Question about airport codes?

Question

I understand how we come up with the 3 letter codes for airports in the US.....for example:

I work at Orlando International Airport which is MCO....because this field used to belong to McCoy Air Force Base years ago.....and ORL was already taken at the executive airfield here.

But what about Canada? How did Pearson airport in Toronto come up with YYZ?

Thanks,

Primo

Answer 1

oh geez, now you're making me think. we actually learned this in travel school - but that was over 10 yrs ago! lol. i'll try to find out........

here's a good answer: The Y for Canada dates back to the first days of radio-telegraphy and some anal individual who thought that the ICAO designators and the IATA designators should have some co-relationship.

For all of the Canadian designators the four letter ICAO mnemonic starts with C. Makes sense and in the USA they all start with W or K (the same as radio and TV stations, see the link??)

Now the IATA designator is only 3 letters all starting with Y and try as they might the selection of the last two letters has some bearing on the local city.

Thus:
CYEG is ICAO for Edmonton
YEG is IATA
EG is airline shortform for the airport
EA is the city code that covers all of the airports.
They could not use ED for the international airport as it was already in use for the military airport.

In the states:
KLAX ICAO for Los Angeles
LAX is IATA
The origin of this designator is LA for Los Angeles and the X designator was added a long time ago to show that it started as a weather station.

Elsewhere in the world the ICAO and IATA designators have no relationship and can be verrrry confusing.
FRA is EDDF
LHR is EGLL
LGW is EGL???? (see I can't remember)

An airport or a country cannot come up with their own codes, they all must be co-ordinated with IATA and ICAO.

edit: so are you thinking about coming up for a visit? i have snow!

**playfully throws a big snowball at you**

Answer 2

Most Canadian airport codes are three letters and start with Y with the remaining letters (sometimes) related to the destination. All four letter designations start with C.

Like CYVR (VancouVeR), CYLW (KeLoWna), CYYC (CalgarY) etc. Some make no sense though like CYXX for Abbotsford, CYYJ for Victoria, etc. This is probably because of the limited combinations of two letters.

Also some minor and not so minor airports in Canada use Z as the starting letter (like CZBB for Boundary Bay, one of the busiest general aviation airports in Canada, and CZAM for Salmon Arm and CZNL for Nelson).

Minor airports use all kinds of alpha-numeric designators (like CAK3 for Delta Airpark)

Answer 3

what is address for ORL airport

Answer 4

Finally, an interesting question and ms. rieganju... has given an informative answer already.

Answer 5

Now this is an interesting question...

Answer 6

Pffft, who cares, nobody flys to *Canada* anyways.




J/k - plan to visit in a month or two, but will probably drive.