistan.

I still contend that Dera Ghazi Khan is one of the randomest places on all of FT. :D

For what it's worth...

K is only the ICAO prefix for the lower 48 states.

Alaska uses PA (JNU becomes PAJN, for example)
Hawaii uses PH (OGG becomes PHOG, for example)

Interestingly, ANC already begins with an 'A' and so it becomes PANC. And HNL already begins with an 'H' so it becomes PHNL.

And, why, might you ask do Alaska and Hawaii have separate prefixes....because the prefixes were assigned before they were states.

For a full taxonomy of ICAO identifiers, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Civil_Aviation_Organization_airport_ code.