Article overview
Short article describing the true meaning of otherwise meaningless airport and airline codes.
Originally published in August 1998.
Last updated November 2005.
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meaningless codes?
by Sergio Ortega
ever wondered what
ORD, MCI and MCO really meant?
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 his article is really short and is meant to only answer a few of the aviation mysteries: the airline and airport codes that are particularly weird and sometimes easy to forget. Since its original publishing, many visitors contributed to the list, by specifying the meaning of other well-known airports around the world. Thank you! And if you have answers to other mysteries in the aviation codes, don't hesitate! Send an e-mail, we will be glad to publish them!
 The airports
Most of the airports codes suffer from the fact that they are no longer known by their original name, which makes the codes less pertinent
BNA - Nashville airport was originally Col. Harry Berry Field, hence the initial B.
BWI - The Baltimore airport bears this code because it is officially the "Baltimore-Washington International Airport"
CVG - It's Cincinnati Airport, right next to Covington, Kentucky
DTW - Detroit Metropolitan Airport is also known as the Wayne County Airport, which explains the "W" at the end.
EWR, ORF - In the United States, airport codes start with N are reserved for Navy facilities. Therefore, cities with a name starting with N must use an alternate code. Therefore EWR is Newark Liberty International, NJ, and ORF is Norfolk, Virginia.
FCO - The Leonardo DaVinci Airport in Rome is also the Fiumicino Airport.
GEG - Spokane Airport used to be known as Geiger Field, according to an airodyssey.net visitor.
GIG - Rio de Janeiro International Airport is also known as the Tom Jobim International, or as Galeão, for its air force base. However its code is the abbreviation for its location, on Ilha do Governador (Governor's Island).
GRU - This code represents São Paulo's Guarulhos Airport, near the town bearing the same name.
IAD, IAH - Two airports in the USA bear the "IA" for "International (or Intercontinental) Airport". It's (in order) Washington Dulles and Houston Intercontinental.
JAX, KIX, LAX, PDX - The first two letters of each code (Jacksonville, Osaka Kansai, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon) perfectly make sense. The last X is simply a filler for those locations formerly bearing two-letter codes.
LED - St. Petersburg, Russian Federation. Before the fall of Soviet Union, St. Petersburg was known as Leningrad.
MCI - Kansas City, Missouri. A really tough one. It took a while to find out that MCI stands for "Mid-Continent International Airport".
MCO - Orlando International. Another totally meaningless code for the average air traveller. Well it stands for "McCoy Air Field", the former name of the Military Air Base, before it transformed into an international airport.
MSP - The Minneapolis Airport is not only the airport for the big city, but also the smaller one and the capital: St. Paul.
MSY - The Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans, Louisiana, has a code based on its not well-known previous name: Moisant Stock Yard (Thanks to Lawrence M. for this info).
NRT - The New Tokyo International Airport is mostly known as the Narita Airport.
OGG - Kahului Airport, located on the island of Maui in Hawaii, bears a code in honor of Bertram J. Hogg, a Hawaiian Airlines veteran, according to Wikipedia .
ORD - For someone who only knows the airport as the Chicago O'Hare Airport, there is an unexplainable "D" in the end. "OR" already makes it sound "O'Hare"... But the real code stands for "Orchard Field", the former name of O'Hare Airport. One viewer explained that the "D" actually stands for "Douglas Field", as this airport was formerly used by Douglas Aircraft, later known as McDonnell Douglas.
PTY - Panama City. A simple mismatch of the letters taken from "Panama City"... The first "P" of "Panama" and the last two letters of "City"... Simple enough?
RSW - The Fort Myers, Florida is actually the Southwest Florida Regional Airport.
YMX, YOW, YUL, YVR, etc. - It was about time to notice that all Canadian Airports with flight service have their codes starting with "Y" (such as, in order, Montreal Mirabel, Ottawa, Montreal Trudeau and Vancouver). The YUL code is known nearly nationwide, just like LAX in the United States.
The airlines
Don't expect much here, the airlines have only two-letter codes, which leaves the possibilities for a less important, late arriving airline to find the perfect code.
AY - Finnair... When it was created, the national airline of Finland was Aero O/Y.
FI - Icelandair... It used to be an amalgamate of airlines in Iceland, and at some time, it used to be Flugfelag Islands (Airlines of Iceland, in Icelandic)
KE - Korean Air... Don't ask me why they took two very separate letters. Maybe it was their only choice.
KM - Air Malta... A visitor identified the two-letter code for Knights of Malta, the emblem used on this airline's logotype.
LG - Luxair... The airline of the small nation of Luxembourg. Instead of taking the letters of the airline, they took them from the country's name, the first and the last one.
OK - CSA... This airline has the particularity of retaining its country's registration code prefix as an airline 2-letter code. OK is the country prefix for the Czech Republic. In its earlier color scheme, CSA even had the mention "OK Jet" on the tail. See our other codes page in Reference.
RG - Varig... They took the third and fifth letter for a good reason. VARIG is an abbreviation that officially means in Portuguese "Airlines of Rio Grande", a province of Brasil.
RO - Tarom... Again letters taken from the middle of the Romanian Airline. The "RO" at the end.
SU - Aeroflot... The Cold War is over, but the airline code isn't. SU stands for Soviet Union.
VS - Virgin Atlantic Airways... The first and the last letter of the full name of this med-size airline belonging to a mega-size world corporation.
Links
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