Where did some airport codes come from?
 

Here's an interesting topic- What is the origination of some 3-letter airport codes that appear to have more to it than just the city name? I know some of these, but not most:

GEG Spokane
MSY New Orleans
IAD Washington-Dulles
MCO Orlando
MCI Kansas City
BNA Nashville
ORD Chicago-O'Hare
EZE Buenos Aires
OGG Kahului
SDF Louisville
BDL Hartford
FCO Rome
GRU Sao Paulo
RSW Ft. Myers
MDT Harrisburg

and who banished all Canadian cities to have codes starting with Y?

MCO - McCoy Field, the old airport name before Disney. Was just a couple of quanset huts at the end of the runway (FedEx uses them now). Now called Orlando International, but the MCO still sticks.

[This message has been edited by PremEx (edited 04-18-99).]

ORD-Orchard Field (previous name for O'Hare)

OGG-Named after some guy with the last name of Hogg although I forget who he was I believe he was a WWII hero.

IAD-International Airport Dulles

GRU = Aeroporto Internacional de Guarulhos

For a list of airport codes, check this url:

http://www.cowtown.net/users/rcr/aaa/ccmain.htm


[This message has been edited by timchen (edited 04-19-99).]

BDL - Bradley International Airport of Hartford

FCO - The airport name of Rome, starting with the word F...... (forgot how to spell it)

I can't speak for some of the other names but Canada's codes came from the two-letter codes of railway cities. Canadian Pacific Railways had codes for all their respective cities which had a railway stop. The Y was added for commonality so as to be distinctly Canadian. (It is not to what some people may think that Canada was the last one in the race and ran out of city codes to use).

Toronto - TO (Toronto, Ontario) : YTO
Montreal - MQ (Montreal, Quebec) : YMQ
Vancouver - VR (VancouveR) : YVR


Only after when each city built more than one airport, did the names dispensed. But that's all I know, I'm afraid!

Hi Celestar ,...

what about Halifax Int'l (YHZ) ... where does the Z come from ???? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif


MMM

ps: by the way EZE = EZEIZA,... the name of Buenos Aires Int'l airport in Argentina

[This message has been edited by MMM (edited 04-19-99).]

[This message has been edited by MMM (edited 04-19-99).]

BNA - Berry field Nashville Airport

Also, not on your list was TYS - Knoxville

This is for Tyson Field.

MCI in K. C. is Mid-Continent International.

SDF in Louisville is Standiford, not sure whether that's the current or a former airport (not sure of the spelling either).

VPS = Ft. Walton Beach, FL. The airport is actually closer to a smaller, neighboring city, Valparaiso, FL.

FCO = Fiumicino (Rome)

I like

SGN = Ho Chi Minh City (ex Saigon)
LED = St. Petersburg (ex Leningrad)
PEK = Beijing (Peking)


Which just goes to show that politics and city names may change but IATA stays the same.

MSY = Moisant Int'l. (I'm not sure about the Y at the end, but it does make sense to me when you say it out loud...)

[This message has been edited by Matt Wald (edited 04-19-99).]

Try also SVO for Moscow, Russia (I believe based on Sheremetyevo, to distinguish it from the other Moscow airports, Vnukovo and Domedovo).

MCO (Orlando) used to be McCoy Air Force Base (formerly Pinecastle AFB, after the nearby little town). It was named after USAF Col. Michael McCoy.

RSW (Ft. Myers) was named after the airport, Greater Southwest Regional. Since there was already a code for SWR, the R was placed in front of SW.



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AlphaSigOU
Causa latet vis est notissima - the cause is hidden, the results are well-known.

KIN- Kingston, Jamaica
MBJ- Montego Bay, Jamaica

These are easy!

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