An airport code is a short code used to identify a specific airport. There are two international systems used:
- IATA airport code, a three-letter code which is most commonly known to the public because of its use in reservation, ticketing, and baggage-handling systems
- ICAO airport code, a four-letter code which is most commonly used by air-traffic control systems and for airports that do not have an IATA airport code (generally those without scheduled commercial flights)
In the United States, Federal Aviation Administration Location Identifiers are generally the same as the IATA airport code. Small municipal or private airports that do not have an IATA airport code are given a Location Identifier that usually includes numbers (to avoid conflict with future and existing IATA airport codes).
Famous quotes containing the words airport and/or code:
“Airplanes are invariably scheduled to depart at such times as 7:54, 9:21 or 11:37. This extreme specificity has the effect on the novice of instilling in him the twin beliefs that he will be arriving at 10:08, 1:43 or 4:22, and that he should get to the airport on time. These beliefs are not only erroneous but actually unhealthy.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)
“Motion or change, and identity or rest, are the first and second secrets of nature: Motion and Rest. The whole code of her laws may be written on the thumbnail, or the signet of a ring.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)