Originally Posted by
vibguy
The same reason why it is LAX and not LAS!
Prior to the establishment of three letter airport codes, several airports in the US were referred to by there two letter National Weather Service Code (e.g. LA for Los Angeles, PD for Portland, OR, PH for Phoenix) while other airports were spelled out. IATA simply appended X to the NWS codes where they were widely in use.
Originally Posted by
CPRich
Y = IATA code for Canada, plus "
Vancouve
r".
It's much more logical than other Canadian codes, like YYZ (which seems to have been named after a Rush instrumental
)
Although most airports in Canada have IATA codes which start with Y, not all do; there are several which start with X (e.g. XBR, Brockville Regional Airport) and Z (e.g. ZBR, Bathurst). Additionally, not all IATA codes which start with Y are in Canada - e.g. YNG (Youngstown), YIP (Ypsilanti)