Craigo

A number of FTers use the 3 letter airport codes to abbreviate our posts. I recently discovered an interesting aside to these codes in the course of my job (the one in Canberra that pays the mortgage, not the fun one in Thredbo). I deal with TV and radio broadcasting issues and have to use the official call signs issued by the Australian Broadcasting Authority.

The person at DMG Radio Australia who submits radio licence applications must be an aviation buff. The official call signs for the metropolitan Nova FM stations are: Sydney - 2SYD, Melbourne - 3MEL, Brisbane - 4BNE, Adelaide - 5ADL and Perth - 6PER. The regional Hot FM and Star FM stations that DMG established in recent years continue the airport code theme - 4MCY Sunshine Coast, 2CFS Coffs Harbour, 2PQQ Port Macquarie, 2DBO Dubbo, 2OAG Orange, 2GOS Gosford.

serfty

Maybe it's the KISS priciple?

Maybe thinks : Gauranteed no duplicates...

QF WP

With a cousin who just left HOT FM as a DJ after 8 years, I can't believe I hadn't noticed this before. Thanks Craigo.

I'll have to ask him about the other places he worked that you haven't mentioned - they were in regional Qld and NSW, to see if they hold true (not all were DMG).

Craigo

From my understanding, the use of the airport codes applies only to the stations DMG have established themselves in recent years and not the longer standing ones they acquired from previous owners. For example, Hot FM Cairns is 4HOT and Hot FM Townsville is 4RAM, Star FM Wagga Wagga is 2WZD and Star FM Mount Gambier is 5SEF. The only regional stations DMG have established themselves are the ones I mentioned at Coffs Harbour, Dubbo etc.

GoldFlyer

Airport city codes is a favourite guessing game for me and a fellow aviation buff. No point doing it here but the jist is you start out simple and keep going until they get it wrong then it's your turn etc.

I really do need to get a life.

Kiwi Flyer

GoldFlyer maybe its time to do a sequel to Flying to LHR on a Plane?

Brendan

Try Canadian airport codes ! They almost all start with Y (except for a very few with Z). Sometimes the last 2 letters make sense from the city name: YVR = Vancouver, YWG = Winnipeg, but most are the most bizzarre letters as if drawn from a hat:
Toronto Pearson = YYZ
London, Ontario = YXU
Saskatoon = YXE !

clifford

Well, at least there is a little method to the Canadian madness, eg the "Y".

Many US airports don't even have a semblance of method, eg MCO for Orlando (I know, it's McCoy field), ORD for O'hare (it's Orchard Field), MSY for New Orleans, HPN for White Plains, etc, etc.

If you know the name of the airport manager's cat, then you're OK, otherwise, it doesn't seem to make sense.

serfty

Really it's the same for many places.

CDG = Paris? FCO = Rome?

(I know there are good reasons, but you have to know of "Charles De Gaulle" or "Fiumicino")

JDiver

In the US, as many places, airport codes are a bit strange at times too... As clifford states, "ORD" - eons ago was ORcharD Field, CMH is Columbus Municipal Hangar (!); we have a number like that. And there are no airport codes in the US beginning with N (Navy radio identifier) or W or K, west and east (respectively) radio and telly station identifiers. Ergo, EWR for Newark, AZO (Kalamazoo) IAD and DCA for Washington's two. Just like much about us, it keeps non-murrikins guessing.

NM

And don't forget that there are two ways to describe airports. There are the IATA codes that we commonly use here on FT, such as SYD, MEL, BNE, LAX, DFW, ORD, LHR, SIN etc. And there are the ICAO codes that are four letter.

The airlines use the IATA codes when issuing tickets and baggage tags/receipts etc. However, pilots generally use the ICAO codes when refering to airports. The ICAO codes were designed to be much less vague and easier to identify where an airport is.

With the ICAO codes, all australian airports begin with Y. The second letter of Australian ports identifies the major ATC centre for the airport, so any airport under Sydney ATC is YSxx, anything under Perth ATC control is YPxx etc. The last two letters reflect the actual name of the airport.

Most US ports just add a "K" to the start of their IATA code. European ports start with E or L, followed by a country descriptor letter, then two letter name.

Here is a list of some of the common Australian (and some overseas) airport codes:

ABX - YMAY - Albury
ADL - YPAD - Adelaide
AKL - NZAA - Auckland
ASP - YBAS - Alice Springs
AYQ - YAYE - Ayers Rock
BME - YPBR - Broome
BNE - YBBN - Brisbane
CBR - YSCB - Canberra
CDG - LFPG - Paris Charles De Gaulle
CGK - WIII - Jakarta
CNS - YBCS - Cairns
DRW - YPDN - Darwin
EDI - EGPH - Edinburgh
FCO - LIRF - Rome
FRA - EDDF - Frankfurt
HEL - EFHK - Helsinki
HKG - VHHH - Hong Kong
LCY - EGLC - London City
LGW - EGKK - London Gatwick
LHR - EGLL - London Heathrow
LST - YMLT - Launceston
MAN - EGCC - Manchester
NRT - RJAA - Tokyo Narita
OOL - YBGC - Coolangatta
ORY - LIPO - Paris Orly
PER - YPPH - Perth
ROK - YBRK - Rockhampton
YVR - CYVR - Vancouva
YYZ - CYYZ - Toronto

StevePER

Perth is actually YPPH, not YPPR. And I'm just curious, but which ATC does YAYE (Ayer's Rock) fall under?

Steve

NM

Oops ... yes, Perth was a typo - fingers working faster than the grey matter.

Ayres Rock is in fact YAYE. Airports that do not come under the direct ATC authority of one of the major centres use a three letter local descriptor.

Here is a list of Australian airports and their IATA and ICAO codes.

Also just noted I was dislexic on OOL, should be YBGC (Gold Coast).

Bundy Bear

Is there a online list of all the radio stations, locations and frequency. Dick Smith or Tandy ages ago produced a list of all the commercial radio stations in Australia. I found it really useful when travelling around that way you knew which frequency to tune too.

The person looking for the available codes must have thought how lucky they were that someone hadn't thought of it before they did.