ICAO airport code

From WikiAir

International Civil Aviation Organization

The ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-letter alphanumeric code designating each airport around the world. These codes are defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization, and published in ICAO Document 7910: Location Indicators.

The ICAO codes are used by air traffic control and airline operations such as flight planning. They are not the same as the IATA codes encountered by the general public, which are used for airline timetables, reservations, and baggage handling. ICAO codes are also used to identify other locations such as weather stations, International Flight Service Stations or Area Control Centers, whether or not they are located at airports.

Unlike the IATA codes, the ICAO codes have a regional structure, are not duplicated and are comprehensive. In general, the first letter is allocated by continent and represents a country or group of countries within that continent. The second letter generally represents a country within that region, and the remaining two are used to identify each airport. The exception to this rule are larger countries that have single-letter country codes, where the remaining three letters identify the airport.

This page contains content from a Wikipedia article located here.