Airport and aircraft codes

Every airport has two codes, and every aircraft type has its own short code too. Here’s how to read them.

IATA: the code on your boarding pass

Three letters, set by the airline association IATA: AMS for Amsterdam, LHR for London Heathrow, JFK for New York. They’re made for passengers, tickets and bag tags, and often hint at the name, though not always.

ICAO: the code pilots use

Four letters, from the system run by ICAO, the UN’s aviation agency, and used in flight plans and by air traffic control: EHAM for Amsterdam, EGLL for Heathrow, KJFK for JFK. The first letter tells you the region of the world:

First letter	Region	Examples
C	Canada	CYYZ Toronto, CYVR Vancouver
E	Northern Europe	EHAM Amsterdam, EGLL London, EDDF Frankfurt am Main
K	Contiguous United States	KJFK New York, KATL Atlanta
L	Southern Europe, Israel and Turkey	LFPG Paris, LEMD Madrid, LIRF Rome
O	Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan	OMDB Dubai, OTHH Doha
R	Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines	RJTT Tokyo, RKSI Seoul
S	South America	SBGR São Paulo, SCEL Santiago
U	Russia and neighbouring countries	UUEE Moscow, UUDD Moscow
V	South Asia and mainland Southeast Asia	VIDP New Delhi, VHHH Hong Kong, VTBS Bangkok
W	Maritime Southeast Asia	WSSS Singapore, WIII Jakarta
Y	Australia	YSSY Sydney, YMML Melbourne
Z	China, Mongolia and North Korea	ZBAA Beijing, ZGGG Guangzhou
F	Southern and central Africa	FAOR Johannesburg
H	East Africa and Egypt	HKJK Nairobi, HECA Cairo
P	Alaska, Hawaii and the Pacific	PHNL Honolulu, PANC Anchorage
N	New Zealand and the South Pacific	NZAA Auckland

In the contiguous United States, the ICAO code is usually K plus the IATA code: JFK becomes KJFK.

Aircraft type codes

Aircraft types have short ICAO codes too, used in flight plans and on flight-tracking apps. You can type them into our aircraft game:

Put it into practice: type a code like B738 in today’s aircraft game.

Play Aircraft of the day