Comments on: Airport Codes

Question: Airport Codes

SpecialK — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 00:18:07 -0800

Why is there sometimes an "X" added on the end of a three letter airport code? i.e. LAX

I thought that it might stand for international, but that doesn't make sense, because ORD (Chicago O'Hare) and many other airports are international and don't have X on the end. Anyone know? I live in PDX, and I always get asked why there's an X when I'm travelling and refer to Portland as PDX.

By: shepd

shepd — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 00:21:03 -0800

My best guess is that it is used as a filler letter where a TLA makes no sense.

Besides, a lot of airports have really stupid letters. For example, Pearson Airport in Toronto, Canada has the letters YYZ. It's the zipper airport! :-)

By: filmgeek

filmgeek — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 00:42:52 -0800

how about for Xchange?

By: kindall

kindall — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 01:02:24 -0800

It's what the cryptographers call a null, a meaningless letter (typically X is used but sometimes Q or Z) added to fill out a group of letters in ciphers that require groups of a certain number of letters (such as many transposition ciphers). There's no ciphering going on here, but the principle is the same.

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 01:40:06 -0800

Actually YYZ would be the RUSH airport! In Canada - appropriately.

By: rdr

rdr — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 03:07:20 -0800

There is a meaning to the X according to this. The X was added to existing weather stations when three letter acronyms were airport codes were first assigned.

By: Johnny Assay

Johnny Assay — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 07:08:05 -0800

Slightly off-topic, but why do all Canadian airport codes start with Y? I don't think any other country has all of its airport codes starting with a single letter...

By: carter

carter — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 07:10:43 -0800

Thanks for that link, rdr.

By: thomas j wise

thomas j wise — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 07:46:20 -0800

ORD is for "Orchard," btw. (Original use for O'Hare's original land.)

By: silusGROK

silusGROK — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 07:54:21 -0800

A little fun: Spokane International's is GEG for Geiger Field. Yes. That Geiger... during the Cold War we liked to joke that we were number three on the lists of places to bomb — DC, Norad, Spokane.

By: SteveInMaine

SteveInMaine — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 07:55:18 -0800

By: Succa

Succa — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 10:12:19 -0800

The Ottawa airport is YOW ... yyyyyYOW!!

By: xiffix

xiffix — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 10:37:57 -0800

It's not that we were far down on the list, it's just that at the time, Y wasn't much used in codes worldwide, so Canadian aviation authorities chose it as a basis for creating uniform and distinctive nationwide codes.

Oh, and Toronto was formerly the City of York...hence the middle Y. No ideas on the Z, though.

By: SpecialK

SpecialK — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 12:18:46 -0800

RDR - Awesome answer -- that article told me everything I'd wondered about from listening to the pilot chatter on United flights.

By: oaf

oaf — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 13:16:57 -0800

Another thing I've noticed is stripping of various letters (often just the first) from city names.

ACT—Waco, Texas
AZO—Kalamazoo, Michigan
APF—Naples, Florida
EYW—Key West, Florida
EWR—Newark, New Jersey
ILM—Wilmington, North Carolina
HPN—White Plains, New York
ICT—Wichita, Kansas

By: Lynsey

Lynsey — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 14:30:12 -0800

Thanks, rdr! I grew up in Spokane and never knew Spokane Intl. was once Geiger Field, thus always wondered why our code was GEG.

By: anastasiav

anastasiav — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 15:04:10 -0800

Now can anyone solve the mystery of why Portland (ME) Int'l Jetport = PWM??

By: Happydaz

Happydaz — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 20:40:19 -0800

It's Portland-Westbrook-Municipal. From the history page on PWM's Web site.
rdr, your link is terrific, btw.

By: kokogiak

kokogiak — Sun, 18 Jan 2004 00:25:31 -0800

My fave Airport code - EEK. It's the name of the airport and the town in Eek, Alaska, (aka Eek, AK) the only Airport code that is also name of the town.

By: plemeljr

plemeljr — Mon, 19 Jan 2004 07:36:50 -0800

If anyone is really interested in airports, goto Landings.com - you can look up the physical data on a lot of airports and plot flight info - such as weather, elevation changes, and it will plot a map. Very cool.